Taiwanese Highlands

Cingjing Farm is a cluster of farms located at 1,750m sea level in Nantou County. The view from the mountains were absolutely breathtaking. We were lucky enough to have a window of approximately 5 hours in the morning for the views and the lamb farm show.

The trip from Puli took nearly an hour, as we held our breaths as the bus captain cautiously maneuvered along the mountain side roads to bring us to the farm.

The air was fresh and cool, the farm was filled with tourists, the mountain ranges were visible as the morning mist cleared.

We finally had the opportunity to wear our hand knit scarf and vest, painstakingly knitted by none other than my Mum :) It felt absolutely heartwarming, having them on us as we walked along the hilly terrain of the farms.

Evening by the Lakeside

Sun  Moon Lake is the the biggest body of water in Taiwan. It is shaped like the moon on one side and the sun on the other, hence the name which embodies the two celestial bodies.

The epicenter of the 921 Taiwan earthquake was located a mere 9kilometers away, and this changed some surrounding landscape around the lake. Tour guides on the ferry rides told us of the names of the landscape before and after the earthquake.

There are many stones such as this around the lake for photo taking opportunities. As it was near nightfall, there were not many tourists around this particular one and we had quite some fun with our tripod and camera. If not for the chill and impeding darkness, we would have continued on with more funny poses.

The area where we stayed in, Shui-se Pier was a highly commercial area, filled with tourists from local and abroad, eateries and souvenir shops. In order to escape the crowd, one needs to embark on any one of the numerous walking trails around the lake to feel the serenity of the lake and its surroundings.

Taipei Memoirs

Taipei 101, once the tallest building in the world, stood upright next to Taipei City Hall. Look closely and you can see various traditional Chinese designs incorporated to the exterior of the building. We chose to admire it from afar, a plaza in front of the City Hall proved a good spot, and out came the camera.

Get any closer to the skyscraper and you will find it hard to compose its whole grandeur design into a single photo.

It is quite an iconic building in the sense that by showing only parts of building, it can be easily identified.

We then took a bus ride around the city center and visited the National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and subsequently the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall located around the Liberty Square.

Both memorials featured changing of the guards every hour and inside each, a giant statue of the revered national leaders. The political arena of Taiwan is an interesting one and we spent hours looking up for information about the formation of the republic and the lives of these two leaders.

The memorial hall forms one side of the Liberty Square, with the National Theater and Concert Hall forming the other two.

 

National Theater located in Liberty Square follows the traditional Chinese architecture similar to the ones in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. An untrained eye could easily mistaken the two. We didn't linger long in the square as we were in a hurry to the bridal studio for selection of our photos for the final printout. Yays..