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Taichung -- BOTANICAL GARDEN/FOR FARM BURGER (台中 -- 植物園/田樂)
Last video from our Taichung visit, including the Kong-Ke Musuem, the Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Natural Science, and the for Farm Burger restaurant, all quite nice places to visit.
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan magazine (2020/3-4)
Text: Rick Charette
The sprawling National Museum of Natural Science was Taiwan’s first science museum. This world-class facility has halls with space, science, life sciences, human cultures, and global environment as theme. The museum’s adjoining Botanical Garden is a mini-forest of endemic Taiwan plants interlaced with cool, shady walkways.
A transparent glass structure with exposed steel-pipe framing that resembles a giant vat soars above the treetops in the forest’s center – the Tropical Rainforest Conservatory. Here, step into a lush simulated tropical rainforest complete with lofty waterfall, orchid wall, and intermittent “rain” (i.e., a moisture-spray system). Over 300 species of flowering plants are on display. Two startling curiosities are the 14m-long aquarium filled with giant Amazon fish species, most unnervingly the incredible, massive arapaima. Another, smaller aquarium is home to a nasty-looking piranha squadron, separated from their smaller, colorful tropical neighbors by an unseen glass pane.
National Museum of Natural Science
Add: No. 1, Guanqian Rd., North District, Taichung City
(台中市北區館前路一號)
Tel: (04) 2322-6940
Website: http://www.nmns.edu.tw
for Farm Burger
It has to be said – for Farm Burger has done everything backwards.
No, wait. That’s a great thing. Trust me.
The owners have taken a heritage shophouse and reversed it, to dramatic effect. The front is now the back, and the back the front. The simple act of restaurant entry is thus quite an adventure. First, locate the tiny-mouth “back alley” entranceway amidst a line of busy shops and restaurants. It’s then up to the original shophouse rear, on the second floor, via narrow wooden stairs and an iron-railing catwalk. Here you find the service counter.
Directly below, on the first floor, is the original kitchen space, now a cozy dining area. The original flooring of Majolica tiles, for which the region was once renowned, remains in place, as does an original back door and, as seen elsewhere throughout, original-brick wall sections. Back upstairs, past the counter, is a narrow passageway leading past the original sky well, now glassed in and tall-tree-beautified. The main dining area then opens up – once the shophouse front, now the eatery rear. Original terrazzo flooring is showcased, and eye-catching additional “floor space” is available along another catwalk attached high on one wall.
The signature culinary lure at for Farm Burger is – yes, you guessed it. The owner-operator couple offers Japanese-theme burgers using self-created recipes. In Taiwan, they say, burgers are too often overwhelmed with ketchup or BBQ, black pepper, and mushroom sauce. Their “Japanese” approach emphasizes lighter, subtler flavor combinations. Use of “for Farm” references their preferred use of highest-quality ingredients from individual regional farms, preferably organic. They specially recommend two burger selections: the (Australian) beef burger with sunny-side-up egg and Japanese teriyaki sauce, and the tofu burger with Japanese miso sauce. Their tofu comes from a Taichung maker, 90 years in the business, that uses classical Chinese methods. Also available are pork-chop, shrimp, and mackerel burgers.
for Farm Burger (田楽漢堡公正小巷店)
Add: No. 128, Gongzheng Rd., West District, Taichung City
(台中市西區公正路128號)
Tel: (04) 2305-0507
Website: http://forfarmburger.blogspot.com (Chinese) -
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS and THE PLACE Taichung (台灣美術館/台中大毅老爺行旅)
Early-morning walk around the Museum of Fine Arts, then a short visit to the nearby The Place Taichung Hotel.
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan magazine (2020/3-4)
Text: Rick Charette
The Place Taichung
The Place Taichung is beside the Calligraphy Greenway’s south end (see article on page 12), facing the superlative National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. So take a wild guess – what is its design theme?
Take your time.
This is the only chain outlet among this article’s subjects. Each The Place location around Taiwan is one-of-a-kind, with a design theme celebrating a key attraction or element from its local-neighborhood culture. The Place Taichung is presented as an art gallery.
The building itself is a work of art. The façade looks like a giant’s pile of stacked LEGO blocks, those on the top floor all askew and featuring bright pastel colors. The interior features a powerful black-and-white minimalist theme with impeccably clean lines. Spaces are highlighted, emulating an art gallery, with black ironwork and swank track lighting.
As you move up through the building, the wall on each floor opposite the elevators is graced with a gallery-style art display commissioned from a local artist, centered on such themes as local scenic highlights, culinary icons, green spaces, etc.
The ZEBRA? This is the first-floor restaurant, black and white all over – get it? – with various strategically placed décor splashes of crayon-character color. Here, traditional Taiwanese cuisine is paired with contemporary Italian.
Guestrooms are visually quiet and understated, predominantly white, which is harmoniously contrasted with iron latticework subtly incorporating the character zhong (中), the second character in the Chinese for “Taichung.” The secret of the hotel’s pastel LEGO-block centers is revealed in the top-floor guestrooms – the bright-color curtains, which open at quirky angles to let big, broad views of the city stream in.
The hotel’s capstone artwork is, appropriately, on the roof – the gym, or Pain & Gain Area. The machines are spread in a line along the long, thin room before floor-to-ceiling windows, entertainingly framing the almost 180-degree city panorama as mural art.
The Place Taichung (台中大毅老爺行旅)
Add: No. 601, Yingcai Rd., West District, Taichung City
(台中市西區英才路601號)
Tel: (04) 2376-6732
Website: http://hotelroyal.com.tw/taichung -
REDDOT HOTEL in Taichung (台中市的紅點文旅)
The Reddot Hotel is another fine boutique hotel in Taichung City we stayed at on our last Taichung trip.
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan magazine (2020/3-4)
Text: Rick Charette
RedDot Hotel
If you’ve ever dreamed that an overnight at a museum – a Red Dot Design Museum – would be the niftiest of things, Taichung’s RedDot Hotel is the next best thing. It took up residence in an adeptly redesigned hotel building in 2014, the building dating back to the 1970s. Peering through full-wall windows into the wide lobby space from outside, you’d be forgiven for mistakenly thinking you’re looking in at a hipster design gallery.
