Lukang!

Paper lanterns, hand painted fans, and hand crafted wooden shoes, are all normal goods one would find in the little town of Lukang (pronounced Lugang). I've been trying to get there for the past 4 months I've been in Taiwan. Word on the street, or rather, rumor in the school halls has it as the best place for pictures and for suvinears.

Lukang was historically the 3rd largest city in Taiwan. That is until the early 20th century. It used to be a famous harbor, but the city refused to have the railroad gain access to its boundaries. As a result, Lugang escaped much of the modernization that destroyed most of Taipei's historical buildings, and in essence is much the same as it was 100 and something years ago.

Lukang is also home to the only person that is known as a National Treasure. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the dear man's name, but he is a National Treasure, because his craft of making and handpainting paper lanterns has become a lost art. Through him and his family, the craft has survived.

When we first got to his shop, the gentleman wasn't there, but his son was handpainting some clothes.

This design that he is painting became part of a beautiful flower. He also painted matching pair of pants with a really cool bamboo design on it. I ended up going paper lantern happy and bought four.
This one I had personalized for me, and Mom, this is a Christmas spoiler. The next lantern shown is for you.
It was only one of the amazingly awesome stops that day. We went to some really cool temples, got rained on, saw where they made insence for the temples, and also saw wooden shoes being made.
Above are these enormous steamers where they cook these roll like things with meat inside. Fenny, my Taiwanese friend, was so excited to try them. It was funny, I was excited for the shopping, and Miss Fenny was excited for all the different food she could get. Below is a video from the wooden shoe store where they fit the shoe to your foot. It's pretty much amazing!(Linds, this would be a X-mas spoiler for you, but considering I won't see you at X-mas or shortly thereafter, it may not be such a bad thing :) )


Below are some other pics of the place. Enjoy!