Tour of Taiwan

I have been to Taiwan several times but it is always just to Taipei.  But there's more to see than just Taipei.  I hear a lot about Sun Moon Lake and Alishan mountain and how beautiful those places are.  When I see that Asia Odyssey Travel (AOT) has a tour of places other than Taipei and it fits into my schedule I asked Eileen to include that in my tour package.

I landed in Taipei at about 2pm and was picked up by a driver to take me to the Hu House hotel.  I love it that AOT provided a driver because it would be time-consuming and expensive to take a taxi or the train to the city.  Hu House is a small hotel in the middle of the city.  I asked the front desk if there is a night market nearby and luckily, she told me there is one about a 15-minute walk away.

Night markets in Taiwan is a cultural mainstay.  It is not unique to Taiwan.  You can find night markets all over Asia.  However, going to a night market is part of the fun of visiting Taiwan.  You can think of a night market as the opposite of a Farmers' Market in the western world.  Instead of selling fresh produce,  night markets sell appetizer-sized food or the locals call it xiaochi.  Think of it like tapas in Spain.  The variety of food offered varies from market to market.  They are usually run by family businesses and are regulated by the government.  I love going to night markets because you get to try different kinds of food and see different things that they sell.  Some of the popular food are:  oyster omelette, scallion pancakes, stinky tofu, etc.

Ningxia Night Market

Store selling beef noodle soup, a popular local delicacy

Taro and red bean dessert, topped with condensed milk

BBQ roast pork

Selling scallion pancakes

Making Oyster Omelette

  

Making Scallion Pancakes

I met the others in my tour group in the lobby of the hotel early the next morning.  Two women have been on the tour in Taipei.  Another two women and I joined the tour for the next few days.  Two women and I are from the US, one woman is from Singapore and another from Australia.  Our driver and tour guide is Addy.

Our first destination is Sun Moon Lake, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Taiwan.  The lake is home to the indigenous Thao people.  The east side of the lake resembles a Sun, while the west side resembles a Moon.  That's why it's called Sun Moon Lake.

Our group picture.  Driver Addy is on the left

Shopping street by the lake

Guavas are popular in Taiwan

Street Food

Pier at night

Our hotel - Einhan Resort

We took a cruise on the lake

The next day we drove from Sun Moon Lake to the town of Chiayi, where we'll visit the nearby Alishan National Scenic Area.  This is another well-known Taiwan landmark.

Location of Alishan in Taiwan

Map showing the forest area

Sign for the National Forest

We took the train up the mountain, then hiked down

The hiking trail

More of the forest

Story of Alishan Forest Railway

A Temple in the forest

Taiwan is also famous for its tea, typically grown on sides of mountains.  We stopped at a tea shop to sample some tea.

Tea Plantation

Tea ready for export

We stopped briefly at Hinoki Village, a touristy area with souvenir shops and cafes.

Prayer Requests

Fake sheep outside souvenir shop

A beautiful garden in the middle

Although Tainan was not on our itinerary, our guide Addy insisted on taking us to a restaurant famous for its beef noodle soup.  In recent years Tainan has been getting some attention because Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, the company that is leading the Artificial Intelligence (AI) chip business, was born here.  So was Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, another AI chip company.  They are first cousins once removed (Lisa's grandfather is the eldest brother of Jensen's mother), although they never met until they were well-established in their professional careers.

Our next step is the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum in Kaohsiung.  This is a sprawling Buddhist museum complex explaining the many facets of Buddhism.

Entrance to the Museum

A statue of Buddha and the many pagodas

A Chinese (or Happy) Buddha

A picture depicting the beginning of Buddha's transformation

Our final stops in Kaohsiung include a walk down the Qijin Old Street.

Qijin Old Street

The next morning we visited the Lotus Pond Scenic Area and then ending with a visit to the Kaohsiung Museum of History  By then we were tired and longing to go home.

Lotus Pond Scenic Area

Dragon and Tiger, popular animals in Chinese mythology 

Kaohsiung Museum of History (from Wikipedia)

Addy had someone pick me up and took me to the nearby Zuoying High-speed train station.  Fortunately, he helped me buy the train tickets a few days earlier because I may have bought the last ticket for that afternoon to Taipei.  The ticket costs NTD2,500 or about US77.25.  A regular train would have been cheaper but would have taken 5 hours instead of 2 hours.  The HST is as comfortable and fast as the ones in China.

Zuoying High-speed Train Station

I arrived in Taipei in mid-afternoon and immediately hopped into a taxi and showed the driver the name of the Grand Hyatt hotel.  It was a short 15-minute ride and it costs NTD300 or about $9.27.

