Taiwan Hot Spring Town - Wulai

Wulai is another hot spring town near Taipei.  To get there, take MRT to Xindian Station, then go out of the station and then turn right to take bus 849.  The bus stop is hidden behind some big pillars, so you need to be alert.  The bus journey is about 40 minutes.

My first impression of Wulai is: It is like a TaoHuaYuan(桃花源), a fictitious place described by a Chinese scholar about a place where people are separated from the outside world, living a peaceful and happy life.  There is river with clear water winding between the mountains.  On the day of my visit, it was drizzling and a little bit windy.  Wow, it felt really good.

After you arrive at Wulai bus station, the Old Street is just minutes walk away.  Restaurants and hot spring hotels line up the old street.

Further up, 20 minutes walk away, it is the beautiful Wulai waterfall.

The waterfall is not very big, but it is just like a shy girl, I like it.  Standing in front of the waterfall, breathing in the fresh air, you feel the world is so beautiful.

There are two things you must do in Wulai.  Number 1 of course is to enjoy a hot spring bath.  Four of us paid NT$1200 for one hour's use of a private bath.  If you don't want to pay but still want to enjoy the hot spring, you can just go to have a dip in the wild hot springs.  It is common to see a hot spring along the river.  It is also common to see people having a free hot spring bath there.

Number 2 is to try the hot spring eggs.  I didn't expect much of the hot spring eggs, just an egg cooked with hot spring, how special can it be?  But then after I tried it, I changed my view completely.  It is so smooth, so tender, and the egg is cold, not hot!  I miss the taste of it so much after I got back to Singapore.

There are many restaurants along the Old Street.  Their prices are quite reasonable and you can order some speciality as well.

I was there on a weekday, there were hardly any tourists, so I could enjoy the quiet and peacefulness of the place more.  I love it there!

Taipei Hot Spring Town - Beitou

When you come to Taipei in a cool day, you just can't miss the wonderful hot spring towns near Taipei.  There are two famous hot spring towns near Taipei, one is Beitou, the other is Wulai.

To go to Beitou, take the MRT to Beitou station, then transfer to another train to New Beitou station, which is also the terminal station of the MRT.  The train commuting between Beitou & New Beitou is very special.  The carriage is decorated as a bath house, with bath tubs as coffee table for you to view the visuals.

MRT Train to New Beitou

Beitou used to be a place specially for the Japanese during Japanese occupation, so there are a lot of traces of Japanese influence.

Beitou Hot Spring Museum

Beitou's hot spring museum was once a Japanese bath house.  The architecture is a mixture of Japanese and English style, so you find it a bit odd.

The bath is located on the ground floor, and it is of Roman style!  It is quite a fusion of different cultures, isn't it?

Looking out of the window from the Roman bath, it is lush greenery.  The Roman style windows are decorated with stained glasses.  I can imagine how relaxing and enjoyable the bath goers were.

In the hot spring museum, there was also a display of a kind of special rock named Beitou Rock.  It is said that such rock can only be found in the hot spring streams in Beitou.

Next to the hot spring museum, there is the Beitou Public Library.

I would say it is architecturally unique, and blends well with its neighbour - the hot spring museum.

To get to the source of Beitou's hot spring, you will inevitably pass by this wooden bridge.

This wooden bridge was featured in one of the Japanese/Taiwanese movies from old old days.  It is one of those places that reminds Japanese their (un)glory past.

The stream running under the bridge is steaming hot too.  The smell of Sapphire is in the air.  Luckily the smell is not too strong.

Following the stream brings you to the source of the hot spring - Hell Valley, now renamed to Thermal Valley.

Steam bath here, anyone?  The smell here is very strong, the steam spreads all across the valley.

On the way back, I passed by Mr Yu You-Ren(于右任) residence - Plum Garden.  Here we could see his calligraphy.

Actually further down the road, we can reach a place called Zen Garden.  Don't be fulled by the Buddhistic name, it was the prison for Gen Zhang Xueliang (张学良) when he was under house arrest in Taiwan.

After such a long walk, what else can be better than having a hot spring bath?

