Trip to central Taiwan's Nantou County. Among the places visited:
01:20 Beyoung Garden 竹青庭人文空間
03:00 Sky Ladder 梯子吊橋(風景區)
06:50 Le Midi Hotel Chitou 米堤大飯店
11:00 Wangyou Forest 忘憂森林
14:30 Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area 溪頭自然教育園區
15:40 - Herb and Flower Garden 草花園
17:10 - Songlong Rock Waterfall 松瀧岩瀑布
20:00 - Qinglong Waterfall 青龍瀑布
20:55 Xiaobantian 小半天
21:00- Moso bamboo forest 孟宗竹林
24:30 - Dexing Waterfall 德興瀑布
25:20 - Xiaobantian Bridge 小半天高架橋
25:50 - Qilin Lake 麒麟潭
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We are a small publishing company (Vision) based in Taipei. We produce an English magazine (Travel in Taiwan) introducing you to Taiwan as a travel destination. Read it! Lot of useful information. We also have a website with lots of articles about Taiwan. Visit it! We try to make a video or two every week. Let us know what you think about this channel and what you would like to see about Taiwan. All the best to you!
Travel in Taiwan 2018-1-2
Forests, Flowers, and Waterfalls
Text: Rick Charette
Sun-Link-Sea
A “forest and nature resort,” a privately operated getaway idyll (NT$250 entry fee).
At the upper end of the resort road is at Songlong Rock Waterfall. At the base of a Cinemascope-wide semi-circular cliff is a large, deep green lagoon busy with fish in the water and eye-catching birds above. Two massive mid-lagoon boulders are covered completely with vegetation, trees “impossibly” growing atop their solid-rock bed. The cliff’s base is “gone,” to a height of 30 meters and a depth of 30, a cave now where once soft sandstone was emplaced. A paved pathway takes you along the cliff base and through the gaping hole, and you emerge directly before the waterfall itself, at its base.
Sun-Link-Sea Forest and Nature Resort
Add: No. 6, Xishan Rd., Da’an Borough, Zhushan Township, Nantou County (南投縣竹山鎮大鞍里溪山路6號)
Tel: (049) 261-1217
Website:
Between Sun-Link-Sea and Xitou – Wangyou Forest
Beside County Road 95, a few kilometers from Sun-Link-Sea, you’ll see a large “Wangyou Forest” sign From there, a narrow road leaps up past tea fields, tilted at startling angles. Take the 15-minute huff-and-puff walk up to the forest-entrance path (NT$50 entry), or use one of the privately-operated shuttle vans (NT$200 return). Wangyou Forest is a section of tall-pine forest drowned when the creek that gurgles through was blocked by Taiwan’s infamous 921 Earthquake in 1999.
Le Midi Hotel Chitou
This is a veritable high-mountain hideaway oasis of regal splendor amidst a world of tall trees and rugged mountains. The owners are avid hunters of European-nobility antiques, and eager to show them off. In the lobby and other areas you are regaled with imperial-French furniture, clocks, and other curios collected on hunting forays in Europe. The guestrooms are all spacious and tastefully appointed in modernistic continental European style, with bright nature-evocative green, white, and brown tones predominant. Room rates start at NT$11,000; one dinner and breakfast included
Le Midi Hotel Chitou
Add: No. 1, Miti St., Neihu Village, Lugu Township, Nantou County
(南投縣鹿谷鄉內湖村米堤街1號)
Tel: (049) 261-2222
Website:
Xiaobantian Bridge
Opened in 2014, this is mountainous Nantou County’s highest extradosed bridge, its roadbed 60 meters up from the valley floor. Its soaring grey towers are shaped like giant bamboo stalks, just like Taipei’s famed Taipei 101 tower. Xiaobantian is home to numerous fetching waterfalls, Dexing Waterfall perhaps the best-known. On the higher reaches of a boulder-strewn Beishi River tributary stream, it has two sections, the upper, 30m high, has carved a cool, calm pool at its base perfect for wading.
Sky Ladder Scenic Area (NT$50 adults)
A well-maintained trail brings you down, down, relentlessly down to the bottom of Taiji Gorge. Moving through thick bamboo forest, among your gorge-bottom rewards will be the Sky Ladder – a suspension-bridge engineering marvel – a sheer-cliff cave-dwelling Earth God temple below it, and Qinglong Waterfall.
BeYoung Garden
On the second floor of a still-operating small inter-town bus station that looks like a set for a 1950s period movie. “Zhushan” literally means “Bamboo Mountain”; the area is renowned for bamboo cultivation and products, bamboo is a key restaurant decorative material, and the chefs make edible bamboo a prominent ingredient. Specially recommended: the “three-cups mushroom bitter-tea range chicken” and “dried bamboo with soy-braised pork” set meals.
