Sunday, October 14, 2007

A Visit to Yingge - Pottery Heaven

It was another get outta Taipei Sunday afternoon. We jumped on a train and headed to Yingge, a small town about 30 minutes south of Taipei. It's the hub of pottery-making in northern Taiwan. It was a beautiful fall afternoon. We were on a mission to get our hands dirty and explore an unfamiliar area. Check out the photos for details of our adventure.

The entrance to "Old Street", the touristy area of the Yingge. I was surprised how many people were there, it was packed.

Some cute kids mugging for photos in front of a typical shop.

An endless supply of hand-made goods.

Tea pots are big sellers.

This monkey-like man sculpture is incredibly detailed.

Catherine and a beautiful vase.

Yours truly. I love these carvings.

Catherine managed to find a really cute pair of shoes in one of the markets. I was happy to buy them for her.

Zamfir has come to Taiwan! This guy spent the afternoon jamming out on the pan flute while his partner marketed CD's containing his efforts.

This is Frank. He has set up shop on Old Street selling German sausage...excellent German sausage! This is the real stuff, Frank is from Germany. I ate 3 of them. If you decide to visit Yingge, ya gotta dine with Frank!

Catherine trying to decide on how to tackle our pottery-making mission. The guy on the left made some beautiful pieces. Check out the pot he is working on, it was awesome.

Molding our gunk. Neither one of us had a clue how to do it. It was fun.

We made matching flower pots. It was pretty funny because a few minutes after this photo was taken, about 30 people crowded behind us. I think they thought we knew what we were doing.

Catherine putting the finishing touches on her pot. She is such a cutie.

She had a difficult time etching the Chinese characters. We will be picking the finished products up in about a month.

I found this sculpture very odd. I guess the rotary club is a world-wide thing. I thought that it was something that only existed in small-town America.

Yingge was a lot of fun. We will be going back in a month or so. I was surprised at how nice the shops were. The shopping is not limited to pottery. Catherine found some great shoes and we found a lot of other stuff we would like, but didn't want to spend the money right then.

Take a Sunday afternoon and mosey on over to Yingge.

7 comments:

MJ Klein said...

great story and excellent photos, David! i've driven through there before by never stopped for a look. now you've given me something to look forward to. thanks!

David said...

thanks MJ. i was skeptical about going but was pleasantly surprised. i knew that we could make pottery but i didn't think that there would be so many other things to do and see.

when you do head down there, make sure you nosh on a few of the sausages from Frank!

Anonymous said...

Nice post David. Its a nice place to be. I especially liked it since there isn't much modernization and commercilization as compared to other places in and around taipei.I had been there last year but didn't try pottery. Looks like fun. I will try next time. Thanks for the pictures and information.

David said...

hi Ashish,

thanks. we did have a lot of fun. the area is nice. it was an especially fun time because i had Catherine with me...she is my sunshine. yes, be sure to try making some pottery next time.

-david

MJ Klein said...

yeah i was thinking that i'd have to do some of Frank's sausages for sure.

claypot said...

Oh! How I love to learn more about pottery. I'm hoping I could make one of my designs too. Thanks for sharing this article.

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