Day 7 Long Shan Temple

On our last day here, we visited Long Shan Temple. A little bit of the history of this place. In 1738, settlers from Fujian, China constructed a temple in Wanhua, Taipei on the site where a man left an amulet of Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy) hanging from a tree. Legend has it that the amulet gave off a bright light, even in the darkness and so, a temple was built. That temple is the Longshan temple.

In East Asian Buddism, Guanyin is depicted as a female diety. Her origins however are from the Buddha of Compassion, known in Sanskrit as Avolokitesvara, who takes the male form. The Tibetan name for the Buddha of Compassion is Chenrezig, and Tibetan Buddhists look to the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of Chenrezig. While I won’t go into any more detail about Guanyin, I will mention an interesting aside. In Japanese, Guanyin is pronounced Kannon and this is where the name for the Canon company first came from, although the spelling was changed a few years after the company was formed. So to those who shoot with Canon equipment, you’re shooting with a Buddha.

Over the course of a couple of centuries, Taipei’s Longshan temple has been destroyed either in full or in part on numerous earthquakes and fires and in the spring of 1945 was even bombed by the US who claimed the Japanese were using the temple as an arms storage facility. As a result, the temple has been rebuilt and restored numerous times.

Day 6 At National Palace Meseum, Dan Shui & Shihlin Market

After the Flora Expo, we head to ShiLi District for the National Palace Museum, where it is an art museum in Taipei, Taiwan. It is the national museum of the Republic of China, and has a permanent collection of over 677,687 pieces of ancient Chinese artifacts and artworks, making it one of the largest in the world. The collection encompasses over 8,000 years of Chinese history from the Neolithic age to the late Qing Dynasty. Most of the collections are high quality pieces collected by China's ancient emperors. In 2009, it was the 11th most visited art museum in the world. The National Palace Museum and Palace Museum, located inside the Forbidden City in China, share the same original roots, which was split in two as a result of the Chinese Civil War. We spend quite a little time here and it should be at least half day tour in this museum. There are many famous collection to be seen, like the Jadeite Cabbage and the Meat-shaped Stone length. Shame that camera is not allowed inside the building.

After that, we head to Danshui (Fisherman’s wharf) and stop at Danshui Station淡水捷运站. Here, Danshui station (exit 2) can walk to Old street淡水老街 with all famous foods like 小卷,淡水鱼丸(fish ball) (可口鱼丸才是老店)(350gm NT100),糯米肠 (半屏店), 阿婆的酸梅汤NT35 (sour drink),珍珠奶茶(milk tea)(五十岚较好喝), 许义鱼酥 NT50 (fish biscuit)(味香鱼丸店), 阿婆铁蛋(iron egg), 黑店排骨饭(ribs rice), 沪尾豆花(tauhu hua), 碳烤臭豆腐(tauhubusuk), 烤鱿鱼(sotong bakar) etc. Old building back to late 18’s and early 19’s. There are many almost similar cafes’ at the sea/river bank. We just choose either one that we all feel ok with. There’s also starbucks over here for our sunset scene and bridge view.

Finally, Shihlin Night market and spend the rest of the day here as there are many to explore and to shop. We have separated into two groups and the gal will stay back at the hotel to pack their stuff because they have went to Shihlin a day before. Must try at Shihlin (士林夜市)- 刀削面, 猪肝汤,大头龙鸡蛋蚵仔煎(Booth 200),高雄肉丸,士林老字号大饼包小饼(Booth 501),升记士林大香肠 (Booth 308),蕃茄沾姜汁,东山鸭头,青蛙下蛋,忠诚号生炒花枝 (Booth 440),红油抄手等,生炒花枝羹,士林十全排骨 (Booth 78/310),士林青蛙下蛋 and etc.

Last but not list is the night view of Tower 101 of Taipei, the landmark of Taiwan. 

Day 6 Taipei Flora Expo

The 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition (2010 Flora Expo) opened on November 6, 2010 and will run until April 25, 2011 in Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. It is garden festival recognized by the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH / IAHP) and is categorized as an A2B1 horticulture exposition. It will be the first such internationally recognized exposition to take place in Taiwan, and the seventh of its kind to take place in Asia. It is located near Yuanshan Station.

The expo is divided up between four major areas: Yuanshan Park, Taipei Artist Park, Xinsheng Park and Dajia Riverside Park. It has 14 pavilions and occupies an area of 91.8 ha (0.000918 km3). Each area is also covered with many outdoor gardens, including a Global Garden Area (featuring exhibits from the Malaysia, USA, Greece, the Netherlands, Thailand, Bhutan, Hawaii, Belau, Hong Kong, Japan and more), a Fujian-Style Garden, and a Sea of Flowers. In addition, it features more than 800 varieties of orchids, 329 million locally-developed plant varieties, and award-winning landscape and gardening designs from 22 countries.

Day 5 Chin Jing Farm

Initial plan is to take public bus from Sun Moon Lake to ChinJing Farm, but at the end we ask the taxi driver to drive us to Ching Jing as he charged us only NT1,500 (per car) and we consider it is ok as we not need to waste time and wait for the public transportation.

