The Taiwan Glass Gallery in Changhua County’s Lukang Township (鹿港) not only offers visitors the opportunity to walk through a spectacular 72m glass tunnel, but it has also provided a lifeline to the region’s rubber slipper industry.
The gallery is one of Lukang’s major tourist destinations, with an average of 10,000 visitors per day.
However, its delicate exhibits — including the “Golden Tunnel,” assembled from 3,600 glass mirrors — require visitors to tread softly and wear rubber slippers — provided by the gallery.
Photo: Chen Kuan-bei, Taipei Times
Taiwan Glass Gallery owner and Taiwan Mirror Glass Enterprise Co chief executive Jackson Lin (林肇睢) said the idea of helping slipper manufacturers while paying homage to the glass trade came to him when a rubber slipper factory owner asked for his help.
“About 10 years ago, Taiwanese enterprises began ‘going west’ and moving their plants to China, and those who did not have the capital got left behind,” Lin said. “One day, this man surnamed Wang (王), who runs a rubber slipper factory, came asking for my help to save his industry.”
Lin said that after some brainstorming, he realized that the Golden Tunnel often had its glass mirrors scratched or shattered by visitors’ shoes, and that he could honor Wang’s request and save on overheads if they worked together.
“So I told Wang to do some research and development on adding an anti-slipping surface, shock-absorption padding and a wear-resistant sole to slippers,” Lin said, adding that he specified the slippers should be blue and white, the traditional colors of Taiwan’s slippers.For NT$50, visitors to the Taiwan Glass Gallery can go home with a practical pair of locally made souvenir slippers, that would cost NT$65 on the market, and help manufacturing stay in the nation, Lin said.
The Golden Tunnel uses an optical illusion generated by its winnowing mirror passage to create the impression that it is suspended 30 meters in the air, Lin said, adding that other attractions include the Seven-Colored Glass Temple and many other objects fashioned from glass.
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