The funky-chic lobby seating includes a sofa made entirely of sepak takraw balls, a retro leather and stainless steel barbershop chair, and a large overstuffed sofa chair and footrest set sporting wide butterscotch and red stripes that give it the look of a prop from a Dr. Seuss picture book. The futuristic-feel entrance is a glass swish-panel tube portal that looks like a transporter terminal in a sci-fi movie.
The universal lobby favorite, however, is the three-story stainless-steel Cowabunga Slide tube, which guests can use during specified hours. Sliding boards are provided at the front desk. Another favorite is the “disco” elevator, which has mirrored walls and a flashing-color floor that transported me to the dance floor in the ’70s flick Saturday Night Fever, obliging me to bust some (lousy) moves on rides until politely requested to refrain by my fellow Travel in Taiwan travelers.
In contrast, the guestrooms have a more subdued and homey feel. Perhaps the most eye-catching design element is the prominent use of bright-pastel Hakka floral fabrics on beds; there is a heavy concentration of Hakka, a Han Chinese sub-group, in the region north of central Taichung. The bathrooms are gleaming-white throughout, promoting a sense of space; they feature Taiwan marble and tiles from south Taiwan’s celebrated San-He Tile Kiln (the lobby floor is also a San-He showcase).
Other facilities include the Gallery, where creative-art classes are offered, the classy SaoBao Bar, where dark-stain woods and polished copper are the design keys, and the charming French-cuisine L'ARÔME Restaurant, rich with hanging plants. This is where you’ll take your complimentary Western-style set meal breakfast, entrees including selections such as pork burger and pancakes.
Red Dot Hotel (紅點文旅)
Add: No. 206, Minzu Rd., Central District, Taichung City
(台中市中區民族路206號)
Tel: (04) 2229-9333
Website: http://reddot-hotel.com -
YES! GINSENG Card Game II (夜市人蔘)
This is anothe wonderful game, fun to play and with lots of information about Taiwan's night market sweet treats.
If you want to know more about the game, visit: http://www.yesginseng.com.
If you want to buy the game, here is a list of shops:
SHOPS
Cloudhues (大稻埕 雲彩軒)
SongYan Gallery (松菸 小賣所)
SongYan Design Pin 松菸 設計點
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (國立台灣美術館)
ONLINE SHOPS
Citiesocial (找 好東西)
uDesign (有.設計 )
Book Your Life (博客來)
HOTELS
Evergreen International Hotels (長榮國際連鎖酒店)
Play Design Hotel (玩味旅舍)
The Door Inn (門草行旅)
COOKING CLASS
CookInn Taiwan
AIRPORT
Duty Free (采盟免稅商店)
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc -
YES! GINSENG Card Game (夜市人蔘)
This is a wonderful game, fun to play and with lots of information about Taiwan's night market foods.
If you want to know more about the game, visit: http://www.yesginseng.com.
If you want to buy the game, here is a list of shops:
SHOPS
Cloudhues (大稻埕 雲彩軒)
SongYan Gallery (松菸 小賣所)
SongYan Design Pin 松菸 設計點
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (國立台灣美術館)
ONLINE SHOPS
Citiesocial (找 好東西)
uDesign (有.設計 )
Book Your Life (博客來)
HOTELS
Evergreen International Hotels (長榮國際連鎖酒店)
Play Design Hotel (玩味旅舍)
The Door Inn (門草行旅)
COOKING CLASS
CookInn Taiwan
AIRPORT
Duty Free (采盟免稅商店)
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc -
GREEN HOTEL in Taichung (台中市的宿綠宿行旅)
On our recent trip to Taichung we checked out this fine hotel, which has a distinct "green"touch. 🙂
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan magazine (2020/3-4)
Text: Rick Charette
Green Hotel
The Green Hotel is in an especially quiet, primarily residential, neighborhood near the Calligraphy Greenway’s mid-section. Its lobby doors open on a narrow-street intersection, a heritage Japanese-style wooden house, now home to a Japanese restaurant, diagonally across the way. A small kindergarten seen through the left-side bank of lobby windows is the source of smile-creating scenes.
The mission of this hotel is nature appreciation and eco-conservation. One lobby corner area is given over to a display of Taiwan plant life, the main attraction a long rack of vials containing specimens of aromatic plants such as lemongrass, sweet osmanthus, and mugwort, which guests can smell, accompanied by explanations (Chinese) of their habitats and common uses.
The hotel’s décor gemstone is its atrium, which extends from the basement restaurant to a full-glass roof section through which sunlight floods down. The atrium’s back wall is made of countless PET bottles, with LED lights embedded. Guests use a lobby computer terminal to write messages that then scroll up the wall, accompanied by visuals such as giant leaves (the hotel’s logo features a stylized leaf). All guestroom doors directly face the atrium.
Another key spirit-uplifting aesthetic touch is the placement of displays on atrium-facing walls on each guestroom floor. One, entitled “Branches of life,” presents Taiwan’s aromatic-wood trees, another, “Seeds of hope,” the seeds from which local plant life springs.
Rooms are minimalist chic, with a strong Scandinavian charisma. Blondish bamboo wood is liberally used, on floors and on walls. The light décor tones much expand the sense of space.
As you descend the wide stairs from the lobby to the basement Shire restaurant, the happy sensation is one of entering a Hobbit House forest setting, accentuated by the low ceiling. Western family fare is served here.
Green Hotel (綠宿行旅)
Add: No. 126, Minsheng N. Rd., West District, Taichung City
(台中市西區民生北路126號)
Tel: (04) 2301-4280
Website: greenhotel.com.tw -
TAICHUNG PARK and ASIA UNIVERSITY (台中公園/亞洲大學)
On our last Taichung trip's second day I got up early and had a quick look at Taichung Park. Also in this video we are visiting the campus of Asia University in Wufeng District.
