10D9N Taiwan Travelogue – (Part 6): Day 6 @ 清境農場 Cingjing, 日月潭 Sun Moon Lake, 水社村 Shuishe Village

Day 6 in Cingjing. Today, we would be going to get up close and personal with farm animals. Before that, we had the opportunity to try the simple breakfast in our minsu.

Cingjing New Paradise Bed and Breakfast

Every morning, the host and her staff would prepare simple breakfast for their guests. Isn’t it pleasant to dine on top of the mountains?

Breakfast consisted of porridge with the usual condiments and dishes.

The friendly owner/host even drove us to Cingjing farm.

Cingjing Farm

Arrive, arrived. Now we were at Cingjing farm which was about 10 min drive from our minsu.

Say cheese.

There is a store at the entrance selling their local products and souvenirs. The prices were not cheap either. Unless you really want to buy, otherwise I think you can give them a miss. We still have a lot of places to cover in Taiwan after this!

Cingjing farm is also known as Green Green Grasslands. Green Green Grasslands (青青草原) is part of Cingjing Farm, above 1,750 meters sea level in Nantou County. The herds of sheep graze on the grassy hill. The sheep are friendly and tourists can buy feeds to to feed them. There is also sheep shearing show, with sheep shearers all the way from New Zeland hairdressing these furry farm animals for audience’s enjoyment. Much alike what we saw in Australia.

The weather on that morning was sunny and warm. Shouldn’t have wore long sleeve and brought along our coats.

I want to take a picture too!

As Cingjing is about 1,750m above the sea level, you can expect to have a panoramic view of Taiwan beautiful mountains. What a sight!

This is also a favourite place for couples to take their wedding photos.

So, we are here today to find farm animals. Just follow the trail and continue to walk.

If you love bird sighting, Cingjing is one of the best places to spot birds.

You can get to try the binoculars … but need to pay for it.

Let’s take a family photo.

Here’s the farm area.

Visitors can try their horse rides.

The weather was scorching!

It cost NTD $150 for 2 persons to take a horse ride for one round. All within 3 mins.

We also tried sheep feeding. They were so hungry, finishing our feeds in no time.

One thing to take note. The sheep are not as white and “clean” as you see from advertisements. Furthermore, we had to watch our steps as their dungs were everywhere.

I’m still hungry. Do you still have anymore food?

I love Cingjing!

As the place was hilly, expect to walk up and down. We need a breather as we are too tired!

Big M loves Cingjing very much but not the long distance bus ride here.

It’s not often we can enjoy such views in Singapore. I would say it’s worth the trip to come to Cingjing at least once.

A resident cat.

Oops…somebody spelt wrongly 🙂

That’s all for Green Green Grassland. Overall, I think coming here is to have a feel of staying up at the mountains, meeting farm animals and enjoy beautiful views of the mountains.

Opening Hours:
08:00~17:00 (business hours)
08:00~17:30 (holidays)

Show:
sheep shearing show –
09:30 & 14:30 on weekends, national holidays, and winter & summer vacation (except Wednesday)
equestrians show –
10:45 & 15:45 on everyday

Entrance Fee:
NTD160 (business hours)
NTD200 (holidays)

Address:
No.170, Renhe Rd., Ren’ai Township, Nantou County 546, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

Along the way at Cingjing, we snapped some pictures of the surroundings.

日月潭 Sun Moon Lake

Cingjing can be covered within a day. As you can see, only Little Swiss Garden and Green Green Grassland are all you need to visit. So, over at Cingjing we hopped onto a cab to bring us to Sun Moon Lake.

日月潭 Sun Moon Lake is the largest body of water in Taiwan as well as a tourist attraction. It is also named as one of the eight wonders in Taiwan. Situated in Yuchi Township, Nantou County, the area around the Sun Moon Lake is home to the Thao tribe, one of aboriginal tribes in Taiwan.

The drive was about 2 hours and it cost NTD $2,800.

Sun Moon Lake, as its name suggests, is near to the waters. There are many touristy attractions to choose when you are here:

• Ci’en Pagoda 慈恩塔
• Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village 九族文化村
• Grandma’s Tea Eggs 阿婆茶葉蛋
• Hanbi Peninsula 涵碧半島
• Ita Thao Village 伊達紹村
• Lalu Island 拉魯島
• Meihe Garden 梅荷園
• Qinglong Mountain Trail 青龍山步道
• Shuishe Village 水社村
• Wenwu Temple 文武廟
• Xiangshan Visitor Center 向山遊客服務中心
• Xuanguang Temple 玄光寺
• Xuanzang Temple 玄奘寺

Markets lined across the streets selling food and many more.

So cute! This friendly furkid kept smiling at us. How I wish I can bring you back to Singapore!

We rested at this restaurant and had our lunch. We didn’t order much because the street foods were enticing for us to continue eating after that.

A Ride on Gondola Cable Car

The Sun Moon Lake Ropeway is a scenic gondola cable car service that connects Sun Moon Lake with the Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village (九族文化村) theme park.

There is a connecting bridge that bring us to the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway.

Beautiful view of the lakes.

This is the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway. To know the ticket prices, click here.

Sun Moon Lake Station lies to the south east of Sun Moon Lake, the north of Ita Thao community, and the west of Youth Activity Center. The station is 3.74 hectares in area and is under the local government of Sun Moon village, Yuchih township. The Ropeway incorporates water, land, and air and merges the two characteristic tourist attractions in Taiwan.

Somehow it looks scary…

But the views were too beautiful and stunning.

The experience was surreal. We felt we were transported to a fairy land.

Shuishe Village 水社村

So much fun taking the cable car. The fun has not ended. We are going to take a cruise to 水社村Shuishe Village.

Remember to bring along sea-sick pills if you expect to take any boat rides. The waters can be choppy.

Shuishe Village is where the bus station is located, so that’s probably where your trip will begin. It’s got a Starbucks, 7-Elevens, souvenir shops, a visitor center and a place to rent bikes. Minsheng Rd, a small pedestrian cobbled alley is packed with good restaurants. There is the pier where people hang out day and night.

The streets were pretty much the same with cafes and restaurants. We felt it was relatively quiet as well, except when it comes to night time, it would be slightly more bustling with activities.

甕仔雞 Urn Chicken

It would be a shame if you didn’t get to try urn chicken in Taiwan. There are some restaurants out there in Cingjing and Sun Moon Lake selling this. My mum had a craving for this and thanks to our friendly cab driver, he recommended us to this place to try it out. We loved this place very much as it was not a tourist spot and this was where we can experienced the authentic dish of Taiwan.

It was said that the legendary chicken would taste nicer if prepared this way, using specially prepared longan woods to burn.

A look at the menu. According to the owner, this place was mainly patronized by the locals as it’s not a touristy location.

The legendary Urn Chicken (甕仔雞) was served with salt and dip sauce. If we were to return to Taiwan again, this is a definite dish we need to taste again.

滷肉飯 Lu Ruo Fan.

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