Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Shopping
Around town there is no end of stores selling tea and products made with tea. While tea
jellies, ice lollies and
tǒngzǎi mǐgāo
(sticky rice) are inexpensive, a jar of decent
bāo
zhǒng chá
(bao chung tea), or Oriental Beauty (Dōngfāng Měi Rén), can cost between
NT$1000 and NT$6000 or more. Both these delicious teas can easily be appreciated by
the untrained palate. If you want something nicely packaged, go to the Tea Museum gift
shop.
Orientation
Pinglin Village is quite small and easy to navigate. The township, however, is large and
encompasses endless mountains, rivers, camp-grounds and hiking trails. Pick up a copy
of the Sunriver map (
Click here
)
for an overview.
From the final bus stop in Pinglin, head right to reach the main street, left to the 'old
street' and the Tea Museum. A nice loop of less than an hour is to follow the main street
about three blocks down to the visitor centre and then cross. Look for the suspension
bridge, cross that, and head left along the river paths to reach the museum.
Getting There & Away
In Taipei, take the MRT to Xindian station and catch bus 923 to the left when you exit
the turnstiles. Buses leave hourly on weekdays (on the half-hour after 7.30am) and every
30 minutes on weekends. The last return bus to Taipei leaves weekdays at 9.10pm, week-
ends at 8pm.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Yingge
02 / POP 87,000
This little town (Yīnggē) in the very southern part of New Taipei City lives by and for
the production of high- and low-quality ceramic and pottery objects: everything from
cupboard handles to Song-dynasty vases and cutting-edge objets d'art.
Pottery was first introduced to Yingge in 1804, but it remained a cottage industry pro-
ducing cheap earthenware until the Japanese ramped up production in the 1930s. In addi-
tion to daily-life items, the local kilns began to fire ceramic parts for mines and weapons.
After WWII, ceramicists from all over Taiwan began to settle in Yingge and by the 1970s
the town was the third-largest ceramic production centre in the world.
