The Beauty and Culture in Taitung

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Wonderful Air, Land and Sea: All You Can Do in Taitung

        In response to the collaboration of foreign travel activities of Tourism Bureau, Taitung County Government has actively promoted the local tourism to the people of Southeast Asia. In order to cultivate the Singapore market, Taitung County Government has participated in “NATAS Travel Fair 2019” hosted by “National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS)” for four consecutive years. This year, taking local green fields and oceanic sceneries of Green Island as the theme, the Government will host various activities to promote balloons and undersea mailboxes in Suntec City Mall in Singapore from May 10th to 12th. Various gifts are provided to the people!

Balloons: Amaze Your Eyes and Ears

It’s been 9 years since the first International Balloon Festival. Travelers will come to this place to enjoy the beautiful scenes between Central Mountain Range and Hai’an Mountain Range in Eastern Taiwan from Jun. 29th to Aug. 12th. Eight sessions of concerts with spotlight sculpture and the most beautiful stars in Taitung will make travelers see the purest sky.

Additionally, Taitung has a lot of things ranked 1st in Taiwan: the first dawn, the longest coastline, the best air quality, and the most diverse groups as well as the most road running activities. The top 10 sceneries in Taitung to the people of Singapore are mainly natural landscapes and indigenous tribes. As such, the Government has brought Taitung’s leisurely rural landscape and the rich undersea world of Green Island, hoping to attract people in Singapore and Malaysia to visit Taitung for a journey of healing and leisure.

The abundant oceanic resources and beautiful natural landscapes were even recognized among the Top 10 Travel Destinations in 2016 by the renowned Lonely Planet, and Taitung was also recognized as the Top 10 “Rising-Star Travel Destination” by the well-known travel website “Booking.com” in 2018. Such have been earned due to the Government’s efforts of promoting various international competitions as well as the upcoming 9th Balloon Festival to connect with the world. It is a place worth exploring to all the visitors!

 

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10 days driving itinerary for Taiwan

https://www.iws.com.tw/eng/Price.html

Planning for a 10 days driving holiday in Taiwan?

First, take a look at the air ticket. Economy fare from China Airlines should be around $500 + or -.  Look out for the cheap fare and book when it meet your travel timeline.

Then, take a look at the weather forecast.  One would realised that North of Taipei is usually wet aka a lot of rains.  For a safe driving trip, plan to drive towards southern part of the island instead of driving north.

Suggested 10 days itinerary:
Day 1 - China Airlines fly at 2am and touch down at about 6am. After exiting custom, turn right and look for counter 6 and pick up your SIM card that you booked with klook.  The SIM is for 10 days and the staff will help you to swap your Iphone SIM and the activation is immediate.  Call your car booking company with the new SIM and they will pick you up at door 18 within 15 mins.

After you had settled the car rental paper work, ask them how to avoid getting a traffic ticket and also specific car returning address.  Note that due to Covid 19, a lot of business (especially retail) shifted their shops (to a cheaper and more convenient location).  Check and double confirm with google's help too.

Tonight, you'll be staying in TaiChung RedDot hotel and so set your destination in google map (of your Iphone). Note that you could plug in your Iphone into your car dashboard too.

Since, the time is still early and you could only check in at 3pm (usual Taiwan hotel check in time), just use tripadvisor to look out for some intermediate stop that you wanted to visit and drop pin there.

Remember to also include a 2 hour short break along the way too.

At TaiChung, you must be very excited and just walk to a nearby Pasar Malam and enjoy your first taste of famous Taiwanese food. 
https://www.nickkembel.com/taichung-night-markets/

Day 2 - Drive to Sun Moon Lake (stay 2 nights at Einhan hotel)
A great drive from motorway ended with a narrow mountainous road in Ita Thao Town.  Basically, there are two large town in Sun Moon Lake and Ita Thao Town would be the one you consider staying.  It has a nice night market which again wet everyone appetite for taiwanese food. 

The narrow street to Einhan was filled with tourists.  They are queuing diligently to self pack and pay for their food.  Just carefully park your car on the side and walk inside Einhan to asked for the direction to their free hotel carpark.  There are 2 carpark entrance and if you find that the entrance is a bit small for your car, then drive forward 15m and look out for the carpark entrance.  QED.

Again, before you drive all the way to Sun Moon Lake, you should plan for a few intermediate stop (at least once every 2 hours of driving).  One suggestion would be a stop at Xuan Zang Temple. The free carpark is easy accessible. Walk down the stairs and visit the pier too. 

Day 3 - at Sun Moon Lake
You would walk around the Sun Moon Lake walking track. You could cycle too. However, the something you must do is to take the famous boat ride.  Try it especially there is a promo price of NT50.


Day 4 - Drive to AliShan (stay at WanKou)
Today, the mountainous drive continuously for one whole day.  Drive slowly, very slowly.  Before you drive, play with your car and make sure you know how to:
a) Switch on your head light, fog light (front and back)
b) Switch on your wiper (back if you have one)
c) Switch your aircon to de-fog your windscreen
d) Switch from auto to manual drive.  

The manual drive mode is especially important as it will act as engine break when you go down hills.

Need not to says, the road is narrow and full of hair pin turns, going into tunnels and a fog which has visibility of 5m, etc - but it's do-able.  There are not many car travelling this road (18-21 between SunMoonLake and AliShan) and do tune into traffic radio as per road sign/instructions because the road could be blocked due to weather or road conditions.

Your hostess at WanKou will brief you on your Alishan tracking and off you go.  She will also recommend a restaurant for dinner. Pay attention and reserve a seat when you had finished your tracking.  Place your Taiwan SIM phone number as the restaurant will call you when your seat is available (30 mins wait). While waiting, go to the 7-11 and look for any interesting Taiwanese soft drink and enjoy.

When your turn is up, asked for the 4 dish + 1 soup menu.  It cost total NT500 (with 2 bowl of rice at NT10 each) and it's super value for $$$.  You'll eat everything up and it's super satisfying.

BTW, if you're really the walking type, walk up to Zhu Shan (the place usually people wake up at 5am to see sun rise).  Instead of looking for sun rise, just walk up to Zhu Shan today and enjoy the various twist and turn viewpoint along the way.  You'll enjoy the walk, just make sure you have a comfortable and season walking shoes, dress adequately and bring 1L of water.

Day 5 - Drive to FenChiHu (stay ZhongShan Hostel)

https://tripheist.com/hotel/taiwan/zhuqi.../5650739/0

After a busy morning, you would take a short but mountainous drive to FenChiHu.  ZhongShan Hostel is along the main road and you could not miss it.  If you're lucky, the free parking lot which is on premise would be there for you. Stop at the hostel entrance and the owner will direct you to park properly. Very nice and clean places which we had been staying for the past few nights and you would wonder what on earth you had done to deserved such a wonderful trip.

More walks and lots of tracking and you decided to go back to the Old streets for dinner. The one you would eat should be Railway lunchbox.

https://bpdgtravels.blogspot.com/2019/05...nping.html

Enough says, ready for your 10 days taiwan driving trip?

Gratitude.

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Giving a chance, do plan for a holiday in Taiwan

By chance, I managed to catch the Strawberry daifuku in Taipei old city area.  I walked past and saw a Q of about 15 people and so decided to join in. It was a Q of 2 hours as most people in front of the Q was buying like 100 Daifu. 

I brought only 3 and I had no regret in Q so long.  The Strawberry is sweet (or is it because of the red bean?)


https://taiwan-scene.com/historic-landma...in-taipei/

Gratitude.