Tourism in Yingge When I was a child, my mother used to be very fond of the texture of ceramics, so we went to many pottery kilns around Taiwan to see their production process and to buy cheaper and more unique pottery, including the ones in Yingge (W ). At that time, although Yingge had already been famous for its pottery industry, there were still sparse tourists to visit then. Two years ago, I got a chance to revisit Yingge for a one day trip. After all these years, the street view of Yingge has been shifted briskly, and the local business was thriving, followed by all the governmental renovation projects. Seeing this great change, I believe Yingge to be one of the most successful examples of urban renovation activated by tourism. Tourism benefits the local development of Yingge in many ways. First, tourism promotes the growth of local industry. For a famed pottery town like Yingge, the continuation of t raditional art needs tourism to attract new generation of tourists and to boost their sales. Besides, by prospering the local economy, tourism effectively provides lots of job opportunities for local people, which makes i t a mutually beneficial business. In addition, i t helps preserve cultural heritage of Yingge by propagandizing its local
characteristics. The county government spent five hundred million dollars of expenditure to build up Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum for more people to know their unique art and local specialty. They also reformed the pavements of major tourist attractions as the Yingge Pottery Street so that pedestrian tourists would have better quality of walking experience during shopping. Moreover, the annual Yingge In ternational Ceramics Festival is held every October, attracting over two hundred thousand visitors to participate in this activity. Having such large amount of tourists brings great activity revenue to be put into function of local development afterwards. Therefore, for Yingge township, tourism is the most advantageous way to keep their business. Whenever I go to Yingge, i t always brings me new inspiration and excitement. Combining the t raditional and the modern faces, i t is a place that I will always be looking forward to visit. Having this experience of witnessing such a successful advancement of a place, I am sure that Yingge will continue to make progress with the aid of tourism to surprise every visitor in the future.