Glass Museum/Temple & Old Lukang

Matthew and I took the motorcycle to the nearby town of Lukang (about 30 minutes north-west) and met up with a bunch of my co-workers (all girls). One had driven her scooter and the others took a car. We started our tour of the small town at a glass museum. Lukang is known for having a glass factory and it is also used as a museum and shop. It wasn't very apparent from the outside; it just looked like a plain building that could pass as a factory, and there were no signs anywhere to indicate that you could visit it. I suppose if you go with locals they know these hidden things.

The shop had many items made of glass, everything from sculptures, to vases, to jewellery, to random little knick-knacks. The museum part was interesting, but a little bit confusing. There was a section that felt like we were in a model home; with a kitchen and bathroom. Perhaps they were trying to show off the countertops, but it felt more like I was in a Home Depot in the faucet section. There was an unusual number of shower heads and kitchen faucets on the wall. But all in all, it was fun. They even had this device with mirrors inside and you could look through at each end. The end result?

 

Outside of the glass museum there is a glass temple. It looks, for the most part, like any other Chinese temple, but it was pretty open to the outdoors. We got to talk to a worker/tour guide there who really wanted to practice his English. He told us lots about the temple and then just talked about random things that dealt with travel, family, and English.

You enter the temple and there is this big fountain between the entrance and the place of prayer, the fountain part is open to the air, without a roof. People came in the temple and did a short prayer first, before walking around the fountain to the main area. I threw a ton of money in that fountain becuase Matthew wanted the 'perfect picture' of me making a wish. Can you see my coin in mid-air? It's to the bottom right of that cauldron. The tiny shiny speckle is my coin!

After the glass museum and temple, we headed into the city. One section of the city has remained the same as it was built a long time ago. They never renovated or demolished this part of the town, and the buildings look the same as they did when first built. Originally this part of the 'old town' was one town, but eventually became known as two separate cities. The people of each city didn't want to be known as one city and no longer wanted to share everything. So, they built a wall to split the old town into two halves. However, there was only one well for the people on both sides, so they built the wall into the well to split it into two halves. Each side of town could gain access to water from one half of the well.

The water well is not in use anymore but it is still there and is a big tourist spot for pictures. In the old town there were plenty of little shops and many woodworkers selling their crafts. After we spent some time exploring, we headed into the city centre and ate a ton of food; trying all kinds of things. Unfortunately I'm not even sure what it all was. We soon got rained out and headed home.