BeYoung Garden
Add: 2F, No. 27, Caiyuan Rd., Zhongshan Borough, Zhushan Township, Nantou County
(南投縣竹山鎮中山里菜園路27號2樓)
Tel: (04) 9265-6176
Website:
#Nantou #SunLinkSea #Taiwaneverything
Three days in Tainan, southern Taiwan doing sightseeing and goofing around. Fun Times!
02:05 Tainan Judicial Museum 台南司法博物館
05:10 Little Secret restaurant 小覓秘麵食所
05:40 Blueprint Culture and Creative Park 藍晒圖文創園區
06:50 Old Taiwan Magistrate Residence 台南知事官邸
07:50 The Place Tainan 台南老爺
09:30 Lin Mo-Niang Park 林默娘公園
10:15 Eternal Golden Castle 億載金城
11:45 Yuguang Island 漁光島
13:15 Taijiang National Park Visitor Center 台江國家公園遊客中心
14:30 Anping Tree House 安平樹屋
15:55 Anping Fort 安平古堡
16:50 Chou’s Spring Rolls 周氏蝦捲
17:30 Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields 井仔腳瓦盤鹽田
18:00 Vanaheim 愛莊園
24:35 Anping Canal Cruise 安平運河
29:05 Zhu Xin Ju restaurant 筑馨居
30:30 Duiyue Gate 兌悅門
30:50 Cloudy Mountain Tea Shop 雲澗茶小賣所
31:20 Fox Café 狐狸小屋
32:25 Zhengxing Street 正興街
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WHO ARE WE?
We are a small publishing company (Vision) based in Taipei. We produce an English magazine (Travel in Taiwan) introducing you to Taiwan as a travel destination. Read it! Lot of useful information. We also have a website with lots of articles about Taiwan. Visit it! We try to make a video or two every week. Let us know what you think about this channel and what you would like to see about Taiwan. All the best to you!
From Travel in Taiwan magazine 2018-5-6:
Tainan Judicial Museum
The Tainan Judicial Museum (No. 307, Sec. 1, Fuqian Rd., West Central Dist.; judicial.gov.tw/museum/; Chinese) complex, inaugurated as the Taiwan District Court in 1914, is considered one of Taiwan’s three supreme Japanese-era works of architecture.
Blueprint Culture and Creative Park
This is a narrow-lane complex of renovated simple, cement-walled dormitories originally built by the Japanese to house judicial-authority employees. The dorm buildings are today home to an attractive cluster of artisanal outlets and creative eateries.
Little Secret
The “hidden-away” Little Secret (No. 17, Ln. 689, Sec. 1, Ximen Rd., South Dist.; facebook.com/littlesecret17) restaurant is the go-to foodie haunt here. The emphasis is on bringing cultural-creative flourishes to familiar Taiwanese noodle classics, each dish celebrating a regional icon ingredient.
Old Taiwan Magistrate Residence
The Old Taiwan Magistrate Residence (No. 1, Weimin Street, East Dist.; otmr.com.tw), built in 1900, was used as a residence by visiting Japanese royals, most notably the future Emperor Hirohito during his 1923 grand Taiwan inspection.
The Place Tainan
This new boutique hotel is situated at one end of a monstrous block-style retail/entertainment/leisure complex. The contemporary-décor hotel has minimalist-theme guestrooms with strong black and white schemes. hotelroyal.com.tw/tainan
Lin Mo-Niang Park
Overlooking the south side of Anping Harbor is a giant 16m-high hilltop statue of Lin Mo-Niang located in the breezy Lin Mo-Niang Park. Lin was the young mortal maiden who became the immortal Mazu, Goddess of the Sea, protector of seafarers.
Eternal Golden Castle
This “castle,” actually a fort (No. 3, Guangzhou Rd., Anping Dist.), was built by the Chinese in the 1870s as protection against grasping colonial powers. Massive bastions are found at the ends of the four high, thick walls, with a moat making enemy access even more difficult.
Taijiang National Park Visitor Center
Taijiang National Park (tjnp.gov.tw) is a watery world of estuaries, sandbars, tidal flats, old irrigation canals and small-craft shipping channels, mangrove swamps, wetlands, and aquaculture farms. The white-walled buildings of the visitor complex, built on stilts above retired fish farms, resemble traditional fishermen dwellings and circle a faux “lagoon.”
Anping Fort
This stronghold, originally called Fort Zeelandia, was built at the north-end head of a great sometimes sandbar/sometimes silt island (at high tide) that jutted out from the mainland.
