Pottery Barn This Is Not

Take-home lesson of the day: Never, ever under ANY circumstances feel proud of yourself or get overconfident you haven't yet lost your way. It WILL come back and bite you, I promise.

Yingge, the ceramics capital of Taiwan, was today's destination of choice, and marked a significant departure from my previous ways as I had to take a train, not just a subway, to get there. Step one was taking the MRT to Taipei Main Station, which I have already done at least a dozen times. No sweat there. The Taipei Rail Station was right next store, so I went inside, and asked for a ticket to Yingge. Score, I had my ticket. Then I looked up only to realize there is no English. Anywhere. Greeeeat. And since Yinggee is not an end point, the line it travels isn't something obvious like the "Yingge Line." I proceeded to ask the volunteer attendants, "Yaoshi wo xiang qu Yingge, wo yinggai qu nali?" She pointed, and I followed the invisible line she made with her hand to the platform.

I thought all would be well at the platform, but there were a bunch of different trains, and apparently not all were stopping at Yingge. Well, they might have been, but I asked a few people, and both times the gave me conflicting responses. So even the natives didn't know. At that point I was seriously considering abandoning the trip seeing as any train I got on would take me to God only knows where. I finally asked a worker and he sort of helped me, and then a Taiwanese lady approach me and asked where I was going, surprisingly in English.

'Oh, us too,' she said. She and her husband were also confused, and they both grew up in Taiwan.

After sitting with her until the next train, I found out her daughter graduated from Revelle last year. How bizarro is that? She currently resides in San Jose and has just stopped working, so she is visiting her parents in Taiwan and traveling at the same time. Her daughter is currently in South Africa with the peace corps, so I sort of identified with that kindred spirit vibe. We finally made it to Yingge and went our separate ways, me without a map and severely kicking myself for it.

A typical pattern I've had thus far in exploring is absolutely panicking upon arrival. For some naive reason, I expect everything to be right next to the train station, and when I have to walk a few blocks and don't see any signs of any sort, I start to get scared. This inevitably happened today, and if I had a dollar for every time I've thought, 'So, how are you going to get out of this one, Shannon?' I would have no problems paying for the remainder of my tuiton.

I left Yingge station hoping to find the renowned Yingge Ceramics Museum. I followed signs, and, surprisingly, I didn't find it on my first try (insert sarcasm here). Instead, I found a street with a bunch of pottery and ceramics shops and just took a deep breath and tried to go with the flow (my close friends know I'm not much of a flow-goer). At first I was thinking, 'This is not on the schedule! I'm going to lose so much time!' But I had an enjoyable time walking from store to store (again, which there were MANY) and looking at all the handmade ceramics, including everything from teapots to vases to plates and cups. Needless to say, I bought many things for many people. Apparently my buyer's repellent wore off by the time I arrived.

View of Ceramics Old Street, with pottery shops stretching the entire length and then some.

There are two main types of ceramics: fine arts and mass markets. Mass market ceramics are those for everyday use which might very well have interesting patterns, but are much cheaper, and include dinner plates, basic cups, and the like. Fine art ceramics tend to be much more expensive and don't always have a function, and can include statues, vases, or other such items.

In not one of my smarter moments, I decided to purchase all my pottery and ceramics pieces BEFORE going to the museum and walking around town. I was determined to find the museum, as it was one of the main reasons I came, so I schlepped all my stuff with me and retraced my steps, finally finding a sign that pointed to the rough vicinity of the place. I was so happy when I found it. 'Schedule back on track!' I thought.

The Yinggee ceramics museum was a very interesting place. There weren't tons of exhibits, but each was very unique, and the pieces were all gorgeous. On display were aboriginal ceramics artifacts, in addition to artistic pieces and competition pieces. There was also an exhibit on the use of ceramics in insulation and fields like engineering and biotechnology.

Entrance to musuem.

A poster on the side of the museum wall announcing relevant exhibits. I like taking pictues of things like this as it helps me remember what I saw.

See above.

After the museum, I sought out to look for the elusive Ceramics Old Rd., the main street that I had read about that had merchants selling all kinds of bowls and pots and the like. I walked forever, drenching with sweat (as is becoming the norm), and finally found myself back at Yingge Station in a mindset of hopelessness. I walked around everywhere, and couldn't find it. I made one last run through a shop in the station itself, at which point I asked the cashier where 'Lao jie' was. She pointed, and then saw my bags and told em I had already been there. So all this time, it turns out the place I most wanted to go was the place I had stumbled to first, on accident! I was both happy and surprised, as I would not have called that a main street by any means, but maybe it was long ago and the name stuck. Anyway, after hearing that my mood lifted, and I was ready to go home. (I had also wanted to see the famous Yingge rock for which supposedly the town is named, but going back in that 95 degree atmosphere of doom with 30 pounds of pottery hanging from my upper limbs didn't really appeal to me. I'll take the city's word for it that it exists.)

As I walked out of the station store, I realized the only thing separating me from Taipei was the correct train. And this time I had no help. I figured this was a small station and there seemed to only be one line and two trains (one right, one left), but from my lesson this morning I learned to assume nothing. I asked a girl next to me, 'Qing wen, Taipei zai na bian?' She pointed to where I thought it was and I took a deep breath. 'The train arrived, but it was a different type than the one I entered on. Did this mean anything? Was it significant? I saw no other train types, it had to be the right one. But what if it wasn't???

I heard a lady next to me talking and the word 'Taipei' came out. I have no idea in what context or why, and it's a really horrible way to make a decision, but I saw her getting on the train along with everyone else so I followed her. Was I certain this train was going to Taipei? No. But by process of elimination, I was sure there was no other way I was getting there, so I took my chances.

Yingge station. When this scene met my eyes, very little could persuade me to continue to walk around aimlessly.


Waiting for the train back to Taipei. All that's missing is a roll of tumbleweed.

5 stops later, I saw those two glorious characters: 台北. I don't know if I had ever been so happy to be at a train station in my life.

From there, it was an easy ride from Taipei Main Station back to Kunyang, and from there a bus ride back to campus that I could do in my sleep. All in all, I am quite sweaty, smelly, and a bit sunburned, but I sure have an impressive supply of ceramics to show for it.