Yingge Ceramic Town

A ceramic street sign in Yingge.

The huge ceramic dishes!

When I lived in Taiwan, one of my favorite activities was tour biking. Almost every week, I logged over 100 miles on my bike, visiting interesting parts of Taipei and New Taipei City, some of which are somewhat inaccessible by public transportation. One of my favorite places was Yingge District（鶯歌區）in New Taipei City, also known as "Ceramic Town" because the area produces the most ceramics in Taiwan. There are over 800 ceramic shops in there!

Yingge literally means "Golden oriole". As the legend goes, there was a Golden oriole rock that used to spit a miasma at travelers. One day, a General Koxinga ordered his army to shoot at the rock which allowed his men to pass by. Every since, the town has been called Yingge.

While it's easy to get to Yingge by train from Taipei Main Station, you might miss some of the interesting things in the outskirts of the city. Biking to the area is a cool way to enjoy everything. At some points the trail can become rough, but there are clear signs that direct riders to the "family trails" which are safer, especially if you're riding with children.

One of my favorite aspects of Yingge's outskirts are the large ceramics. To give a reference, I'm almost 5'7" and the plates are nearly twice my height! I really wanted to sit in the spoon and take pictures, but unfortunately there was no one around to take one for me because I came on a weekday when it isn't busy at all.

鶯歌陶瓷城

鶯歌城的跡象。

我住在台灣的時候，我每個禮拜，一，兩次騎自行車去參觀在台北有意思的地方。我兩次從淡水騎到鶯歌！我在鶯歌休息和逛街。因為普通用陶瓷很便宜，所以我常常買了一些。

我要一個！

在我的看法，傳樹林區以後，自行車道不但輕鬆，而且安靜。有很多小小的在山上的村，也有一些野生動物。別著急，不算太危險。如果你騎車跟小朋友的話，你可以選容易騎的自行車道。

在鶯歌的自行車道旁邊有很多有意思的雕塑。我最喜歡的是大大的陶瓷盤子，杯子，和勺子。我很想座在大勺子裡然後拍照片，但是人不在，沒辦法問別人拍我的照片。那天，在自行車道的人很少，可惜吧！

Biking in Brugge

My friend biking and filming.
Sometimes recording your experiences requires
multitasking skills!

Biking is a great activity to enjoy in any major European city as they are extremely bike friendly. There are usually clearly marked bike lanes, and motorists and pedestrians alike respect the boundaries and keep out of them. I accidentally found myself walking in the bike lanes a few times in Cologne and Brugge, and the citizens politely reminded me to stay on the proper side of the sidewalk or road! As someone from a city where virtually everyone drives daily, it took a while to get used to a high volume of bike traffic.

When my friend and I went to Brugge, our main activity was biking around the city as we weren't interested in wasting our money on shopping or spending long periods of time in museums or old buildings (we had done enough of that in Paris and Cologne).