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan, 2020 March/April
By Rick Charette
Asia University
It’s not common that the campus of a school is a tourist attraction, but Taichung has two such landscaped oases of learning. We start with the younger of the two, Asia University, located south of the city center in semi-rural Wufeng District. Founded in 2001, in international surveys it has been declared one of the best young universities around the globe. The garden-style campus was designed as an expression of love for art and aesthetic living. The hope is that students, whatever their curriculum and career choices, will acquire this same love and take it out into the wider world after graduation as they emerge in larger society as influence makers.
Architecturally, classical Greek-Roman elements dominate. The main building, which can be seen from miles around, is the monolithic Administration Building. Built in grand European-palace style, rotunda topped with a huge, solemn green dome and fronted by a grand staircase and Corinthian colonnade, it evokes the august visage of key portal buildings at some of the world’s oldest, greatest universities. Of the other classical-style creations, perhaps most striking is the Gymnasium, which sports a faux façade in the style of the Colosseum in Rome.
A striking design contrast is seen in the Asia University Museum of Modern Art, which faces the Administration Building. Designed by renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando, this is a futuristic concrete-and-steel structure of massive triangular shapes that looks like a Star Wars spaceship about to launch.
Asia University (亞洲大學)
Add: No. 500, Liufeng Rd., Wufeng District, Taichung City
(台中市霧峰區柳豐路500號)
Tel: (04) 2332-3456
Website: http://www.asia.edu.tw -
Shilin Residence TULIP SHOW (士林官邸鬱金香展)
Here is a short video about the Shilin Residence Tulip Show (士林官邸鬱金香展), currently going on in Taipei City's Shilin District. The show lasts until next Sunday. Lots of beautiful tulips there!
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc
100,000 Tulips from Holland and Japan on Display
Late winter and early spring is the best time to appreciate floral beauty in Taipei. and the Chiang Kai-shek Shilin Residence Park has become a very popular location to appreciate blooming flowers.
Throughout the year you can marvel at flowers in the park. There is a rose garden with a variety of beautiful roses. Orchids are often shown in the flower art exhibition house. The park is also venue for flower shows, including the chrysanthemum, tulip, and rose shows held at different times of the year. The 2020 Shilin Residence Tulip Show takes place February 14 ~ 23 this year. On display are amazingly beautiful flowers from Holland and Japan, and visitors will have a great time gazing at colorful flower fields. This is a great opportunity to take memorable photos as well; apart from the flowers there are also Dutch and Japan-style decorations ideal for taking selfies. The show is a colorful feast for your eyes. On display are more than 100,000 tulips of various shapes and colors.
Apart from visiting the tulip flower areas, there is much more to see in the Shilin Residence Park, including the rose garden, the eco-pond area, and the residence of late President Chiang Kai-shek.
The show starts on February 14, which is Valentine’s Day, making the event perfect for loving couples with a taste for romance. There is no lack of love-themed decoration in the park, which create a distinct romantic ambience.
The main theme of the show is “So Great to See You!” and the organizers sincerely hope to see flower lovers of all age groups come to Shilin Residence Park to have an unforgettable time appreciating beautiful tulips.
🌷Shilin Residence Tulip show (士林官邸鬱金香展)🌷
Official Website: http://2020tushow.gov.taipei
Facebook Fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/2016chshow
Dates: Feb. 14 (Friday) ~23 (Sunday), 2020
Hours: 8am ~ 6pm
Location: Chinese Garden, Western Garden, and Country Walk Area inside the Shilin Residence Park (士林官邸公園~中式庭園、西式庭園、踏青區)
How to Get There:
Take the MRT Xinyi-Tamsui Line (Red Line) to Shilin Station and leave the station by Exit 2; follow the signs to Shilin Residence Park (about 7 minutes by foot). -
1969 BLUE SKY HOTEL in Taichung (台中市的1969藍天飯店)
On our recent trip to Taichung we stayed one night in the 1969 Blue Sky Hotel. This is a fun place to stay, very stylish. This is just a short video to give you an idea of what kind of place this is. 🙂
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan 2020-03-04
By Rick Charette
At this hotel, in a refurbished hotel building, your exotic travel adventure is a time-travel return – yes, you guessed it – to the year 1969. The hotel façade is framed with old-timey neon lighting long ago seen in such culturally iconic US places as Sunset Boulevard and the Las Vegas strip. On the Travel in Taiwan team’s check-in night during a recent research trip for the Taichung articles in this issue the exterior neon, low-lit alley by the hotel’s side, and bright moon hanging high above left me feeling transported to a scene in a sultry ’60s detective series. Enter the compact lobby and you find, on your immediate left, a full two-floor wall made of period suitcases neatly fitted together, many bought at sales, some donated by past guests. The retro-chic front desk area features a counter fixed atop a retired industrial boiler, retired transformer control panels and vintage clocks with the time in different global cities covering the wall behind, and industrial-style exposed piping and ducts.
The irresistible eye-catch in the comfy second-level Blue Sky Lounge is the tall-as-a-man neon jukebox, a specialty creation imported at hefty outlay from Britain. It’s the real deal, filled with a collection of vinyl golden-oldie singles – The Beatles, The Platters, etc. – which guests can play free using tokens provided by the hotel. When exiting the elevator on each floor you’re greeted with a shrewd design touch – your super-sized floor number in bold neon, which really keeps the ’60s ambience in play.
The neat, compact rooms are minimalist “industrial style,” with calming combinations of white, black, silver/gray, and earth tones. Many also have exposed original wall and pillar sections of concrete or red brick. All come with classical ’60s-era accouterments such as retro-style electric kettles, desk telephones, coffee mugs and tea cups, and mod chairs and seats right out of an early James Bond movie. An especially appealing flourish is the intricate tiling used in the bathrooms, celebrating central Taiwan’s once thriving decorative-tile industry.
