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If you are planning an out-door trip not too far from Taipei, I vividly suggest you to visit Yingge district; the place is located in the east side of New Taipei City, easy to get not only by car but also by train, following the Taoyuan direction and stopping at Yingge station (鶯歌火車站).
Yingge is the Taiwanese capital of ceramics, known also as "Jingde Township of Taiwan" (recalling the name of the famous Jingde pottery and ceramics district of China). The place has over 200 years of history in pottery and ceramics, is undoubtedly the right place to go if you are looking for teapots and pottery to decorate your house.
If you go to see the village is also worthy to visit the "New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum".
Once you've parked your car, proceed walking towards the city center where you could find the first shops. The sides of the streets are all decorated with beautiful mosaics. Crossing the bridge on the Daan river you will get downtown, the city center is adorned with stoned tiled streets and are completely reserved to pedestrians. Walking around you will also notice some sheds, inside will find displayed pottery and ceramics, worth to take a look!
Each ceramic shop has it own workshop and artists, you could see them using traditional pottery lathes to create their artifacts and could also try to use the lathe to create your own pottery.
All the workshops are filled with any kind of pottery, among the most popular you will find vases, teapots, decorative items, cups, glasses, lamps and cutlery. There are prices for all pocket: you can buy small decorations for few dollars or go on with crazy shopping, it is up to you!
Yingge is not only ceramics: the village is surrounded by small restaurants, tea house and tea sampling spots, as well as ice cream and bamboo juice stands, pressed using the traditional way, I personally like a lot this refreshing drink, it is worthy to try it! Weekends are very crowded, you will find many shoppers or people that just stroll around the village for some shopping.
"New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum", a center dedicated to the study, development and preservation of ceramic arts in Taiwan. Main target of the museum is not only to promote local tourism and follow up the ceramic industry development, but also improve the exchange between local and international ceramics artists, for this reason the museum closely cooperate with similar museums in Germany and Spain.
I have personally visited the museum and I recommend you to go, the museum itself is an artwork, it has a modern architecture with traditional Asian design elements, like a pond with a waterfall at the entrance, big glass windows, bridges and light effects that intersects themselves in a beautiful way...are you ready for your next day-trip?
