Ten Drum Rende Creative Park
Excessive rainfall challenged our Tainan explorations, but that didn’t stop us from braving the grounds of Ten Drum Rende Creative Park (although equipped with umbrellas).
Ten Drum Rende Creative Park was a sugar mill once, but after being uninhabited for years, the Ten Drum Percussion Group took over the place and turned it into a recreational and creative park. Scattered about the massive grounds of Ten Drum Park are large installations, and industrial designs that are—for lack of better term—just way too freaking cool. You’ll pass through concrete pipes, old railroads, and busy-looking warehouses that will make you feel like you’re walking through a bad-ass movie set.
Of course the main attraction here is the nightly drum show, performed by the Ten Drum Percussion Group. Although primarily a cultural performance, the show is nothing short of entertaining. An industrial theatre in line with the entire park’s theme? Check. A fantastic set and moving steel bars overhead to boot? Check. Amazing performers and drum performances? Check and check.
We know you like Instagrammable, brag-worthy destinations. I’m telling you, this is the place.
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Blue Print Culture & Creative Park
If Singapore has Haji Lane, Tainan has Blue Print Culture & Creative Park. Opened in December 2015, this small compound is an artsy-hipster space lined with concept stores and boutiques, cafes, and walls left and right covered with giant graffiti. It’s really pretty here.
The people of Tainan consider this park a “happy accident”—it all started with a reported graffiti on the street, which was then removed by the local government much to many people’s dismay. This little situation then sparked a great idea. The Tainan City Government, in collaboration with artists, transformed what were old Japanese dormitories into the beautiful creative park it is now.
Tainan has a habit of creating art out of abandoned things, it seems, and perhaps there’s much to learn from them on that.
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Getting to Tainan from Taipei
EVA Air flight from Manila
To get to Taiwan, our group flew with EVA Air from Manila’s NAIA Terminal 1 and landed at Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan City, which is a little outside of Taipei. From there, we took the MRT to Taoyuan Railway Station to take the high speed rail (the bullet train) to southern Taiwan. Transit between Taipei and Tainan takes 2 hours and 15 minutes, with the one way fare between the two cities costing 1,780NTD, or approximately 2,900PHP.
Group ticket discounts are also available for 11 people or more traveling together on the high speed rail. For more information, you can visit www.thsrc.com.tw/en/
In a nutshell, Tainan is where you go to get acquainted with the part of Taiwan you won’t meet in a big, developed city like Taipei. Tainan is where you go to discover there is a side of Taiwanese people we don’t hear a lot about—their penchant for art, and their sentimental regard to things of the past. Things like culture, religion, structures…and then striving to preserve them. Truly, meeting Tainan is like meeting an old soul.
Aboard the high speed rail back to Taipei, I thought about how there was so much more of Tainan to see. And though I was only leaving, already, I couldn’t wait to go back.
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Special thanks to the Taiwan Tourism Bureau for organizing this tour, to EVA Air for our flights between Manila and Taipei, to Silks Place for our Tainan hotel accommodation, and to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in the Philippines.
All WIM photos in this article are taken with a 16-300mm Tamron PH lens.
EVA Air
www.evaair.com/en-global/
www.facebook.com/evaairwayscorp.ph
Instagram: @evaairways
Silks Place Tainan
www.silksplace-tainan.com.tw/en/aboutus.php
www.facebook.com/silksplacetainan
Instagram: @silksplacetainan
