Taiwan Day 4 – Taichung City Tour

Taichung Itinerary: Xinfeng Farm, Ah Liang’s Mushroom Garden, Lavender Cottage, Princess Annie’s Garden, Summit Resort, Carton King Creativity Park, Fengjia Night Market

➡ Day 1: Singapore > Taipei | Xinbeitou Hot Spring, Shilin Night Market
➡ Day 2: Taipei > Kaohsiung | E-DA World
➡ Day 3: Kaohsiung | E-DA Theme Park > Taichung | Fengjia Market
➡ Day 4: Taichung City Tour

Day 4 of our trip was pretty stress-free because we’ve engaged a driver to bring us around. He’ll be with us for three days to tour Taichung, Cingjing and back to Taipei on the third day. We paid him NT$12,000 (~SG$515), and it’s going to save us a lot of travelling time and hassles from moving our luggage around.

Our driver, Mr. Yang (his contact was listed on this post), picked us from our hotel at 9am sharp. He’s a very experienced and skillful driver (with more than 15 years of experience). He even prepared bottles of mineral water in his car for us, we were so touched by his kind gesture.

Most of our Taichung itinerary was suggested by him, except for Xinfeng Farm which I’ve specially requested. Reason – Edison wanted to try-out strawberry picking but unfortunately, it was summer – strawberries were no longer available. So, we planned to bring him to another fruit farm for some fruit picking opportunities. I chanced upon Xinfeng Farm from this website, so we thought of bringing him there.

Much to my surprise, Mr. Yang told us that he has never been there and he was kinda surprised that we asked to go there. He had to rely on his GPS to bring us there, and it was about an hour’s drive from La Vida Hotel that we stayed.

Xinfeng Farm  新峰農場

Xinfeng Farm provides a wonderful setting for a genuine fruit picking experience that kids and adults will enjoy. For a city boy like Edison, he truly enjoyed himself here as he experienced grape picking for the first time.

Jufeng grapes (巨峰葡萄) grow here from June to August and from October to December. They have dark purple, thick and chewy skin, with a sweet and sour taste. We didn’t like eating the grapes because they’re sour, but we still bought back those that Edison picked.

Admission to the farm is free. Visitors can purchase the fruits that they picked at a reasonable price. Tools for fruit picking will be provided. Apart from grapes, the farm also have peaches, tangerines, loquats and even oranges at different months.

Ah Liang’s Mushroom Garden  阿亮香菇園 | Website: http://www.aliang.com.tw/

This mushroom garden is located near Xinfeng Farm. To be honest, this place is quite boring so we left in less than half an hour. Perhaps a mushroom farm doesn’t look as interesting as a fruit farm because it’s dark and musty.

Over here, you can see how mushrooms are grown. There are a variety of mushrooms for both medicinal and culinary purposes, such as shitake, enokitake, oyster mushrooms, meaty king oyster mushrooms, and even lingzhi. Besides mushrooms, you can also purchase a variety of mushroom products here.

“Mama, can we go now? This place is so boring!”

Admission is free.

Lavender Cottage  薰衣草森林 | Website: http://www.lavendercottage.com.tw/

Among all the places that we’ve visited in Taichung, Lavender Cottage is the most beautiful, interesting and enjoyable. So, if you’re visiting Taichung, this is the place that I’d recommend.

The best way to introduce this place to you is to tell you the story of two young women. Many years ago, two coffee-loving and herb-loving young women enjoyed travelling around the world as they drew and record their feelings into music. Tired from working in the big cities of Taipei and Kaohsiung, they decided to quit their jobs and started their new life as farmers.

They bought a hill in the middle of nowhere that even mobile phone signal was hard to pick-up. And there, they experiment with growing lavender, and built their dream of a hillside coffee shop surrounded by lavender. After years of hard work, their dream was realized and Lavender Cottage was born.

Interesting and inspiring, isn’t it?

Lavender Cottage is one of the cosiest, most beautiful and relaxing little gardens you can find in Taichung. As we stepped into the garden, we were amazed by the beauty of the purple lavender and its delightful scent. The grass is so green and the cottage is very tastefully-decorated too.

You can find lavender products such as soap, bath powder, fragrance and lip gloss, as well as souvenirs such as postcards here. You need to pay admission fee, but it’s redeemable for food and drinks.

Carton King Creativity Park  紙箱王創意主題園區 | Website: www.cartonking.com.tw

Carton King is very popular in Taiwan, and in fact, I’ve heard of it many times before I had a chance to visit this place. Carton King Creativity Park is a pretty little garden with adjoining restaurant, honey store and souvenir store. As its name suggests, cartons are the main “ingredient” here. It’s totally unbelievable that almost all the things here are made of cardboard – except the people and food, of course! In their restaurant, even the tables and chairs are made of cardboard.

Creativity is simply unlimited here. There are more than a thousand products made of cardboard, from furniture to decorations, toys, animals, lighting, photo frame, bag and puzzles. There is really no places like this elsewhere in the world.

Admission fee applies.

Princess Annie’s Garden  安妮公主花園

This garden is somewhat similar to Lavender Cottage but on a much smaller scale. The garden restaurant provides ample seating varying from indoor to wooden pavilion and outdoor, with a wide variety of western cuisine, dessert and drinks. The garden has lovely decorations fit for a princess, but other than that, there is really nothing else to see here.

Admission fee applies.

Summit Resort  新社莊園 | Website: http://www.summit-resort.com/

Before we completely melted under the summer heat, we visited Summit Resort as our last destination before we head back to our hotel.

This European style castle is not left by European, but it was built by locals many years ago. It’s a beautiful and scenic place to take a stroll and pictures. The atmosphere is nice and relaxing. Best to go during winter, but certainly not summer as it’s very warm and sunny.

Admission fee applies.

We returned to our hotel at around 6:30pm, took a shower and head to Fengjia Night Market for dinner. All in all, it was an enjoyable day in Taichung. Lavender Cottage and Carton King are an eye-opener that shows us the power of ideas and creativity.

 

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