Such skills and splendour.

Pulling and pulling till the color lightens

 糖葱卷 ( Tang Cong Juan) Sweet candy wrapped with condiments, peanuts and chinese spices in rice skin~ for TWD40. so yummy

This is the shop selling the sweets above`

Moving on along the Folk Art Boulevard

Kids tried out hands-on painting

Another snack with malt candy sandwiched between 2 savory biscuits. This I never had them before, so interesting

This is 糖葫蘆 Tang Hu Lu also known as candied fruits dipped in sugar syrup, a type of sweet originated from China.

Little clay figurines for sales

Post boxes for you to mail letters internationally~

Glass blowing

At the end of the street, you will come across The Wenchang Temple honors Wenchang Wang a diety of culture and literature and has been prayed by locals right before exams in the wish of bright high scores. 

Stage for performances which are held at specific timings, but was too bad we didn't manage to catch them. Seek the performaces schedules when you purchase yout tickets at the entry

Made from excellent premium local tea leaves, this mini exhibit about their brand is quite a fun place to be

And right at the corner is the OPEN-Chang / OPEN小將 concept 7-11 store!! 

This cute doggy is the mascot of 7-11 in Taiwan and their concept stores are only available at selected states and areas of Taiwan. Lucky to found one there on my trip this time. 

Simply adore OPEN 小將

Besides the Open Plaza, in Kaohsiung at Dream Mall, which contains the largest and most comprehensive Open-Jiang merchandises in Taiwan, the rest of the Open Stores are relatively smaller in scales, integrated with the 7-11s.

For a list of the Open Stores: http://www.openopen.com.tw/store/index.html ( Only in Mandarin)

At this concept store, there's even an Open photo taking machine! Free of charge~` Woohoo

Choose from these frames~~ super fun, for me at least.

The Snack Bar area at this part lets visitors rest and have a meal

Yilan is famous for their Ox Tounge Biscuits ( No Cows were hurt in the process. Pun intended) so do remember to grab them before you head back home. These thin/ thick biscuits are simply shaped oval to resemble the tongue shape but taste just like any cookies and comes in a range of assorted flavors. 

These biscuits are not found in Taipei nor at the airports unlike more common confectioneries of Taiwan. 

Wanna hit a boat ride, the dock area within the  National Center for Traditional Art provides a ferry ride to the nearby Dong Shan Park. 

Boarding the ferry~

The ride was quite slow, took us 45mins to return back to the art centre. The ferry driver actually didn't start the engine and solely depend on the water current to propel, such a waste of time seriously! 

 Guess it depends on the driver's willingness to go fast or not. 

Here we were at Dong Shan Park.

The iconic red bridge representing the park.

Without festivities, this is really just an ordinary park with nothing special, I seriously won't recommend you to make a trip over.we saw this park was one of the top names in Yilan so we wanted to head down and take a look but seriously that's nothing special to see and if you don't have time, skip this park. 

Back to the National Centre and headed on to The Scholar Huan's Residence.

In the end we managed to catch one singing live performance.

You can easily spend half a day roaming the whole art centre and it's pretty fun, do head on to this centre for some Taiwanese cultural immersion! 

Till next time~~

Directions:

Alight at Luodong Station if you depart from Taipei Main Station or Hualien via the local train.

After alighting, take a cab. This is the most direct and quickest way. 

Cost about 200NTD and takes about 20mins, the distance is super duper far.

Address:

 No.201 Section 2, Wubin Road, Jixi Village, Wujie Town, Yilan 268, Taiwan

Opening hours:

9am-6pm all days 

Admission:

150NTD
National Centre for Traditional Art website