Last week we went on a daytime outing to Yingge with another homeschooling family. We met there at 11:00 am on a Thursday morning, so there were not many people there – we noticed a couple groups of school children and a tour group from Hong Kong.
It was a nice little adventure for Kaylen and me. Dacheng usually drives when we go outside of Taipei but since he was working we decided to take the train.
The train was great! So fast and so cheap. Adult tickets to Yingge are NT$31 and a child’s ticket is only NT$16. If you buy a round trip ticket it is even cheaper. Trains that go through Yingge leave about every 15 minutes from the main train station. Almost all the trains heading south from the main station go through Yingge. The trip takes just under 30 minutes.
You can just show up and buy tickets the day you want to travel. If you know what you are doing at the train station, you only need to allow yourself about 10 minutes to get tickets and get down to the platform.
Check the train schedule to Yingge: http://163.29.3.96/twrail_en/index.aspx
Once you get to the Yingge train station the Lao Jie (old street) is about a 10 minute walk. Or there are plenty of cabs waiting to take you there.
There are lots of DIY places on theLao Jie where kids and adults can try their hand at throwing pots or doing pinch pots. One place we found seemed to be a bit more reasonably priced. It was NT$150 to make one piece on the pottery wheel which includes adding some decorative touches after you have made the pot, another NT$150 for firing and glazing (sorry, you can’t pick the glaze color), and another NT$100 for shipping the piece to you. It is only NT$150 to ship 3-10 pieces so if you ship as a group you can all save some money. We spent NT$330 per child to make one piece, but it was a whole afternoon of playing. The teacher was really good with the kids and helped them a lot on the wheel and rescued their pots if they got out of control.
This place is at 55 Chongqing Street 2F, near the intersection of Lao Jie and Chongqing Street. Their phone number is 02-8677-2547. They also have a tea shop/restaurant. And a website: http://www.ccv.org.tw/yingge/
Kaylen wearing her train floor-green pants, reading the paper on her commute to Yingge:
Arrival:
Hanging around on the Old Street: Kaylen, Sharon, Mark, Charlotte, Matthew and Timothy in the front.
The whole gang at work at the wheels:
Kaylen and Charlotte decorating their pots:
A Crooked Mile 