Anping Tree House
Old Tait & Company Merchant House (No. 108, Gubao St., Anping Dist.) and, directly behind, the Anping Tree House, were both built by a British trading firm after the Second Opium War forced China to open ports to Western trade in 1858. The treehouse, originally conjoined warehouses, has been completely overrun by massive banyan trees, creating a fairytale maze.
Chou’s Shrimp Rolls
This restaurant (No. 125 Anping Street, Anping Dist.) is one of the best restaurants in Anping serving shrimp rolls, a local the delicacy.
Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields
Just south of the fishing village of Beimen are the Jingzaijiao Tile-paved Salt Fields, Taiwan’s oldest salt fields, created in 1818. This site is a showcase example of how the bottom of evaporation ponds were paved with pottery shards, producing cleaner salt and making harvesting easier.
Nantou County南投
Nantou is the second largest county in Taiwan! It's right in the middle of the island, surrounded by more than 42 mountains! Check out my blog for more clips on Nantou and other places in Taiwan weviewtaiwan.com
Music by jamendo.com
☀️
Went on a 2-day trip to Taichung's coastal areas, the districts west of the city's urban center, including Wuq, Shalu, and Qingshui. Quite a few interesting places. I liked the Gaomei Wetlands best. :)
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WHO ARE WE?
Thanks for asking. We are a small publishing company (Vision) based in Taipei. We produce an English magazine (Travel in Taiwan) introducing you to Taiwan as a travel destination. Read it! Lot of useful information. We also have a website with lots of articles about Taiwan. Visit it! We try to make a video or two every week.
Let us know what you think about this channel and what you would like to see about Taiwan. All the best to you!
00:40 Dajia Zhenlan Temple 大甲鎮瀾宮
02:10 Dajia Ma Mianxian 大甲媽麵線
02:30 Sanyang Mao Di Hang (Straw Hats) 三陽帽蓆行
03:10 Gaomei Wetlands 高美溼地
04:50 Aofeng Hill Viewing Platform 鰲峰山觀景平台
05:30 Taichung Harbor Hotel 台中港酒店
06:30 New Palace Restaurant 新天地餐廳
07:10 Zhao Family Ancestral Residence 趙家古厝
08:10 Wuqi Fishing Harbor 梧棲漁港
10:30 Lishui Fishing Harbor麗水漁港
11:30 Golden Ville 好好聚落
13:20 Shalu Dream Street 沙鹿夢想街
14:10 Meiren Borough Painted Village 美仁里彩繪村
16:10 Gaomei Wetlands 高美溼地
Old Dajia Town
Inform any Taiwan citizen you’ve been to Dajia and you’ll be asked if you visited Dajia Zhenlan Temple, Dajia’s key attraction. Taiwan, an island nation, venerates Mazu – the Goddess of the Sea -- like no other deity. She is worshiped at almost 900 temples. Zhenlan Temple, which dates to the 1700s, is among the most famous and powerful, and the annual Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage is the best-known event celebrating her springtime birthday.
All around Dajia Zhenlan Temple are eateries of venerable pedigree that have long been satisfying the needs of pilgrims – and locals – who have come to the temple to fulfill their spiritual needs. Dajia Ma Mianxian (“Dajia Mom Rice Noodles”; 127 Jianggong Rd. / 蔣公路127號), just a minute away on foot, is specially recommended.
The Taichung region has also long been known for high-quality traditional weaving crafts. Visit Dajia’s very last traditional straw-hat shop, Sanyang Mao Di Hang (“Sanyang Hat and Mat Shop”; 48 Jiangong Rd./ 48 建功路), a short walk from Zhenlan Temple.
Gaomei Wetlands
The Gaomei Wetlands, 3000 hectares in area with a seawall stretching 3.5 kilometers facing the Taiwan Strait, is a popular birdwatching hotspot. Members of over 120 species reside here, among the most conspicuous from the heron, ibis, heron, goose, and godwit families.
A long, meandering boardwalk brings you far out into the wetlands, beyond the sedge-grass marsh out into the intertidal zone, putting you just a few feet above the teeming world of busy fiddler crabs, mudskippers, and other tiny local denizens. The birds swoop in when the tide is out, feasting on the exposed buffet. When the tide is out, visitors are permitted to step off the end of the boardwalk in the intertidal zone, where the footing is comparatively firm and the mud thickness limited, to explore the animal goings-on on the mudflats.
Wuqi Fishing Harbor
Wuqi Fishing Harbor is just off the north end of massive Taichung Port. The latter is busy with much, much larger craft. The former’s different draws are enjoyed at varying times of the day.
