Taiwan Oct 2006

Taiwan Oct 2006
Just after 6 months fromour last visit, we are back in taiwan again. This trip covered places like Snow Mountain, TaiChung（台中）, DanShui（淡水）, WuLai（乌来）, and some places that we pass by during our first trip like HeHuanShan and ChingJing（清境）.

(Photo: Taken from the plane. Can see the peaks of some of the mountains in Taiwan. It could be the famous Jade Mountain. well it is the highest)

LeeFoo Village （六福村）
This morning we spent the entire day at the LeeFoo Village theme park. There are buses from Taipei and Taichung that bring you to the park. This place has lotsa of rides and some of them are really not for the faint hearted. This is alos the place where some of the Taiwan TV shows hosts their activities.

Getting Here: From taipei we took MRT to Zhongxiao Dunhua Station, and change to the bus that takes us to LeeFoo Village. The bus stop is at the DunHua S.Road Sec. 1 (opps a timberland shop). The bus will go to LongTan (龙潭), making a stop to pick up more passengers before heading out to 小人国 and LeeFoo Village. To get back to Taipei, we took the same bus.

DaYuLing (大禹岭）and HeHuanShan (合欢山）
After our descend from Snow Mountain trekking, we left Wuling Farm for TaiChung(台中）. We took the Lishan route to reach Mt. HeHuan. Mt HeHuan, the place where the locals drive up all the way to see snow during winter. There are even some snow related activities available at this place. I saw some snow boarding signs. This is the highest elevation road in East Asia with altitude soaring above 3000m. The winds are cold, so bring along some warm clothings when making your way up here. This is also where the Central Cross Island highway cut across. The only way to travel from the central region of Nantou to Hualien is through the central cross island highway which starts at Nantou and travels along ChingJing Farm （情境农场）, DaYuling, HeHuashan, and goes downhill to TianSiang (天祥），Taroko (太鲁阁），all the way to the coast of HuaLien(花莲）。


















From DaYuLing, we made our way downhill towards ChingJing. The weather was great, giving us a majestic view of the Central Mountain Range on our left side. There are some public buses that ply between HeHuanShan and Puli (埔里）but these bus schedules are very limited and may depend on season. If you are staying in the ChingJing Area, you can hire a cab to bring you there and back.






乌来 （WuLai)
Wulai is a small town in the Taipei County, famous for its hotspring and aboriginal culture. The hotsprings here are clear and odorless. A dip in the hotspring baths will leave your body coated with a smooth texture for a few hours.

WuiLai is one of the hotspring options that is located close to Taipei. A combination of train and bus will bring you from the crowded streets of Taipei to this idylic town close to the mountains.


Getting There: We took the MRT to the Sindian station (新店）and change to a bus going to Wulai. The bus stop is just on the right side of the exit of the train station. It is just behind the yellow tourist information counter. Look out for a bus that has the destination name 乌来 （WuLai). The journey takes about an hour up the winding mountain road and the bus terminates at Wulai.


The photo on the left doesnt look like the Wulai bus terminal, but it is.


There are lots of bath houses offering hotsping. Prices are affordable, but if you are going for those that you saw on TV. Be prepare to pay for a higher price and they are usually not the mainstream hotspring "shops". These mainstream ones offer the basic of a hotspring. It may be just a close room with hotspring. The modern and expensive ones are those that will provide you scenary, luxurious decor and the atmosphere of real hotspring enjoyment.





野柳 (YeLiu).

This is the YeLiu Geographical Park This is where you can find rock formations of odd shapes and sizes. The famous ones are the Queen's Head Rock, Fairy Shoe Rock and the Candlestick Rock. These structures are caused by years of wave erosions and exposure to the elements over hundreds of years.

You can join some of the local day tours to get here like the 观光巴士。Remember to drop by 基隆， it is not far from here if you want to savour the street food of 庙口夜市。

Getting here : For us we took the bus from taipei railway station. It is not the main bus station near 新光三越 (Shin Kong Mitsukoshi ) department store. The bus that goes to Yeliu is on the far west of the main railway station. Took about an hour of journey to reach Yeliu. The stop at Yeliu is not the last stop of the bus trip. We alighted in the middle of a T-junction road and walked the fishing port. We follow the loads of tour buses to get to the park. Need to pay a small fee for entrance. Well it was worth it. Lotsa of seafood restaurant near the park if you are hungry.























中正纪念堂 (台北). The Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

Getting there: We took the MRT to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall station. Look for signs and walk for 10mins along shops of bridal boutique.


You can catch the change of arms by the guards inside the building up the flight stairs. While we were there, there were many groups of students practicing their folk dance nearby.