This place was one of the 3 Japanese style baths built during Japanese occupation and the only one that is still in operation.  It is said that in its garden, there is something that recorded the visit of then Crown Prince, the late Japanese Emperor Hirohito's visit to Beitou.

This place is very old and facilities are rudimentary.  It is such a big contrast to all the other modern hot spring establishments.  Anyway, it is cheap, only NT90 for a bath.

Taiwan Alishan

Alishan's young men are strong as the mountain, Alishan's girls are as beautiful as water.  This is a famous folk song about Alishan.  Chinese around the globe have mostly heard of this famous and it shapes their impression of Alishan.  But, just to disappoint you, you find no Alishan young men or young girls waiting for you at Alishan :P

Entrance to Alishan National Scenic Area.  The famous Alishan Railway runs right across the two steel bridges  in the picture.

Before you get to the entrance of the Alishan National Scenic Area, you will pass by an abandoned railway station, the Fenqihu Station.  This abandoned station is famous for its railway lunch box, or bento in Japanese.  I ordered the wild boar set lunch.  The taste was not bad, and it cost me NT170 (~SGD$7.40).

And then of course we need to have a 'been there, done that' group photo.

I am not really a big fan of all these forest railways, bento, etc, but I like the natural environment in Alishan.  The air is fresh, the trees are tall.  I just love it there.  And when I saw the clouds in Alishan, I simply fell in love with it.

You see it like this at this moment.

The next moment you look at it, it has already changed.

We also witnessed a wonderful sunset.

This sunset itself is worth all the efforts for this trip to Taiwan.

The next day, we attempted to catch the sun rise.  Well, if you have already witnessed the beautiful sunset, and you also see the beautiful sunrise, don't you think that's too perfect?  Perfection is never what nature encourages.  So we didn't have a beautiful sunrise, instead, we witnesses a race of a puma and a lion.

The good stuff does not end here in Alishan.  It has even more to offer.

We took a walk in the sacred forest, with the distinct Taiwan Cypress trees lining the paths.  The one in the photo is already 2000 years old.  Taiwan Cypress is one of the best kind of wood in the world.  During Japanese occupation, Japan cut down lots of cypress trees which were older than 800 years, and brought them back to Japan.  Now in the famous Meijin Shrine in Tokyo, you could see some of the trees being used in the structures.

We didn't see the beautiful Alishan girls, but Alishan herself is already very beautiful.  I love it.

Taiwan Roast Chicken

Taiwan Roast Chicken, it is the best English translation of the actual name that I can think of.  We had lunch on our day 3 Taiwan trip at Hehuan Mountain.

In the shop front, there was a row of 4-5 big, traditional ovens.  The roast chickens were prepared right there, hot from the oven.

Here comes the famous roast chicken.  The skin was crispy and the meat was still tender and juicy.  And you need someone with strong arms to tear the chicken apart :)

We ordered the set meal for 8 people, at a price of NT2500.  To me, it was a very good deal.

This is the Taiwan version of the famous 'Dragon Beard' vegetable.  I had an argument with my parents whether this vegie was the same as what we had back in Guangzhou.

Another one of my favourite dish was the fried stream shrimps.  The shrimps were tiny, after being deep fried, they were very crispy.  I simply liked the taste.

Mountain Residence

We stayed in Hehuan Mountain over night at a place called Mountain Residence (山居).  It is a guest house by an indigenous Taiwan tribal man and his family.

On our way there, we passed by a restaurant that had be featured in one of Taiwan's good food TV programs.

Mountain Residence is located at a very unexpected place.  On one side it is the high mountain, on the other, a steep slope.  How to get there?  You need to leave the winding mountain road, then drive along a narrow path that seems like hanging on the cliff!

As the reward for the risk, here is the view from the guest house.  Houses in a valley surrounded by mountains.  Early in the morning, clouds flows in from a nearby reservoir.

It is so beautiful.  I almost mistook it as a fairy tale land.  The mind was kind, the breath was smooth, the air was fresh.  What else could you ask more?