We start to tour CJ with Green Green Glass land but did not manage to visit Small Swiss Garden, only pass by this garden as it is located some where down the hill side. In brief, CJ has sheep area, cow area, fruit area & flower area to visit. Also, there are 6 trails inside CJ and require a lot of walking. We are going during winter month and able to see snow in some of the area/trail.

Then, before we depart back to Taipei, I wanted to drop by at this starbucks because it was once the highest starbucks in the world at high of 1500m above sea level. While, nothing special about the coffee as it was almost similar like in Malaysia.

We shall depart from CJ to TaiZhong HSR by private van (NT300 per person) and arrived around 620pm. Alternatively, cheaper way is take bus to Taizhong (reached around 640pm) and then take big bus to Taipei cost only NT180 but 2 hours travel and last bus is 12.30pm. Take train from Taichung HSR Station to THSR Taipei Main Station (about 1 hour).

Day 4 Sun Moon Lake

Day 4 - Sun Moon Lake

After check-out from Allishan, we engaged our van driver to drove us to Sun Moon Lake with NT1,000 (plus) unlimited boat ride (whole day) around the lake area. We reached SML around 12.00pm and reach our hotel across the harbor around 12.30pm. Put our beg in the room and start touring the area. It is more to free and easy. SML has WenWu Temple 文武廟, peacock garden 孔雀園, Lalu island in SML 拉魯島, Songbolun trail, etc.

Then, all of us feel lazy to walk and bus or public transportation is quite low here, thus, we ask a taxi driver to drive us around the tourist places. Actually most taxi driver here does offer such tour package, example NT1,500 per trip around 5-6 hours. We finish our day at Chi En Pagoda with the view of the sunset.

It is quite funny because we have enjoyed the sunrise and sunset of the same sun on the same day but in different location.

Day 3 Tour Around Allishan

Day 3 - Tour At Allishan

Upon arrive at Allishan, we can take forest train from Allisan sation to SheMu station Alishan Forest Recreation Area & Scenic Area. Attraction including Recreation area many famous attractions such as the Sisters Lake, Ciyunsi, pagoda tree, alpine botanical gardens, Tashan cliffs, boulder, three generations of wood, by the town house, three brothers, wooden trunk, the Alishan railway extension and etc. The whole journey takes around 2.5- 3.0 hours with entrance fee (weekends NT200 or weekdays NT150).

We can have some time to clean up & relax. And go for dinner at Allisan’s store street, just go down from our hotel (7-11, store, restaurant etc). For dinner, we can try Allisan local foods like young-bamboo chicken soup, bamboo rice, ming ren leave chicken soup, BBQ, pumpkin rice etc. Native here have this Teto So Mimo drink, just 1 glass and you can drunk for few days. Advise to sleep early because we need to wake up earlier in the next morning around 430am for the sunrise trip. We can choose either Jhuzhan 祝山 or YuZhan 玉山 to view our sunrise. We need to ask the hotel whether they have any sunrise package.

Trip to Jhuzhan – we can take the forest train (450am) up to top from SheMu station to Jhuzhan and we need to walk down after sunrise. If so, we need to buy our ticket when counter open from 2pm to 5pm and cost NT100. Trip to Yuzhan (no train) – we can visit Husband Wife tree, Deer god tree (2800 years old), monkeys etc, usually there will be some sort of package cost NT300 – 3 hours also.

Back to hotel to have breakfast and to check out (advise to pack all things at night so that no need to rush).

Taiwan - Day 3 - 23/01/2011 - Road to Allishan

Leave Taipei (THSR Taipei Main Station – No 3 BeiPing W Rd Taipei City)

Board a HSR train from Taipei HSR Station (Taipei Main Station) to Chiayi 嘉义HSR Station. Travel Time: About 1.5hours and cost NT970.

Reach THSR Chiayi Station and take the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) bus to TRA Chiayi Station (in downtown Chiayi). From Chiayi HSR Station > Chiayi TRA Station (In Downtown Chiayi) - Shuttle buses link Chiayi HSR Station (In Taibao City太保 市 ) to Chiayi TRA Station in downtown Chiayi. Fare: NT45: Travel Time: 30mins.

Note

The Chiayi Bus Station is located right next to the Chiayi Railway Station. A taxi ride from Chiayi Railway Station to Alishan Recreation Park Area costs about TWD1800-2000.

Reach Chiayi TRA Station (bus station is next to it!)

Uphill By Bus: Buses depart Chiayi Bus Station (Right side of Chiayi Railway Station) at 0610, 0810, 1210 & 1410hrs for Alishan. Fare: NT214. Travel Time: about 2.5hrs. There is an extra bus at 1010hrs on Sat, Sun & Public Holidays and makes a stop at Fenchihu 奋起湖 before proceeding to Alishan. But we cant make it to Fenchihu this time because the van will only go to this place when return from Allishan to Chiayi.

Along the way, we still able to see that the government still recover the road to Allishan.

When we almost reach the mountain top level, we manage to watch sakura flowers welcoming us to Allishan.