One-Day Field Trip to Yilan--- Experiencing the beauty of Taiwanese traditional arts

撰文者:國企二李竺璇

翻譯:外文四王婉茜

Even though the typhoon season added uncertainty to our one-day trip to Yilan, we were able to proceed with our trip as scheduled. Despite the unstable weather condition, the wind and the rain were, luckily, rather light. Thank God that our day trip could be held as schedule! We were really appreciated all exchange students check their email frequently. I am glad that all students did not miss the confirmation letter that the event would be continued; and, showed up right on time at the meeting point, in fort of the Building 2 of College of Management.

It was in the early morning, but we looked energetic and excited to visit the National Center of Traditional Arts. Roughly, it took us an hour to get there.  When we finally arrived, the Yilan was drizzling. The mist created the center a magical scene. Entering the center from the gate, we seen went back to ancient time, where the house roofs were made out of red tiles with aesthetical Chinese traditional arches designed. We could almost hear a street vendor selling out loud “bing tang hulu”, a traditional Chinese street dissert that is a stick of red hawthorn fruits coated with sugar.
 

Sitting in the sprinkling weather not afraid of getting wet, the eightyish exchange students, from 19 different countries and 41 partner universities, sat on the grass playing ice-breaker. We had great time chatting and get to know each other. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t cooperating and soon it rained cats and dogs. Thus, we moved to take shelter from the rain, and then, we started playing charades. We surprisingly found that no matter where the exchange students were from, Europe, America, or even Asia, their deepest impression of Taiwanese was the love of taking selfies! Whenever a team acted out taking selfies, the rest of the exchange students would excitedly shout the answer “Taiwan”, leaving Taiwanese students, “buddies” in bewilderment. But it is, so to speak, a really special intercultural communication, to understand how people from other countries look upon us.


 

Among different types of restaurant and food, several groups decided to have Korean cuisine for lunch. It was definitely an interesting experience to taste budae jjigae and Bibimbap in this antique place! Also, many other groups chose “railway bento”, which is one of the famous Taiwanese style dishes.
After the great feast, it was time to do some exercise! We, the buddies, have designed a series of games and treasure hunting for exchange students to walk through the popular hot spots in National Center for Traditional Arts and to drink in the beauty of traditional architecture and design.

During the free time, Buddies, being both translators and guides, voluntarily led the exchange students to visit Education Boulevard and Waterfront Boulevard and watch the performances on the stage. Exchange students admired the traditional arts in Taiwan and deeply explored the history of Taiwanese traditional arts with buddies.


 

Time flew when we were having fun. In a blink of an eye, it was time to say goodbye. With reluctance to depart, we took a photo in National Center for Traditional Arts as a great ending of the trip. On the way back to NTU, every exchange student was exhausted and couldn't help falling asleep on the buses! Looking through the photos in the camera, smiles on the face of the exchange students ensured us that everyone enjoyed the trip to National Center for Traditional Arts!
Today, we were not only had a great experience in traditional Taiwanese arts but reaped the greatest harvest -- friendship.

Thanks for enjoying the field trip to Yilan! See everybody in Culture Event!