1969 Blue Sky Hotel (1969藍天飯店)
Add: No. 38, Shifu Rd., Central District, Taichung City
(台中市中區市府路38號)
Tel: (04) 2223-0577
Website: https://1969blueskyhotel.com -
TAICHUNG THEATER & CENTRAL PARK (台中國家歌劇院--中中央公園)
On our last Taichung trip we made a brief stop at National Taichung Theater and also looked around Central Park, a new spacious park currently developed in the city.
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan 2020-03-04
By Rick Charette
National Taichung Theater
This transcendent architectural work, also in Xitun District, has been described as “central Taiwan’s growth garden for world-class stage arts.” Opened in 2016, the ostentatious complex is a bold design statement that visually dominates its surrounding environment while simultaneously seamlessly blending with it. The NTT’s designated societal role is just as bold – to serve as central Taiwan’s international-class showcase stage for the stage arts.
The architect was Toyo Ito, Pritzker Architecture Prize winner. The main structure challenges traditional theater design, redefining the role of public space. Most theaters separate interior and acoustic design from the main exterior architectural design, but the renowned architect perceived the complex as something alive – a breathing organism alive with free-flowing thought and artistic spirit – and decided on seamlessly intertwining all elements.
In the same way that acoustic waves flow freely, Ito emphasized curving lines outside and inside, like water flowing along a river. He also envisioned the complex as a whirlpool amidst a river – i.e., a whirlpool of ideas. A linear park located before the complex flows figuratively like a river right past its front plaza and fountain “into” the building. Emulating the fountain, the façade’s curvilinear shapes form stylized whirlpool-style jets of water shooting into the air.
Any sense of “outside/inside” separation has been eliminated. Glass is liberally used in the façade, allowing the greenway “river” to stream right inside. The same stone tiling is used in the outdoor plaza and lobby, with no visual separation, a small stream flows right into (using visual trickery) and through the lobby area, and the internal walls/ceilings are seamlessly curved in tube-like fashion for a natural-lit cave-like effect, enhancing the outside/inside natural-environment continuum. This subconsciously invites members of the local community to stream in, uninhibited by any “high arts” aura.
The curved, flowing interior walls also act both as sound insulators and acoustic reflectors. Symbolically, they evoke the streaming of the flow of creative ideas, and the pathways within the arteries of a living organism. The NTT has multiple performance spaces, including three first-class theaters, a multifunctional corner salon, and a triumvirate of outdoor spaces specially designed to host live-art and other cultural events: the Plaza, Outdoor Theater, and rooftop Sky Garden.
National Taichung Theater (臺中國家歌劇院)
Add: No. 101, Sec. 2, Huilai Rd., Xitun District, Taichung City
(台中市西屯區惠來路二段101號)
Tel: (04) 2251-1777
Website: http://www.npac-ntt.org -
DIVECUBE HOTEL -- Nice Places in Taichung (東海大學--潛立方旅館)
We recently visited Taichung City to check out a number of places. The second stop we made was Divecube Hotel, a hotel in the city where you can learn and practice scuba diving.
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan 2020-03-04
By Rick Charette
Divecube Hotel
You’ve no doubt in the past heard a hotel described as “a real dive.” This, perfectly, describes the Divecube Hotel.
Let me explain.
‘Tis not “a dive.” ‘Tis a real fine place “to dive,” and to stay, for divers especially. ‘Tis a place filled in the center with water from the top floor down past the first and into the basement, tapering as the giant pool descends, a place to come if you’re the type of person with a hankering
to spend time above-ground (deep) under water.
As with The Place Taichung introduced next, home for the Divecube Hotel is a new purpose-built high-rise with a sleek modern exterior. Taiwan’s central region is not a place for diving; the closest sites are along the northeast coast and far south in Kenting National Park. The owner
wanted to create a facility for regional denizens to use and a new destination to lure tourists from outside Taichung. “Bringing the ocean to the heart of Taichung,” the pool is Asia’s deepest.
Another equally important goal is to raise marine-conservation awareness through urban diving.
One and all are welcome – the pool is not just for guest use. The top-floor dive center has stupendous views across the city to the majestic central mountains through its east-side wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. Occasionally a high-speed train can be seen hurtling by down below.
Trained instructors provide classes in both scuba diving and freediving (yes, the pool is that deep), and seasoned divers can head in by themselves, though with a dive buddy. The dive center can provide all needed dive gear. Special discount packages are available for overnighting guests.
The airy sun-drenched first-floor restaurant, where creative Italian vegetarian fare is crafted, has windows both into the main pool and into artificial practice caves. Guestrooms are utilitarian, outfitted with bunkbeds sleeping up to six – i.e., the diving’s the thing.
Divecube Hotel (潛立方旅館)
Add: No. 69, Anhe W. Rd., Central District, Taichung City
(台中市西屯區安和西路69號)
Tel: (04) 2229-9333
Website: https://divecube.com.tw -
TUNGHAI UNIVERSITY -- Nice Places in Taichung (東海大學--台中好地方)
We recently visited Taichung City to check out a number of places. The first stop we made was Tunghai University, which has a beautiful campus.
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
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Travel in Taiwan 2020-03-04
By Rick Charette
Tunghai University
Tunghai University (http://www.thu.edu.tw), Taiwan’s second-oldest, was founded by Methodist missionaries in the mid-1950s. Its campus, spread out on the gentle east slope of the Dadu Plateau in Xitun District, faces east toward the city core. When founded it sat out in open countryside, but busy Taichung has grown past and enveloped it within a much-expanded urban core. Nevertheless, within the perimeter walls you’ll find a sprawling, tree-shaded oasis of calm.
A great many buildings in the heavily wooded 139ha grounds are in the style of the Tang Dynasty, China’s golden age of arts and culture – square, squat, and colonnaded. The style is markedly subdued and elegant in comparison to the ebullient and, some might say, sometimes garish styling of the Ming and Qing periods. The most poetic of the Tang-style settings is found on Wenli Boulevard, a sloping pedestrian-only walkway lined each side with Tang-style halls, the mall itself shaded by the intersecting branches of the large banyan tress that run along its edges, create a pleasing tunnel effect and hushed ambience.
