NANTOU: CING JING 清境
The trip I've anticipated for so long, passed in an instant. Boohoo, at least I think I've spammed enough pictures to reminisce those good memories.
Since quite a bit of people who will be travelling to Taiwan soon had asked me about my itinerary I thought I'd do a more detailed post about my trip. Note: I've actually engaged a driver for my days in Cing Jing and Taichung, and then a different driver for my day in Jiufen/Shifen. If you're travelling in a smaller group, say 3 people, it'll be very costly to hire a driver. But it will save a lot of time especially in places where the metro is not available. More on the drivers at the end of this post!
The very first destination of my trip was Cing Jing Farm, a mountainous area located in Nantou. When I finally cleared immigration in the Taoyuan Int. Airport it was already 3PM. The journey from the airport to Cing Jing is 3 hours, without any traffic jams. Boy, was I praying hard because I so badly wanted to see the pretty blossoms! Sadly, the sun sets very early in Taiwan, at 6PM, so when we finally reached the mountains it was getting dark and cold. Very cold, actually. We were practically freezing when we stepped out of the car and were happy to have piping hot roast chicken for dinner.
Ah Dong Roast Chicken
No. 52, Ren Ai Township
Nantou County
Taiwan 546
If you travel in a big group and want to have your first freezing night over and done with quickly, just opt for their 10/12 dishes set. The dishes were generally yummy except for the soup which I found absolutely disgusting (lol) and my dad still raves about the roasted chicken till today. Our 10 dishes which consisted of fish, fried shrimps, mushrooms, the famed chicken, and lots of vegetables, costed 2500 NTD (~S$115).
There is this restaurant that serves Yunnan cuisine called Lumama, but I was feeling a little icky about the worms they serve in that restaurant. That restaurant is quite well-known, if you are an adventurous eater or don't mind them creepy-crawlies you can give it a try!
After dinner we headed further up the mountain to get to our resort. Home-stays are very popular in Taiwan and there are many inns manned by families in Cing Jing. For my stay in Cing Jing it was the last accommodation we booked; we've settled all other apartments long ago. It was really hard to settle on one place because honestly, many resorts/inns have fairly good reviews online but the pictures look, erm, not so great. The resort I've booked looks the best: white bed sheets, wooden furnishings, cute loft. And there's a "mountain view" option on room selection. And there are cherry blossom trees right outside the resort!!! Only thing is, I couldn't find much reviews regarding the place, so I lowered my expectations for it.
I think it might just be my favourite B&B from my trip.
The host was super nice and helped to carry our heaviest luggage up to our rooms on level three. The place was very clean, spacious and free from insects (I've read many reviews on other resorts that there are insects in the room, yikes!). The shower area was very roomy and had a shelf at the back to hang your clothes and towels; toilet seat was warmed. Both points which I appreciate greatly because so many bathrooms lack those. Basically, despite it being a resort up in the mountains and possibly operated by a family, it didn't lack in amenities. There are even bathtubs in some of the rooms!
Woke up next morning and was elated to find the cherry flowers blossoming right outside the window, with the misty mountains in the background. The trees didn't look so full but it convinced my that there were definitely other trees in full bloom. Breakfast (bread, chicken nuggets, potato wedges, stir-fried vermicelli, milk tea etc.)was provided by the hotel so we headed down to eat. Then, we realised that the entire car park outside was filled with trees at peak bloom. I know some of the branches look empty but according to the hosts and my driver the bloom this year isn't so great because of the drastic weather changes. I was just so happy anyway since I've missed out on the pretty flowers when I was in Korea. 🌸
No.219-1, Renhe Rd.
Renai Township
Cingjing, Nantou
Taiwan 546
Green Green Grasslands
No. 170 Renhe Road
Ren'ai Township
Nantou County
Taiwan 546
Our driver made arrangements with the resort host for one of them to send us to the Green Green Grasslands after breakfast, and that place is a very popular tourist spot. There were so many tour groups that day! Admission was 200 NTD (~S$9) on Saturday, and it includes the sheep shearing and equestrian shows. You could definitely catch a whiff of sheep dung at the first section of the farm but the farm was generally well-ventilated (duh) and scenic. There was like a mini market near the middle with many stalls selling pretty much the same thing... taiwanese pork sausages, some sort of dried goods, fresh produce. There's also a souvenir store selling the goat milk ice cream bar which I've tried and er, I think I'll stick to cow milk. 🐮
Honestly Green Green Grasslands wasn't planned in my itinerary because it somehow didn't appeal to me that much but I ended up quite liking it. Perhaps because when I was there, the weather was great, not rainy or too cold. The sheep shearing show was also quite entertaining. We've only spent about one day in Cing Jing (half of Friday and Saturday morning) because we were not interested in visiting the other places there like the Swiss Village or chocolate factory or Lavender farm. After Green Green Grasslands we left Cing Jing and headed to Taichung. By the way, it was a super long way out of the farm, not sure if we went to the wrong way but then even the locals went down the same slope...
I think having a driver also helped out a lot in the sense that if you have no idea where to go and what to do, they will know it best. This of course does not apply to all cases because the very first driver I had in Bali sucked, but Taiwanese are very nice people and my driver did not show any signs of being untrustworthy. Signs = bringing you to expensive places where they get commissions and not driving you to where you actually want to go.
How I found my driver? Google! There are a lot of forums online with people sharing about good drivers, or drivers you shouldn't hire. You can then copy the driver's number and google his number and name to search for more reviews about his service. I contacted the first driver I found and he told me he was already engaged for that period of time but he gave me this driver's contact which I googled some more on.
Another thing to note is that, you should find a driver who stays in the city you're travelling to. If you hire a driver who stays in Taipei to drive you around Cing Jing and Taichung, it will probably be very expensive because you have to pay for their accommodation since the drives between each cities are quite long.
I'll share here the contacts of the drivers I've engaged:
Mr Lin
+886 925-580-202
Mr Lee
+886 979-600-538
Mr Lin is the first driver I've contacted, and Mr Lee is the one who brought us around Cing Jing and Taichung. Both of them use Whatsapp, but we conversed in Mandarin and I know Mr Lee doesn't speak English. The prices vary depending on your itinerary. For Mr Lee, he quoted 19000 NTD (~S$876) for four days, from afternoon of the first day to noon of the fourth. It would have been 16000 NTD but we requested for him to fetch us from the airport. He also drove us to the HSR Station on the fourth day. For the second and third day his engagement lasted 10 hours. He was very honest and when we didn't know where to go and wanted to go back to the apartment earlier, he drove us to other places to shop/walk because he said it wouldn't be nice for him to end his work early since he's already paid. He also brought us to the best suncake store ever!!! More on this in my Taichung post but for now I'll leave this here because it's getting so wordy. I hope anyone travelling to Cing Jing will find these information helpful! It's really a very pretty place to visit in spring.
x
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