CingShui and Puli Brewery

We started our second day in Taiwan early in the morning for a long drive.  The first stop was CingShui service area.  It is a service area for people driving along the highway.  CingShui service area is also famous for its night scenes, but then we were there during day time :)  However, there is still good food for us to sample - The famous CingShui Steamed Rice Tube Pudding, well, I would say it is rice cake.

The rice cake set meal came with a plate of Chinese cabbage.

And a bowl of wanton soup.  Both are not bad.

Then it was our super star, the CingShui steamed rice tube pudding, or rice cake.  To put it simply, it is gluten rice with special sauce.  The taste was good.  Smooth and sweet.

Our next stop was Puli Brewery.  We went in two cars.  One arrived almost an hour before the other.  The reason?  The GPS played trick and brought us to a route which was long and detouring.  We ended up getting to the brewery one hour later than the other car!  Be careful about your GPS.  I still remember last time we went into some dead end road led by our unreliable GPS!

This is a brewery of Shaoxin rice wine, and it is also a museum of rice wine, telling visitors of the history of the brewery.  The place is a bit run down but still an interesting place to visit, especially if you like to drink :)

The rest of the day was way too exciting to be described here, including having a Yunnan style dinner at 2044 meters above sea level and driving in the dark in the Hehuan Mountain.

Taipei in A Day

We arrived in Taipei early in the morning, a cloudy gloomy morning.  Our first stop was an unexpected place for any tourist - China Telecom 中华电讯, as we wanted to have a local mobile line for easy communication and internet connection.  The deal was not bad, NT600 for 7 days of unlimited mobile data.    However, the process was long.  We waited for more than an hour just to get all the paperwork done.

Next, Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall.  I was here 8 years ago, and the Chinese words on the arch was something else, but now, it is FREEDOM SQUARE.

Luckily Chiang's bronze statue is still in the hall, intact with the change of politics in recent years.

Of course, the point of focus here is always the change of guards, which happens once an hour.

The change of guards ceremony somehow has this magic potion that it catches the fancy of tourists all around the world.  From Bangkok's grand palace, to UK's Buckingham's Palace, to whatever other places you can name, the ceremony guards always draw the attention of tourists from all walks of life.

Anyway, poor guy.  He has to standstill for an entire hour.

The ceiling is decorated with the Nationalist Party's symbol and also a symbol part of the Republic of China's national flag.  The blue represents the blue sky, the white represents the bright and shining sun.  Together, they symbolize the Republic of China to be a country with no corruption, no injustice, all citizens will be equal and government will be clean.  It is a vision we also hope to achieve.

In the memorial hall, there are some artifacts on display from Chiang's era.

Chiang's Limo 

Chiang's Office Replica

There were quite a lot of tourists from mainland China.  It is fascinating for them to see all these, as Chiang has almost always been described as the bad guy on the other side of the Taiwan Strait.  

Coming out from Chiang's Memorial Hall, it is the old city gate of Taipei, JingFu Gate.

Directly after the gate, it is the President's Office.  The building was previously the Governor's building duirng Japanese rule.  

On our way to the President's office, we met a guy with a big lens and camera on his neck.  He was very kind to show us the way, and informed us that on some days, the President's Office is open to the public each week.  He could even tell us that the president now is out for tea!  

50 meters away, it is the Bank of Taiwan, the de fanco central bank.  

After such a long walk, it was time to sit down for a cup of coffee.  Right opposite the Taiwan ChengHuang Temple, there is the Astonia Cafe.  

Taiwan ChengHuang Temple

Astonia means Star?  The Chinese name of the cafe means star.  The cafe is said to be a popular place for the scholars and people in the culture industries, such as writers, movie directors, etc.  Its famous patrons include the late Mrs Chiang Ching-kuo.  That also explains why there is a Russian bias in the cafe.

Russian Coffee

Russian Milk Tea

It so happened that some movie director and related people were sitting next to our table.  They were discussing some movie stuff, and from time to time, some actor(s) would drop by.  It was however strange that the actor spoke English, with a SE Asian look rather than local Taiwanese.  

Christmas was just around the corner, how could I leave out the Christmas lightings in Taipei.  

Merry Christmas to you!