A modernist contrast is provided nearby by the abstract Luce Memorial Chapel, built in 1963, co-designed by renowned Sino-American architect I.M. Pei to look like a pair of upraised hands touching in prayer. (Pei was also one of the original campus-design architects.) The chapel was named after an American missionary who was the father of TIME magazine founder Henry Luce. The sanctuary and large lawn it sits on, which lay at the physical heart of the campus, form its hub and focal point.
Be sure to visit the Tunghai Dairy – the university runs an experimental farm, and its dairy products are known island-wide. The bright and airy shop, which has a cutesy dairy-cow decorative theme, is housed in a handsome dedicated concrete/steel/glass modernistic building erected just last decade. The delicious treats on sale include silky-creamy milk, yogurt, ice cream, pudding, cream puffs, and cheese. A personal thank-you can be given to some of the black-and-white academia-land bovines that have contributed so generously to your palate’s pleasure with a walk to nearby pens, located along another of the university’s tree-tunnel thoroughfares.
English and Chinese
Luce Memorial Chapel 路思義教堂
Tunghai Dairy 東海大學乳品小棧
Tunghai University 東海大學
Wenli Boulevard 文理大道 -
ENO CAFE and YILAN LITERARY MUSEUM (一弄咖啡/宜蘭文學館)
Short video about two places we visited in Yilan City after we came back down from the mountains in the Qilan and Taipingshan areas. Eno Cafe has excellent coffees and the Yilan Literary Museum is a place to drink tea in a Japanese-style setting.
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
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Travel in Taiwan 2020-01-02
By Owain Mckimm
If, on the other hand, sipping artisanal coffee is more your thing, Eno Café, tucked into an alley in the city's south-side university district, is a thoroughly pleasant place to spend an afternoon. Spanning two floors in a renovated old house, the café specializes in serving single-origin coffees from growing regions around the world. Though the menu is extensive, the best thing to do on arrival is to chat with the barista, as new bean varieties (which often don't make it onto the menu) are regularly imported to satisfy its customers' demands for unusual and exciting brews. The coffee is served in an aesthetically varied selection of cups, picked up on the owner's global travels, and servings come with a full glass tumbler on the side, from which you can refill your own glass or pour some out for your friends to sample.
Eno Café (一弄咖啡)
Add: No. 2, Aly. 1, Ln. 151, Jinshi Rd., Yilan City, Yilan County
(宜蘭縣宜蘭市進士路151巷1弄2號)
Tel: (03) 935-2589
Hours: 11am-8pm, closed on Wednesdays
Heading into Yilan City after two days of strenuous walking, the overwhelming temptation is to take it easy and enjoy a leisurely tea or coffee in one of its charming cafés. A refined, cultured ambiance can be found at the Yilan Literary Museum, which despite its name is not in fact a museum but a Japanese-style teahouse, replete with low tables, sliding panel doors, and a tatami-covered floor for sitting.
The building itself, built in 1926, originally served as a residence for the former headmaster of the local agricultural school. But after being designated a historical building and restored to its former glory, in 2011 it was opened as a space where the aspiring literati of Yilan City – which has a tradition of producing some of Taiwan's finest authors – can read, sip fragrant tea, muse, and produce creative work in a peaceful, elegant walled-courtyard setting away from the busy streets and sounds of roaring scooters.
Relaxing on the soft straw tatami and soaking in the literary atmosphere, you can sample a delicious tea of fragrant osmanthus honey dissolved in hot water and a plate of finger snacks consisting of crisp dried broad beans and tangy, dehydrated starfruit.
Yilan Literary Museum (宜蘭文學舘)
Add: No. 19, Xianfu 2nd Ln., Jiucheng S. Rd., Yilan City, Yilan County
(宜蘭縣宜蘭市舊城南路縣府二巷19號)
Tel: (03) 932-4349
Hours: 9am-5pm, closed on Mondays -
QINGJING SKYWALK & The Old England Manor (清境高空景觀步道/老英格蘭莊園)
Qingjing is a very popular high-mountain farm area in central Taiwan. One of the attractions there is the elevated Qingjing Skywalk. The best-known place to stay in the area is The Old England Manor
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
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Travel in Taiwan 2020-01-02
By Rick Charette
Qingjing has been dubbed “Foggy Eden,” and its ambience has also given rise to another moniker that has taken deeper hold with the general public, “Little Switzerland.” As you approach the mountaintop-hugging enclave from the lowlands you’ll notice that the architecture, with the multistory homestays/inns prominent, has a distinctive European-manor flavor. This movement was kickstarted with the building, and instant island-wide renown, of a large inn called The Old England in 2009. In the years since then, the enjoyment of afternoon tea has become a Taiwan fad, and The Old England and other Qingjing establishments add sublime “up-in-the-heavens” tableaux to the experience.
The impressive Tudor manor-style complex is the realized dream of a Taiwan flatlander who fell in love with old English-style architecture while resident in the small anglophile Canadian city of Victoria. At the same time harboring a love for Qingjing’s transcendental surroundings, he wanted to encourage a more genteel demeanor for the community, which to that point was dominated by accommodations and eateries of a more rustic nature.
The Old England introduced the afternoon tea tradition to Qingjing, and its service remains the most popular. Served 11:30am~4pm (NT$500 per serving) in its plush chandeliered restaurant, its English-style tea features Earl Grey Tea and a merry-go-round of delicacies, created by a dessert master, served on a three-tiered tray. Changed seasonally, the treats go from savory at bottom to sweet at top, ranging from (on this Travel in Taiwan trip) a schweinshaxe mini-kebab and bacon scallion Danish pastry to a canelé and macaron.
