Sanyi

So on Sunday I went to Sanyi with a couple other teachers. We were planning to go to Yingge (I want to go back) but the train ran out of seats. So we went to Sanyi instead, which a few people have highly recommended, but I originally had little interest in seeing. I heard it was known for its wood stuff, and I'm not a huge fan of all those wooden Chinese sculptures. But Sanyi was great! I'm so glad we went there.
It was a short train ride, about 45 minutes, and we took a cab up a mountain to a nice street with a bunch of shops selling wooden things. The smell!!! Glorious. The wood smelled GREAT. It was really fun to walk through the stores and look at the different sculptures. Lots of big, happy Buddhas and the god that invented kung fu. There's some AMAZING work there.
Crazy dentist.Blurry but really cool. I got yelled at for taking a picture before I could get a decent shot.


Buddha, Buddha, Buddha...Piglet.

There were also a couple stores with cool pottery.
At the end of the street was the Sanyi Museum of Wood Sculpture. It was really great, except for this one sculpture, which was quite possibly the most disturbing thing I've ever seen.

Photography was not allowed in the museum, which was good, because I really want to ban this image from my mind. But on the other hand, I want to share its disturbingness with others. So I guess I'll have to describe it. It's about to get graphic. If you are underage (that means you, Holly), please stop reading.

So it's a grayish sculpture of a baby. But it's an old man baby, like Benjamin Button. Super, super ugly. And it's lying on its back, kinda twisted up, its face scrunched and mouth open and contorted, and its huge, huuuuuuge, HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE penis is twisted so it's staring back at the baby. The two are basically staring at each other. The title of the sculpture translated into English is, "I am the Spider Man."

It was really traumatizing, for all three of us. It was hard to look at, but at the same time, we couldn't help laughing. I can't really fully explain the depth of its disturbingness. It was quite affecting. I guess that's what art is, huh?

And it gets worse. The caption, translated into English, is a feminist's (and grammar freak's) worst nightmare: "No fears girls! Heroes will always being here for guarding the hometown and you in the danger."

I know. It hurts me, too. In so many ways.

But overall, the museum was great. I recommend it. Just avoid the creepy old man penis baby at all costs.

So we wandered around the town and I bought a few things. We also found a good view of my new favorite thing: Mountain Mist!

We ate lunch at a little place run by a nice family.

Then we headed back home to Taichung.
As we were leaving the train station, I realized I had left my bag with all the stuff I bought on the train, which was now gone and headed toward Chunghua. I went to the lost and found and spent 1/2 hour with them, trying to figure out which train I was on and where my bag was. They were really nice to me and we were able to communicate fairly well. I went back to the station today, and my bag was there. I'm so happy they sent it back for me. Yay!

So it was a good thing we ended up in Sanyi. Not only was it a great (and new) place to go, but it was also pouring rain for most of the day, and Sanyi had a lot of covering. Yingge does not! So yay for Sanyi!

Weird Things (continued):
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