hrpmrl
I saw this beads in a museum shop in Taipei and confirmed with my wife that they were the kind of thing she liked. I thought this would make an interesting trip.I caught the train to Pingtung, and then got the 8233 bus (there are a number of 82xx buses that you could use) to the Sandimen township office stop 三地門鄉公所 (about 100 minutes, NT98). I bought the bus ticket from ticket office in the bus depot a short distance along the road from the railway station. It was helpful to have the Chinese address of the place I wanted to go.The bus goes across flat land for over an hour, then slowly climbs up into the mountains for about 10 mins before stopping. It drives into the township office compound, so you'll know when you are there (note thatbefore cl imbing the mountains my bus also drove into a Sandimen bus depot down on the flats a few stops prior so wait until you reach the mountains).From township office, you walk back down the hill for a few minutes. It took me a couple of attempts to find the studio - I asked some shop owners for help. You'll go past a few restaurant/bar places and come to a tight "hairpin" bend. The art studio is in the hairpin - entered down a long driveway going inwards to your right from the apex of the hairpin.The staff at the shop were very helpful, and helped my wife (via a Skype video call) choose the necklaces that she liked. A class of children were leaving as I arrived - I understand that one can book bead-making lessons as the other Japanese reviewer noted. Nice necklaces of either traditional (dull finish) or modern (shiny glass) were about NT1000.I also bought some smaller beads from a handicraft shop up the road - again the owner and his wife helpfully let me do the "proxy shopping" thing and like the art studio gave me a discount that I didn't ask for!I was a bit short of time, but would have liked to have spent longer in the area - I think there were more things to see and it would have been good to have spent a night. Several people including shop keepers and bus drivers went out of their way to help me and that made a big difference to my enjoyment of the day.For some reason the ticket back was a bit cheaper (NT78) - maybe because of the different bus route or because it didn't have airconditioning?Consider taking insect repellent and maybe even a small torch if you will be out after dark.