The Old England (老英格蘭)
Add: No. 20-3, Shouting Lane, Datong Village, Ren’ai Township, Nantou County
(南投縣仁愛鄉大同村壽亭巷20-3號)
Tel: (049) 280-2166
Website: theoldengland.com
While The Old England faces the mighty Qilai Ridge to the east, the Impression Nordic Manor Club faces southwest toward the indigenous village of Wushe, the deep Wushe Reservoir below, and the mountain-basin town of Puli far beyond, back down along the river-valley route that brought you up from the western plains. The façade of this inn is modernistic with Tudor-style flourishes; inside and on the large outdoor deck with infinity pool, the lines are Scandinavian-clean. While The Old England immerses you in sumptuous, quiet-inspiring Victorian-style trappings, the Impression Nordic has a congenial party atmosphere – captured in the use of “club” in the name – with a putting-green facility, a slide hill, and a large gym joining the deck/infinity pool.
The bright, sunny first-floor restaurant looks out directly over the deck/pool area. Afternoon tea, which features a full buffet set-up, is served 3~5pm (NT$900 per person). The panoply of delectables includes tangerine smoked duck mini-toast, smoked salmon rolls, yogurt shrimp mini-toast, spaghetti marinara (and alfredo), ham and cheese finger sandwiches, European-style cookies, fresh fruit and juices, and numerous other selections. And as at The Old England, fresh-brew premium coffee is available. As well, imported wine and whisky are displayed in chiller buckets on the buffet bar for diners’ gratis enjoyment. This generous “party club” spirit is also in evidence in the evening, when gratis wines and spirits are made available to guests in the deck/pool area.
Impression Nordic Manor Club (印象北歐)
Add: No. 9-9, Rongguang Lane, Datong Village, Ren’ai Township, Nantou County
(南投縣仁愛鄉大同村榮光巷9-9號)
Tel: (049) 280-3982
Website: impression-nordic.com.tw -
XIAOQILAI TRAIL EASY HIKE (小奇萊步道輕鬆爬山)
Xiaoqilai Trail is the first small section of the much longer and challenging Qilai Ridge hike. You can complete the trail easily in 2 hours. The trail head is close to Songxue Lodge and the trail head for Mt. Hehuan East Peak.
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
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Travel in Taiwan 2020-01-02
By Rick Charette
The 1.4km (one way) Xiaoqilai Trail traverses the east face of Mt. Hehuan in a southerly direction searching for the minor peak called Xiaoqilai, “Little Qilai.” This is just beyond the Mt. Hehuan massif, on its southeast. Also behind the lodge is the Hehuanshan East Peak trailhead.
Before starting the Xiaoqilai hike, look up toward the East Peak. You’ll see the rusted tower-and-cable remains of a 400m-long ski run once used for special forces training in the days when the Kuomintang government had dreams of retaking the China mainland.
The Xiaoqilai Trail’s initial section is open, dominated by Yushan cane, which grows 2~3m high, and bright alpine flowers. The landscape then transitions, and you enter a dark forest of tall Taiwan white fir characterized by rimrod-straight trunks, the path undulating uphill and downhill. The Hehuanshan area’s high-altitude ecosystem is far simpler than those found at lower elevations. The patchy coniferous black forest, with Taiwan white fir the predominant species, fights for turf with Yushan cane. Their border zones are abrupt, creating a dramatic two-tone visual canvas, especially when viewed from afar. The bands seen in this area demarcate the forest line – i.e., they are the upper limit for Taiwan white fir.
The final forest section is rugged, requiring short, steep ascents via wooden ladders and holding on to thick knotted ropes while looking for exposed-root footholds. Then, immediately after your last ascent, you pop out into an open-vista world of Yushan cane covering a flattish section of eroded mountainside that resembles undulating waves, the top of Xiaoqilai just a few score meters above you on the right, razor-edge Mt. Qilai laid out in all its glory directly before you. The end of the Xiaoqilai Trail is the beginning of the supremely more challenging Qilai Ridge trail system. -
MT. HEHUAN (Hehuanshan) Main Peak EASY HIKE (合歡山主峰輕鬆爬山)
Mt. Hehuan in central Taiwan's Nantou County is one of the easiest to hike 3,000m mountains you will ever come across. You can actually walk up there one paved road. The scenery is spectacular. Among the best Taiwan has to offer. 🙂
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
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Travel in Taiwan Jan./Feb., 2020
By Rick Charette
Hehuanshan (Mt. Hehuan) The Wuling pass is the one place that almost every Hehuanshan visitor checks off. There’s a cliffside parking lot on one highway side and a large lookout deck (public bathrooms beside it) on the other, looking out at the East Peak on the left (east), Main Peak on the right (west/northwest), and deep, empty space in front. Stretching off southwards toward the horizon from beyond the East Peak is the titanic Qilai Ridge, its ridge-top trail passage a rite of passage for serious island hikers. Abundant signage with good English at Hehuanshan vehicle-stop points and along trails explains what you’re looking at.
Hehuanshan’s peaks are among Taiwan’s “Top 100 Mountains,” a list of summits above 3,000m selected by local hiking experts based on their uniqueness, visual allure, and prominence. Few have climbed all 100. Hehuanshan’s are among the most accessible, with the Main Peak among the easiest to conquer. Hehuanshan Main Peak Trail The 1.8km (one way) Hehuanshan Main Peak Trail, which has a few sections of moderate steepness, starts right at highway-side about a kilometer down-road from the Wuling pass, back toward Qingjing. There’s no parking here, nor a bus stop; find these at the Wuling pass facility. Save for a section at the very top – the Main Peak is 3,417m high – where wooden stairs and a wooden lookout have been erected (washroom facilities also available), the “trail” is an old, narrow, now-crumbling paved roadway created by the military. Soldiers withdrew from Hehuanshan in 2000, with the formerly off-limits areas opened to the public. On the Main Peak ascent you’ll see old camouflaged pillboxes built right into the slate cliffs, and an abandoned, wind-protected barracks camp in a basin down the east slope that’s also in full view from the Wuling parking lot.
Only minimal forest cover is encountered. This is a place of low-growing alpine vegetation, decorated with the pastel-blossom beauties of such tough gems as the Yushan rhododendron, Yushan rose, high-mountain juniper, and hawkweed oxtongue. The peak was largely denuded during its military-service years, and much of what you see is thanks to a major erosion-prevention phytoremediation campaign, with 36 species of native alpine plants introduced/reintroduced.
