YILAN -- Traditional Arts, that DYE HAD A NASTY SMELL... (宜蘭國立傳統藝術中心)
On our recent trip to Yilan Count in northeastern Taiwan we spent a day at the National Center for Traditional Arts, a great place to learn about, well, traditional arts. Lot of hands-on experiences on offer. The lantern by the lake looked great!
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Travel in Taiwan magazine (2017-05-06)
By Rick Charette
National Center for Traditional Arts
It was only in 1796 that Han Chinese settlers began streaming into the Yilan Plain, coming over the mountains in force from the Taipei Basin. Yet the unique characteristics of this region gave rise to a unique Yilan culture. Travel back deep into Yilan time with a stroll through the National Center for Traditional Arts (NCTA; NT$150 entry; ncfta.gov.tw), beside Provincial Highway 2, not far north of the town of Su’ao, spending a day exploring Yilan traditional-style architecture, history, crafts, and performing arts.
This attraction, spread over 24 hectares, is focused on the culture of the common folk rather than the fine arts. It wears many hats: living museum, outdoor theater, demo and DIY workshop, food market.
The center of activity is the Old Street, a long, curving reproduction of an old-time Yilan commercial high street, lined with elegant-façade shop buildings constructed in the distinctive Yilan red-brick and white-stucco style. Scores of old-time businesses have set up branches on this and the adjoining alleys, the majority from Yilan.
Watch master artisans create glass-art pieces, sculpt dough figurines, and spin “dragon beard” candy. Dress up in old-time costumes and have your photo taken with a backdrop transporting you into times gone by.
At the richly aromatic Han Tê shop, use old-time measuring instruments and packaging methods to create your own 7-item fragrance pouch (rose, mint, cogongrass, etc.), which can also be used for a soothing foot soak. At Zhuo Ye Indigo Dyeing House, don your artist hat to dye your own shop-crafted handkerchief, towel, pouch, or more expensive item. Zhuo Ye selects only traditional natural dyes, using indigo for blues, onion skin for oranges, etc., growing everything in its own fields. And your own precious-memory DIY silver ring awaits your arrival at the metalwork-jewelry studio Xiangcheng Jingong.
It hardly needs saying that this will surely be your best place for gift and souvenir buying on this trip.
The center is also a learning institute for young people pursuing careers in traditional Chinese theater and music, and there is a regular schedule of live performances provided for visitors, with students-in-training the stars. Check with the visitor center upon arrival. Perhaps the most satisfying and colorful shows are put on at the exquisitely aesthetic stage before the elaborately appointed Wenchang Temple; students pray to deity Wenchang Dijun for success in examinations. Enjoy ritual sword play, martial arts, dragon and lion dancing, glove puppetry, and many other old-style entertainment forms.
Among the other stimulations that make an NCFTA visit a full-day experience are boat rides on the waterway that winds through the grounds and on the Dongshan River running past outside, a visit to Scholar Huang’s Residence, which is a traditional three-sided courtyard-style residence saved from demolition and meticulously reconstructed here, a colossal landscape-art dragon made of red lanterns that casts a reflection of ethereal beauty on the inner lake at night, and the “Fog Forest,” a mist-created enchanted forest of fogginess so thick that the people around you begin to disappear.
National Center for Traditional Arts (國立傳統藝術中心)
Add: No. 201, Wubin Rd., Sec. 2, Jixin Village, Wujie Township, Yilan County
(宜蘭縣五結鄉季新村五濱路二段201號)
Tel: (03) 970-5815
Website: ncfta.gov.tw
Han Tê 漢茶
Scholar Huang’s Residence 黃舉人宅
Wenchang Temple 文昌祠
Wenchang Dijun 文昌帝君
Xiangcheng Jingong 鑲澄金工
Zhuo Ye Indigo Dyeing House 卓也藍染
Taiwan temple visit Part I
Visiting temples in Taiwan was very different from visiting temples in Japan.
On a light rainy day in Jan 2011, I took a little trip to a temple in Taipei called, 龍山寺. At the temple, many visitors sang out loud, which is very different from how Japanese people visit temples in Japan. Although using incense stick is the same, the size of stick was a lot bigger in Taiwan than Japan. Moreover, many customs of how Taiwanese people visit the temple were different from that of Japan. Since I did not want to insult Taiwanese people by doing something wrong, I simply walked around the temple with my camera.
[台韓情侶 국제커플 대만여행 #4] 韓國人歐巴的臭豆腐挑戰記! 한국인 남친의 취두부 도전기! 션컹/이란야시장/브이로그/맛집 台北文昌宮/深坑老街/宜蘭羅東夜市
香火鼎盛的台北文昌宮參拜！身為韓國人第一次吃台灣臭豆腐的歐巴！究竟結果如何？最後再向著宜蘭羅東夜市出發！千萬不要錯過~！！
소원성취를 위해 신에게 제사지내는 법! 한국인으로서 오빠의 취두부 도전기! 과연 결과는? 마지막으로 이란의 뤄동야시장탐방까지! 놓치지 마세요~!!
1. 台北文昌宮 타이베이 문창궁
Wenchang Temple
No. 9號, Lane 45, Minsheng West Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei City, 104
Tel: 02 2521 0366
2. 站前小吃店 (오징어국)
103, Taipei City, Datong District, 台北市大同區民生西路53號
Tel: 02 2550 0055
3. 深坑老街 션컹두부마을
Shenkeng Old Street
Shenkeng Street, Shenkeng District, New Taipei City, 222
4. 王水成老街店 왕수성두부요리
Wangshuicheng Stinky Tofu
No. 204號, Section 2, Beishen Road, Shenkeng District, New Taipei City, 222
Tel: 02 2664 8706
5. 羅東夜市 뤄동야시장
265, Yilan County, Luodong Township, Xingdong Road, 與號民權路口
Tel: 03 954 5102
Naijhu’s IG: candice_110