Field Trip Itinerary
Hsinchu Zoo Entrance
Hsinchu Weekend Floral Market
Hsinchu Glass museum
Ice-cream store
Guitar shop
Field trip schedule
Can anybody really enjoy attractions without any constraint? This is what international graduate students from National Chiao Tung University asked themselves. These students have spent a day with Ray by visiting the Flower Market, the Glass museum and the Hsinchu Zoo in order to better understand the daily life of people with specific needs.
Flower Market The team began their bright and sunny day at the flower market where they passed by little shops and some attractions. Ray was on his scooter and technically had enough space to go from a place to another.
As we can see on the pictures, whenever cars were passing, Ray had to squeeze. Which could be inconvenient. Therefore, he had to be careful and decided to park and continue by foot so he was able to continue the adventure with us.
We took the opportunity to play attraction games where Ray & Boris competed together. Nonetheless, despite the fact that some of the games weren’t adapted to people with disabilities, a lot of people could actually play. It was really fun and Ray won his contest
Some roads are damaged, we have to be careful about these. Individuals using crutches like Ray also must pay attention, as pavements are not maintained and damaged.
There is also no proper walking path in the parking lot, so watch out once you get out the elevator! Some accessibilities are stiff, people on wheelchair or with crunches have to deal with them with precautions during their visit.
There is much food in the flower market, so Ray recommended us many places he had tried in the past already. We had to paid attention to the table and the chairs’ solidity because Ray had to lean on them to sit and stand up. The food was really nice and we all discovered a little more of the Taiwanese cuisine!
Glass Museum After the flower market, we continued our journey towards the glass museum. As we can see from the pictures below, the area outside the glass museum was very large-scaled and made it convenient for people with disabilities. Most of the time, the places we visited did not offer great accessibility which forced Ray to continue by foot. This made him very tired and prevented him to fully perform the activities. However, this attraction was far more accessible for disabled people. The entrance to the museum also offered an entrance with a slope for disabled people
To our surprise, there was also a special parking space designated for handicapped people,
which made it easy for Ray to park his scooter and enjoy the environment.
However, the surroundings consisted of very bad pathing which makes it impossible for disabled people to access. The pictures below visualizes the bad pathing as well as the potential danger of very steep slopes. Ray could therefore not join us and had to take another route with his scooter.
Because of the great accessibility in front of the entrance of the museum, Ray and the group had the chance to experience a stand that sold souvenirs in pure glass.
Hsinchu Zoo For our last attraction of the day, we visited the Hsinchu Zoo. It was beautiful, there were a lot of nature and animals. The Zoo is very big which is very enjoyable and entertaining.
Despite that the zoo was really nice, and the animals very entertaining, some areas remained very dark and narrowed. It was a pity that people on wheelchairs could not see the animals properly.
Furthermore, we noticed that some roads and facilities were very old. Some of them were not so well-designed, making the experience ‘adventurous’.
The accessible toilets weren’t appropriate to disabled people’s needs. They looked like the normal ones and people could not fit the room with their wheelchairs unless they were using their own crutches. Even with crutches, it was hard to fit in the room. The sinks were also hard to reach.
Ice cream & music shops To finalize our day, Ray invited us to eat ice cream with him and afterwards show us his music shop where he learned to play the ukulele. The ice cream store was located very convenient which made it easy for Ray to access the store with his scooter. However, the chairs were not optimized for disabled people at all, but with some effort Ray could fortunately join us anyhow. We enjoyed our ice cream and moved on to the music store that was located next to the ice cream. The owner of the shop was very talented with all kinds of instrument and did not hesitate to show us. Ray was very proud if his teacher and shared their history with us. The whole group appreciated that we got to know Ray better as a person and how he lived his life to overcome his disability.
Clonclusion Ray is an inspiration, he impressed us by his joy of life and strength. While we were having this short trip with him, he was not only showing us what was wrong but also tried to provide solutions. During those few hours we encountered and realized many obstacles for people with disabilities due to both bad maintaining and design. Almost every time we found these obstacles, Ray was always coming up with something that could improve his experience. It does lead to a simple idea: accessibility should not be implemented for people with disabilities, but with them. Right now, enjoying everyday activities when you have a disability is hard but that could be improved with a little more effort and attention to details. This attention to details is something that Ray could easily provide if he was asked. Overall, that travel day was for us an incredible opportunity to be in someone else's shoes for a day, to experience the everyday life of someone with a disability. This had a huge impact on us and opened our minds.
Transportation - How to get there
Holiday Floral Market 假日花市
1. By Buses, including low-floor buses - Take bus no.1 and get off at University For the Elderly bus stop, the entrance is 1-2 minutes walk. This entrance is the section of flower zone - Take bus no.2 and get off at Boai Jie Kou bus stop, go straight to intersection and cross the road to the entrance (beside Hsinchu zoo). This entrance is the part of food zone 2. By Train Take a train to Hsinchu train station and taking bus no.1 or bus no.2 3. By Car Zhongshan Highway (No.1) -> Exit Hsinchu -> Section 2 Guangfu Road -> Gongyuan Road
Glass museum 玻璃博物館
1. By Buses, including low-floor buses Take bus no.1, 2 or bus no.31 and get off at park bus stop (gongyuan bus stop) 2. By Train Take a train to Hsinchu train station and taking bus no.1 or bus no.2 3. By Car Zhongshan Highway (No.1) -> Exit Hsinchu -> Section 2 Guangfu Road -> Gongyuan Road
Hsinchu Zoo
1. By Buses, including low-floor buses - Take bus no.1 and get off at Xue Ye Market bus stop, the entrance is 5 minutes walk
- Take bus no.2 and get off at Boai street intersection (Boai Jie Kou) bus stop, go straight to intersection and cross the road to the entrance 2. By Train Take a train to Hsinchu train station and taking bus no.1 or bus no.2 3. By Car
Zhongshan Highway (No.1) -> Exit Hsinchu -> Sec.2 Guangfu Road. -> Gongyuan Road.
Shop in market
1. By Buses, including low-floor buses - Take bus no.1 and get off at University For the Elderly bus stop, the entrance is 1-2 minutes walk. This entrance is the section of flower zone
- Take bus no.2 and get off at Boai Jie Kou bus stop, go straight to intersection and cross the road to the entrance (beside Hsinchu zoo). This entrance is the section of food zone 2. By Train Take a train to Hsinchu train station and taking bus no.1 or bus no.2 3. By Car
Zhongshan Highway (No.1) -> Exit Hsinchu -> Sec.2 Guangfu Road. -> Gongyuan Road.
Ice cream shop
1. By Buses, including low-floor buses Take bus no.1, 2 or bus no.31 and get off at park bus stop (gongyuan bus stop) then cross the intersection where in front of glass museum to section 1 Dongda Road 2. By Train Take a train to Hsinchu train station and taking bus no.1 or bus no.2 3. By Car
Zhongshan Highway (No.1) -> Exit Hsinchu -> Section 2 Guangfu Road. -> Gongyuan Road.-> Section 1 Dongda Road