Hehuanshan is the headwater source for two important Taiwan rivers: the Zhuoshui, which flows west to the Taiwan Strait, and the Liwu, which flows east and, on its way, has carved out the celebrated Taroko Gorge. On clear days the Liwu point-of-empty into the Pacific can be espied from the Main Peak. The stream that becomes the muddy Zhuoshui can clearly be seen forming on the almost vertical East Peak’s west face. To the south, far beyond the Qilai Ridge, iconic titans such as Yushan (Mt. Jade) and Nenggaoshan (Mt. Nenggao) make appearances.
3158 Café After your first Hehuanshan hike, a good mug of fresh-brew coffee will go down like liquid manna, and said mug and java is close at hand at the 3158 Café, just east of the Wuling pass at the roadside trailhead for the short, steep Hehuan Horn Peak ascent. The coffee is high-altitude flavorsome, and since this is billed as Taiwan’s highest coffee joint – the “3158” refers to the location’s altitude – what better take-home souvenir than the mug you drink from? Your coffee is NT$150; NT$100 is returned if mug is returned. Hot snacks such as zongzi (rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves) and baozi (steamed buns) are also available.
The café is perched on Hehuanshan’s east-facing side, looking out toward the Taroko Gorge and Pacific Ocean. Warm air swooping up from the coast often create heavy, roiling romantic mist on this face. Also hugging the high slope here, diagonally across the highway from the café, is the famed Songxue Lodge, Taiwan’s highest place of accommodation.
Hehuanshan 合歡山
Hehuanshan Main Peak Trail 合歡山主峰步道
Hehuan Mountain Dark Sky Park 合歡山暗空公園
Songxue Lodge 松雪樓
Wuling 武嶺
Xiaoqilai Trail 小奇萊步道 -
TRAVEL IN TAIWAN Recap 2019 (台灣旅遊雜誌2019回顧)
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
App download: https://tosto.re/travelintaiwan (iOS & Android)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc -
Top of TAIPEI 101 Skyline 460 Experience (天際線雲端漫步體驗)
After riding the Bong-Bong Train in Taipingshan we visited the Qilan Divine Trees Area, also in southern Yilan. This is an amazing forest park area with many really old and really tall trees.
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
App download: https://tosto.re/travelintaiwan (iOS & Android)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan Jan./Feb., 2020
Taipei 101 Skyline 460 Experience
Taipei’s most famous and most visible city landmark by far, Taipei 101 held the distinction of being the world's tallest building from its opening in 2004 until 2010 (now the 10th tallest). Its 89th floor indoor observatory and 91st floor outside deck give visitors a top-notch view of Taipei, with grand views stretching far off into the distance, weather permitting.
For those looking for a bigger thrill, the Taipei 101 Skyline 460 experience is a uniquely breathtaking way to see the city from even higher up. After signing up online for the experience, you will be taken to the eponymous 101st floor. Then, before going outside, you'll be suited up in a harness, with a raincoat also provided if needed (note: tours will be canceled during heavy rain and strong winds). To avoid people dropping items from the tower, cellphones must be wrapped in plastic pouches with a neck strap that is provided and cameras have to be carried around with a neck strap as well. You'll definitely want to take photos, for the unobstructed views of the city from 460m above the ground are truly impressive. You will be tethered to the railing, and can walk safely around the highest floor of the tower, accompanied by one of Taipei 101's friendly guides. After the experience you’ll be presented with a gift bag containing mementos and a souvenir photo showing you at the top of Taipei 101. The Skyline 460 experience is currently priced NT$2,700 (40-60min.), with online reservations required.
After your Skyline 460 adventure, it's time to relax. Head to Bar 88, located – as the name implies – just below the 89th floor observatory. The bar's ambient lighting and comfortable seating are best enjoyed at sunset, when the view from the tower is especially stunning. The bar serves light meals in addition to a wide range of drinks. It's the perfect place to end the day. If you've been through the Skyline 460 experience, you can use the ticket provided to claim a complimentary pearl milk tea or coffee, complete with an adorable puff of cotton candy in the shape of a cloud. Bar 88 is open from 9am to 10pm.
Taipei 101
Add: No. 7, Sec. 5, Xinyi Rd., Taipei City
(台北市信義路五段7號)
Website: www.taipei-101.com.tw -
Amazing giant trees in the QILAN Divine Trees Garden (棲蘭神木園)
After riding the Bong-Bong Train in Taipingshan we visited the Qilan Divine Trees Area, also in southern Yilan. This is an amazing forest park area with many really old and really tall trees.
WHO WE ARE
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.
WHO I AM
My name is Johannes (友漢). I love creating videos about places in Taiwan and I try to post a few videos every week (well, more like twice a month). Please let me know what you think about this channel and feel free to ask me any question. Thanks for your support!
Website: http://taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan: https://issuu.com/travelintaiwan
App download: https://tosto.re/travelintaiwan (iOS & Android)
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/taiwantravelmag
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiwaneverything.cc
Travel in Taiwan Jan./Feb., 2020
By Owain Mckimm
Qilan Forest Recreation Area
A few kilometers from the entrance to Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area, where the Tiangou and Duowang tributaries join the Lanyang River at the base of the mountain, lies Qilan (also spelled "Cilan"; entrance fee: NT$80 Mon-Fri; NTD$150 weekends and holidays), another forest recreation area which marks the southern point of the Makau Ecological Park, a largely restricted area of natural beauty only accessible via the Cilan Forest Recreation Area and the Mingchi Forest Recreation Area further north on Provincial Highway 7. The recreation area is comprised of a European-style villa and wood cabins, where guests can stay the night, a hot spring spa that's free for guests, several gardens and flower-viewing walks, and a restaurant serving a Chinese-style buffet for breakfast and set menus featuring dishes such as stir-fried crab, mapo toufu, and scrambled eggs with spring onion for lunch and dinner.