Grand Hyatt Taipei

Zhangjiajie

When my travel consultant Eileen first suggested I include Zhangjiajie in my itinerary I was surprised.  I had never heard of Zhangjiajie.  But then I started looking at photographs and information on the internet. I realized that this is quite a popular tourist spot.  Its claim to fame is that its scenery inspired the movie Avatar, with its towering peaks among the mist.  I was also surprised that she scheduled me here for 3 days with a private guide.

Zhangjiajia is located in Hunan province, almost in the middle of China.  My last stop was Lhasa, Tibet, in the western part of China.  I flew from Lhasa to Chongqing, then took a high-speed train from Chongqing to Zhangjiajie.  I prefer taking the train to flying, even if it takes slightly longer.  After traveling in China for almost a month I came to like the train.  They are comfortable, clean and you have plenty of room.  You can see the scenery as the train goes by the farms and countryside.  After landing at Chongqing airport I was supposed to take a taxi or Didi (China's version of Uber) to the train station.  However, Eileen was afraid that I may get lost and not make it to the train station on time.  So she sent a driver to pick me up at the airport and I had plenty of time to spare when I arrived at the Chongqing train station.

Again I was met by a driver at the Zhangjiajie train station and taken to the Wulingyuan Hotel, about an hour away.  He bought me some fruits and asked me if I was hungry.  Of course I was.  My last meal was at McDonald's at the Lhasa airport.  I had been traveling all day and did not have a proper meal.  He stopped at a restaurant and bought me some fried noodles.  He said that's where he and other drivers get together to eat their meals.

I met my guide Trevor early the next morning.  Our first stop is the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China's first National Forest Park.  It is a very popular tourist spot for locals and foreign tourists.  I can tell by the languages and accents that there were many tourists from other parts of Asia.  I don't know if there's anywhere else in Asia that you can see such beautiful scenery.  We took the world-record tallest Bailong glass elevator to the top.  From there we took several paved trails to some of the most popular and beautiful spots where you can see different views of different peaks.

We covered a lot of territory on the first day.  We had a hearty dinner near the hotel.

My guide Trevor

Wulingyuan Hotel

On the second day we went to what is called the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Scenic Area.  Our first stop is the Glass Bridge that was built over the canyon.

The Glass Bridge

View of Canyon below

        

Bridge and canyon viewed from afar

I was not expecting this but next thing I know I was in a line waiting to get on the zip-line over the canyon.  I don't believe I have done zip-lining before but this looks quite safe.  They tie you down with a safety harness and all the equipment looked very sturdy.  It was quite an experience for me.

The first video was taken by the people who ran the zip-line.  I had to pay for the video, which was not very much.  The second video was taken by me, with a view of my dirty shoes in the way.

Next we slid down a chute just like we were bob-sledding to the bottom.

Sliding down a chute

Next we hiked along the 3.5km Yuanjiajie Scenic Trail which runs alongside the river at the bottom of the canyon.  The following photographs show some of the views along the trail.

After lunch we took a cruise on a boat in Baofeng Lake.  Here are demonstrations of Chinese singing of traditional folk songs and display of fishermen using cormorants to fish.

Canyon in the lake

Fisherman using cormorants for fishing

Singer singing traditional folks song

On the third night we moved to Zhangjiajie City, where I stayed at the local Wyndham hotel.  This is because I only have half a day the next day and I have to be at the airport by noon.  It's also because we'll be closer to Tianmen Mountain, another popular attraction in the area.

Tianmen Mountain is another one of those exhilarating attractions in the area.  To the get to the top requires a combination of riding cable cars, taking very long escalators and shuttle bus up a very winding road.  But the views and sights did not disappoint.

Welcome to Tianmen Mountain

Different ways to get to the top

The longest escalator I have been on

World's longest cable car - 7,455m

Misty on top

Misty even part way down

Tianmen Temple, a Qing Dynasty-style Buddhist temple

Tianmen Mountain - Soul of Wuling

It was truly 3 days of spectacular scenery.  I don't know how you can do a better job developing a beautiful area into one of the top tourist spots in China.  There were many personnel who made sure we go the right way and ensure our safety.  I would not have been able to visit so many places without my tour guide, although I see many foreign tourists who came on their own.  Although little known in the US, many of the European tourists must have read or heard about it.

This ends my 33-day trip to China.  It was an amazing discovery of places that I have never been to but always wanted to.  China, geographically is as big as the United States.  There are many lesser known places that I would like to visit in the future.  Or even some of the places that I have been to but would love to have a local guide to explain the history and culture behind those places.  I'd also love to bring my family here, especially my grandchildren - to understand their heritage, culture, and be part of the majority, instead of the minority.

That afternoon I flew to Shanghai, where I would spend the night at the hotel within the Pudong airport.  The next day I would fly to Taipei.  I would start a five-day tour of places outside of Taipei.  Places where I have always wanted to go but never had a chance to.  It's easier to follow a group tour than go on my own.  Then I would wrap up this 40-day trip with 3 days on my own in the beautiful city of Taipei.