There’s a lively, raucous daily fish-auction market. Most boats come in during the one or two hours before sunrise, and the scene is cacophonous, to say the least, and photo-captivating. If not a night-prowler, fret not; individual craft continually chug-a-lug in during the day, knowing local buyers punctually appearing right to provide you with unposed photo opps among the weary sailor folk.
Qingshui District
For even better views over the coastal region, head higher up Aofeng Hill to the park area immediately beyond, where two visually enticing architectural works await, Aofeng Jade Bridge and, higher still along the park’s pleasing pathway, Aofeng Hill Viewing Platform. The former is a curving waterway-leaping pedestrian bridge shaped auspiciously like a jade piece, bringing good fengshui. The latter is perhaps the coastal area’s best spot for sunsets and star-viewing.
Nearby, back down on the coastal plain, is the heritage-status Zhao Family Ancestral Residence (476 Zhongshan Rd. /中山路476號), a lyrically pretty traditional courtyard-style residential complex with the green slopes of the mountain spur at its back. Built in the late Qing Dynasty in the old south China style brought over by the ancestors of the Taiwanese, before it is a large pond.
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Adventures in China - Mount Danxia (Danxiashan) 丹霞山
Follow a young man on his journey to find a large mountain that resembles a penis.
ZhaiSan Tunnels in Kinmen
Kinmen has a bunch of these types of tunnels, I did clips on two, this one called ZhaiSan, and also another one on the Zheng Gone Tunnels which you can see on my blog page weviewtaiwan.com
Taiwan's famous attractions瘋活旅遊趣＃1 Sun moon lake, Xitou, Dexing
Sun mook lake日月潭
Lakeshore of the Sun Moon Lake with Extravaganza of the Peafowl The peacock zoo is established since Oct. of 1968 by the instruction of the Mr. Kai-Shek Chiang, the late president, and executed by Mr. Ying-Qin He, the general, and Mr. Jie Huang, the provincial minister. Free admission is for all the publics. There are well over 100 peafowl and other rare species such as the Formosan Blue Magpie (Urocissa Caerulea), Mikado Pheasant, Golden Pheasant (Chrysolophus Pictus), and many others in the zoo. The peafowl do not like to get close to human in general, but the peafowl in here are different. They love to get close to the public and love to have photo taken with visitors.
Xitou溪頭
In the recreation area there are large amounts of old forests, the climate is cool and mild, with scenic spots such as the sacred tree, forest, Daxue Pond, gingko forest etc. This is the perfect place for escaping from the heat of summer, going on vacations and camping trips. In the forest there are diverse varieties of trees and bamboos to appreciate, for instance: Taiwan Spruce, Red Pagoda, Cryptomeria, Taiwan Cherry, Cyathea taiwaniana, Machilus zuihoensis, Moso Bamboo, Taiwan Fir, Angel’s Trumpets etc.
Music : Krakn - Aurora [NCS Release]
Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan - Full Tour HD (2017)
Sun Moon Lake (Chinese: 日月潭; pinyin: Rìyuè tán; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ji̍t-goa̍t-thâm; Thao: Zintun) is the largest body of water in Taiwan as well as a tourist attraction. Located in Yuchi Township, Nantou County, the area around the Sun Moon Lake is home to the Thao tribe, one of aboriginal tribes of Taiwan. Sun Moon Lake surrounds a tiny island called Lalu. The east side of the lake resembles a sun while the west side resembles a moon, hence the name.
Sun Moon Lake is located 748 m (2,454 ft) above sea level. It is 27 m (89 ft) deep and has a surface area of approximately 7.93 km2 (3.06 sq mi). The area surrounding the lake has many trails for hiking.
While swimming in Sun Moon Lake is usually not permitted, there is an annual 3-km race called the Swimming Carnival of Sun Moon Lake held around the Mid-Autumn Festival each year. In recent years the participants have numbered in the tens of thousands. Other festivities held at the same time include fireworks, laser shows, and concerts.
The lake and its surrounding countryside have been designated one of thirteen national scenic areas in Taiwan. Wen Wu Temple was built after rising water levels from building a dam forced several smaller temples to be removed. Ci En Pagoda (慈恩塔; Cí'ēn Tǎ) was built by late President Chiang Kai-shek in 1971 in memory of his mother. Other temples of note include Jianjing Temple, Syuentzang Temple (玄奘寺; Xuánzàng Sì) and Syuanguang Temple (玄光寺; Xuánguāng Sì).
Flowers and Horses: TAICHUNG FLORA EXPO (台中花博)
This video was shot shortly before the Taichung Flora Expo started so you can see the expo areas in their virgin state, before the crowds. Now the Expo is in full swing. :)
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We are a small publishing company (Vision) based in Taipei. We produce an English magazine (Travel in Taiwan) introducing readers to Taiwan as a travel destination.