The centerpiece of the park is Chiang Kai-shek's Chateau—a former holiday residence of Taiwan's erstwhile dictator and his wife. The meticulously preserved rooms, large framed family photos, and eclectic relics (such as CKS's high-school geometry homework) allow for a small but uniquely domestic glimpse into the now highly controversial figure of the generalissimo-in-exile.
Behind the villa, lies a 2.1 km loop trail through a fern-rich, sub-tropical forest that ends in the Forestry Historical Relic Park, where several examples of logging-era machinery are preserved.
You are of course free to explore the recreation area yourself; however, a free Chinese-language guided tour of the park is also available and starts daily at 8:00 and 14:30 at reception.
Undoubtedly, though, the highlight of a visit to Qilan is the opportunity to visit the Divine Trees Garden area of the Makau Ecological Park. "Divine" or "sacred" is the honorific given in Taiwan to trees over 1000 years old (whereas those between 500 and 1000 are called jumu--"giant trees"). The garden in question contains nearly 100 giant and sacred endemic cypress trees, 51 of which have been named after figures in Chinese history who share their birth-year. The oldest, Confucius, for example, is a 40.8 meter-tall Taiwan red cypress "born" in 551 B.C., while Guanyu—a famous general whose exploits are recorded in the Chinese classic "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms"—is a 29.5 meter-tall Formosan hinoki cypress that erupted from the ground in 162 A.D.
The Divine Tree Garden is a controlled area an hour's drive deep into the mountains and access is only permitted as part of a tour from either Qilan or Mingchi Resort. Three shuttle busses are scheduled each day at 7:50, 10:30 and 13:20 with tickets costing NT$570 for overnight guests and NT$770 for independent visitors. The entire circuit, accompanied by a Chinese-language guide, takes around two hours, though you can explore the route by yourself if you prefer. The area sees rain 250 days per year, so bring an umbrella or raincoat—however, don't be put off by any inclement weather; the wispy tendrils of mist that permeate the garden bestows the environs with a dream-like quality that if anything enhances the experience.
Accommodation
Staying the night in one of the recreation area's villa or cabins costs between NT$4,400 for a twin/double room in the villa to NTD$11,100 for an eight-person cottage penthouse. Rooms are large and comfortable with a rustic, log-cabin feel. For more information about both the Qilan and Mingchi Resorts and booking visit https://makauy.lealeahotel.com. -
TAIPINGSHAN and riding the BONG-BONG TRAIN (太平山/蹦蹦車好玩)
We recently went on a two-day trip to the great forest areas of Taipingshan and Qilan in Yilan County. In this video we are at Taipingshan, riding the Bong-Bong Train and going on a forest work.
WHO WE ARE
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 Jan./Feb., 2020
By Owain Mckimm
Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area
The Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area (tps.forest.gov.tw; entrance fee: NT$150 Mon-Fri; NT$200 weekends/holidays) is the more bounteous of the two recreation areas in terms of the sheer number of nature trails, hikes, and opportunities for exploring and nature-watching.
In the not-too-distant past, Taipingshan – a 12,000ha expanse of dense forest, much of which is located between 1,500m and 2,500m above sea level – was best known as a logging area. In 1914, the Japanese (who controlled Taiwan as a colony from 1895 to 1945) began operations to harvest the centuries- and sometimes millennia-old cypress trees that grew here. Logging was finally banned in 1982, and you can learn about some of the industry's history at the Taipingshan Visitor Service Station in the recreation area’s main facilities sector.
Climbing the stone stairs to the right of the station brings you to a café and restaurant, the latter serving seven-dish set meals made with fresh local produce for NT$250 per head. At the top of the stairs (lined with Japanese maple trees, whose leaves turn a rich burgundy-red in autumn), you'll find one of the recreation area’s many trails – the Primitive Cypress Forest Trail, an easy 30-minute walk taking you through the intertwining canopies and twisting roots of members of Taiwan's two endemic cypress species (C. obtuse var. formosana and C. formosensis). Beyond this trail is the Chinese Hemlock Nature Trail, a longer and more challenging walk through largely coniferous forest which also contains several broadleaf species such as the Formosan rhododendron, with the viewing platform at the trail’s tail-end providing beautiful views of Taipingshan's breathtaking sea of clouds phenomenon.
Aside from hiking, one of the most popular activities at this recreation area is taking a ride on the Bong-Bong Train – a working relic from the old logging days. Its onomatopoeic name derives from the sound it made as it trundled log-laden along the snaking narrow-gauge rail track to nearby Maoxing Station, a bit higher in the mountains. The trains, now carrying tourists, run hourly from 7:30am until 2:30pm, and tickets cost NT$180 for a return trip. The journey to Maoxing takes roughly 20 minutes, the train twisting and turning along the mountainside through, on many days, dense mist that reveals only ghostly impressions of the forested ridges and slopes that lie beyond.
Arriving at Maoxing Station, you'll have around an hour to explore before the return train, which is plenty of time to make a thorough exploration of the area by walking the Maoxing Reminiscent Trail – a 900m path that follows and encircles the old train tracks. The forest around here once yielded around 3,000 cubic meters of wood per hectare. Today, a dense forest of new-growth cypresses, cedars, and firs exists in place of those felled ancients, whose gigantic stumps loom from within the mist like the ruined towers of some long-lost city.
To soothe your aching legs and tired feet, a highly recommended final stop is the Jiuzhize Hot Springs, situated further down-mountain near the recreation area’s ticket booth. Here, pale-blue alkaline sodium bicarbonate water bubbles from deep beneath the earth at temperatures of up to 140°C, its steam rising in giant white plumes from the boiling wells. The spa has both outdoor pools and private bathhouses, and prices range from NT$150 for access to the outdoor pool in summer to NT$700 for a private two-person bathhouse during winter. If you're peckish, you can rustle up some grub in the cooking area, where eggs and corn purchased in the visitor center shop can be boiled in specially designated springs.
