Sunday, March 02, 2014

Beautiful Taichung Day 2

24/7/2013

Itinerary of today:
Breakfast @Sasha Motel
Suspension bridge 雙十吊橋
Temple of Chen-fu General 陳府將軍廟 
Puli
Lunch @東池飯包
Paper Dome 埔里紙教堂
King Garden 元首館
Cingjing
Yunwu Villag
Dinner @Carton King 紙箱王
Small Swiss Garden
Visitor Centre

It was quite interesting having breakfast in a motel. The staff would arrange it by asking the time for the breakfast. Then, they would simply drop it on the tray outside your room. So we just needa take it inside and have it in our room. Maybe they wanna leave some space for one more room instead of having a canteen.


Packed our baggage and returned the room keys to the staff. We made our way to Cingjing today. As it was a long drive, we planned to have a few stopovers in between.


With more than half an hour drive, we arrived at the suspension bridge 雙十吊橋. It is the longest suspension bridge in Taiwan, which is 360 meters long. We didn't take a walk on that of course since it was far too much for us.






































Nearby could find Temple of Chen-fu General 陳府將軍廟. Gerneral Chen-fu was known to be a kind wealthy man, who opened his personal granary to feed the staving people during the rough time of mid-eighteenth century. This temple was built to worship this man with his kindness.



Arrived at Puli and we were all staving. Saw an eye catching restaurant called 東池飯包. (NT680 for 4 sets) It was quite fascinating to see some old style lunch boxes selling there. From the poster, I guess it should be very close to railway station in the past and people just got their lunch boxes there before they hopped on the train. 



Our next stop, Paper Dome 埔里紙教堂 was just 15 minutes ride away from the restaurant. Bought the tickets (NT100/ person) and it could be used as cash for food or goods in the park. 

Paper Dome is a temporary church building constructed using paper tubes as structural elements. It was designed on a pro-bono basis by Shigeru Ban, internationally known Japanese architect who is renowned for his paper tube structures and buildings. This temporary structure was built after the Great Hanshin Earthquake. The deconstructed structure was shipped in 2006 to Taiwan, being reconstructed and is now one of the top tourist attractions in Puli.













































Finally we spent the tickets on drinks and an Eiffel Tower model.







































It's another 15 minutes drive to get to King Garden 元首館. (free admission) It was quite an interesting place with cartoons of the presidents in Taiwan. Several desserts and snacks were selling there. There was a restaurant famous for its mushroom hotpot on the second floor, but we didn't try that. Instead, we spent our time taking photos on those well decorated areas.










Could't believe they even got nice interior design in the washroom!



After all, we headed up to Cingjing. The way to Cingjing was quite dangerous with lots of winding roads. It looked like we were drifting on the go. For more than an hour drive, we finally managed to get to Yunwu Villag, the place we were gonna stay for 2 nights. 

We booked a loft for 4 (NT5200/ night), could stay together in a room yet having a bit of privacy. There was no air-conditioning in Yunwu Villag, but as it was cool even in summer time, it was already quite comfy simply with the windows opened.











































Took a nap and got ready to explore this pretty town. Quite misty and a bit dangerous to drive though.






































Initially we planned to join the bus tour visiting Hehuan Mountain for sunrise the next morning by taking this travel bus (NT400), but as the itinerary was too harsh for us (tour started at 4:30a.m., meaning that we gotta wake up even earlier!), so we decided not to go for that.

It was time for dinner and our target was Carton King 紙箱王, which is located at the visitors centre. We ordered 3 sets of dinner and some other dishes and they only cost NT1280 in total. 










































I'm amazed by how everything could be done with cardboard.









































And there were some more in the outdoor area.




We could get a free ticket to Small Swiss Garden on every NT400 purchase. We took a quick tour in Small Swiss Garden coz it was too misty and dark that we could see nothing. The light and water show was not special at all. We completely lost our interest on that and left.


That's a bit outside the Small Swiss Garden. Actually more interesting and attractive shops and stuff compared with those inside the garden.







































And we ended our day with a cute cat that we met!





























Total expeses for 4 =NT7560
Breakfast @Sasha Motel                    /
Suspension bridge 雙十吊橋                 / 
Temple of Chen-fu General 陳府將軍廟  /
Puli                                                /
Lunch @東池飯包                               NT680 for 4
Paper Dome 埔里紙教堂                      NT100 X4 =NT400
King Garden 元首館                           /
Cingjing                                         /
Yunwu Villag                                  NT5200
Dinner @Carton King 紙箱王              NT1280 for 4
Small Swiss Garden                         /
Visitor Centre                                 /

6 comments:

  1. 打個招呼先~啲地方嘅得意喎,宜家成日有平價飛台中,睇怕遲早都會走一轉 hehehe...

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    1. Haha! Yes! It's like less than HKD1000 for a return ticket in low season! That's pretty crazy! Taichung is a fantastic place. You must go and take a look if you have time : D

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  2. That looked like such a fun day. Thanks for sharing. If you are thinking of making it to Nepal you will enjoy my blog at http://FrugalTravelsNepal.blogspot.com Please comment to let me know how you enjoy it. If you are a couch surfer look me up. You will love Nepal!

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  3. Nepal is one of the places that I wanna visit in the near future! Thanks for sharing!

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  4. 台中的食物和景色都不錯呢!

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    1. 平平地短trip值得考慮ar! very relaxing!

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