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Travel in Taiwan (2018-11-12)
By Rick Charette
The 2018 Taichung Flora Expo
The “Flower City” Throws Open Its Doors to the Wide World
The Houli Site
To accommodate the great streams of visitors expected during the expo, the 1.2km pedestrian-only Flower Horse Path has been created, connecting the Houli Railway Station with the Houli Horse Ranch. After the expo closes, it will become an extension of the extremely popular Dongfeng Bikeway.
Horse-riding and cycling are prominent cultural elements in the Houli area. The popular 4.5km Houfeng Bikeway will take you from the horse ranch to and through an old railway tunnel, then over a long steel bridge that leaps the Dajia River. You can complete the circuit, or jump on the longer Dongfeng Bikeway if desired, for an easy-grade saunter totaling 18km. The emphasis is on slow-paced enjoyment of pastoral scenery and railway history.
The Fengyuan Site
Huludun Park is an elongated, landscaped park that follows the two sides of a local river. It is divided into five areas. Areas 1 through 4 are focused on iconic characteristics that help to define Taichung, which is striving to create a “green land, nature, and people” symbiosis. Visitors can take long strolls through a rich world of flowers and decorative plants.
Area 5 is centered on a scenic lake with a flower-covered waterfront, where improvements have been carried out to enrich the diversity of Taichung’s eco-habitats. A unique group of 10 floral-landscape features demonstrate a new perspective on what a Taiwan urban-area waterfront environment can look like: an island at the lake’s center, a lakeview platform, ecological pavement, an art wall, a “vanilla maze,” a vine tunnel, riverbank grassy areas, a “citizens’ lawn,” and a music plaza. These are collectively called the Flora Ks Gem, the “K” standing for “karat,” as in gold quality eco-friendly gems.
The Waipu Site
The Waipu area is blessed with unique topographical and climate advantages that have given rise to thriving fruit-growing and flower-cultivation industries, with their high-quality products exported around the globe. Major fruits include ponkans, honey tangerines, lychees, dragon fruits; major flower types include dancing-doll orchids, flamingo flowers, and lilies.
Each of the park areas is home to exhibition halls that showcase the newest ideas and technologies related to that area’s themes. In the Waipu area, the Nature House and Green Pavilion are dedicated to agriculture 4.0 technologies for the development of smart agriculture in keeping with the concepts of “slow food and slow living.” The design of the Waipu park area as a whole has a strong focus on 3R (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle) and 3G (Green building, Green energy, and Green transportation). Beyond the exhibition halls, two notable attractions where these concepts are seen in action are the Aqueduct Hydroponics Area and Water Recycling Bamboo Dome.
Expo Tickets/Transportation
A regular adult one-day entry ticket is NT$350. Among the other options available: a 3-day ticket for NT$650, a ticket for unlimited entry over the full expo period for NT$2,500, and one-day entry for each individual in groups of 20 or more for NT$230.
Railway stations and major highways are located close to each park area, and access using public transportation is strongly recommended.
Aqueduct Hydroponics Area 露天水耕花園
Fengyuan Huludun Park 豐原葫蘆墩公園
Flower Horse Path 花馬道
Green Pavilion 智農館
Houli Horse Ranch & Forest Park Area 后里馬場森林園區
Nature House 樂農館
Taipei International Flora Exposition 臺北國際花卉博覽會
Waipu Park Area 外埔園區
Water Recycling Bamboo Dome 竹穹惜水
Sunrise at Alishan Forest Recreation Area, Taiwan
As the golden hued rays of sunrise break over the mountains, everything is vibrantly brought to life by a warm touch of morning sunshine, and myriads of mist-shrouded peaks peek out from a sea of cotton-like clouds. While watching the clouds fumbling across the mountains, let the sunshine caress your face, feel the blessing of having a brand new day to dream. When the mountains are waking up from their sleep, take a quiet moment to celebrate beauty, joy and tranquility.
To admire the marvelous sunrise and the sea of clouds in Alishan, you may either head to Tataka (塔塔加) at an altitude of 2,610 meters above sea level or travel on the nostalgic train to Zhushan (祝山). Only a few minutes’ walk from Zhushan Train Station, there is a lookout that offers an overview of the surrounding area with unimpeded 360-degree views. You will meet many like-minded travelers and romantic souls waiting for the sun to rise over the peaks. After the sunrise, don’t rush back to the station as it is always packed with people who can’t wait to crawl back in bed. So why not stay a bit longer and bask in the luxurious silence in the mountains?