Day 3 - From The Old Town Of Sanxia To Yingge, The Long Walk South In Taiwan
Day 3 - From The Old Town Of Sanxia To Yingge, The Long Walk South In Taiwan
This morning we put on our backpacks, packed away all my diving gear and camera equipment, and said goodbye to the wonderful people at our hotel in Taipei.
They were curious and asked us what we were planning to do, and where were we going.
When we said that we plan to walk all the way south to the end of the country, their eyes widened in awe.
There was a flurry of activity at the front desk and someone appeared with a gift of a big plush toy rabbit with the hotel’s logo on it.
We thanked them very much and added the big bunny to the luggage that we are storing with them until our return to Taipei.
Outside the doors of the hotel, we were greeted with a wave of heat.
It was almost unbearable to imagine walking in this heat.
Just walking with our hats and backpacks felt like an official beginning of the pilgrimage.
We made our way to the convenience store to buy roasted sweet potatoes and plant based Onigiri rice balls, to eat for breakfast with our Starbucks tea.
The Starbucks cafes in Taipei are always packed with almost no available seats, but we managed to get a table, put aside our backpacks and hats, and eat our breakfast.
The plan for today was to go back to the town of Sanxia, where we stopped walking yesterday, tour the old streets and traditional market, visit the ancient temple, and then walk to the pottery town of Yingge, where we will be staying for the next two nights.
If we have some time, we decided to visit the Yingge Ceramic Museum today as well, to learn about the history of ceramic production in the area.
Sanxia is a traditional town located in northern Taiwan, easily accessible from Taipei.
It has become well known in recent years, mainly because of its amazing Qingshui Zushi Temple, which is a carefully crafted masterpiece, unique among all the Chinese temples in the world.
The stone and wood carvings in this temple and the layered multiple roofs, are awe inspiring artworks.
The artists used classical temple design patterns in an elaborate way.
The town was originally named Sanjiaoyong, after its location at the confluence of three rivers, and was given its present name of Sanxia (Three Gorges”, also the name of its main river) in 1920.
Nestled in the fertile plains at the foothills of the mountains, Sanxia is blessed with water and agriculture and was a convenient place to use the river for transport, in the early years of Taiwan's settlement by the Chinese.
It became an important goods distribution center and a base for the production of camphor, of growing tea, of coal and especially for indigo dyeing of cloth.
Today, you can visit and see the techniques used for indigo dyeing and walk along the beautiful old street, fully reconstructed and offering both traditional and modern gifts and snacks.
As transport shifted elsewhere and the use of the river for transportation declined, Sanxia gradually lost its importance as a commercial center.
But the town maintained its cultural value, mainly because of the intricately decorated Qingshui Zushi Temple.
The temple is both a sacred religious place, and a place to admire as art masterpiece, for its exquisite carvings and complex temple structure.
Sanxia Old Street is about two hundred meters in length, and its architecture dates back to the early days when settlers came, as early as the Qing Dynasty (around 1736), and established trade here.
Beautiful brick buildings line both sides of the street, with arched walkways shading people from the sun and rain.
On top of the brick shops, there are stone carvings of Chinese characters, flowers and dragons.
The characters carved on top the ancient buildings in the street show the first and last names of the occupants, or what they were selling, or the names of the store.
The character that is most frequently seen here shows that there were many dye shops on the old street.
Both the town and its streets underwent modification during the Japanese Occupation,
Streets were expanded, rooftops, walkways, and drainage systems were also re-organized, and it was transformed into a stately, modernized street.
During the time of Sanxia's heyday, the street was lined with shops that sold dyes, manufacturing materials, and tea, and western-style houses were being built here.
Nowadays, only the red brick buildings with arched hallways and Baroque styled architecture remain to tell of their past glory.
We entered a shop selling all sorts of soy milk, made from different kinds of soybeans, and we had a taste of all the different types available.
At an old soap store, we bought a bar of beautifully scented handmade soap made from coconut oil, tea and essential oils of magnolia.
They displayed a large Buddha head carved from soap.
From Sanxia, we walked across the river to Yingge.
After about an hour of walking in the brutal sun, Jules asked if we could rest in an air conditioned cafe for a while.
But we saw no cafes, only eateries that were open with no air conditioning.
Finally we stopped at a Seven Eleven convenience store for a cold drink and a tiny snack of boiled corn and boiled daikon radish.
We then walked over to the Yingge Ceramic Museum, that collects and displays this area’s long history as a center of Ash glazed ceramic art and functional ware.
The museum spreads across three floors, with a cafe in the basement, and it also has a sculpture garden.
We started on the third floor and worked our way down.
We saw contemporary pottery and ceramic sculptures, as well as historical ware.
After we had seen most of the museum, we went down to the basement cafe, and had delicious creamy tofu pudding, a specialty of the area, along with an excellent loose green tea.
As it began to drizzle, we walked to our hotel, located in the middle of the historic Yingge pottery streets.
We were happy to see that it was a very attractive boutique hotel, with beautifully designed modern and comfortable rooms.
Later in the evening, after we took our showers and rested from the heat, we went out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant.
It wasn’t my first choice, but most restaurants close really early, at seven PM on our street, and we were not hungry after eating the tofu custard in the museum cafe.
We were greeted in Japanese, and I was happy to try and order our dinner in Japanese, only to be faced with a blank stare from the Taiwanese waitress, who did not speak any Japanese.
Dinner was simple and tasty but the rain intensified as we walked back to our hotel.
Overall, it was not a big walking day, but we really enjoyed the slow exploration which allowed us to know a little bit about the history of the towns we were passing through.
Tomorrow we will walk around Yingee and get to know this pottery town.
With love,
Tali
Today’s Stats:
Steps - 13,579
Daily Distance - 9 km.
Total Distance To Date - 43 km
