Taiwan trip 22 Dec – 4 Jan 2014 (Day 6)

Day 6: Taichung – Chung Tai Chan Monastery – Cing Jing – Zhonghua Night Market

If you have heard Cing Jing before.  Yep yep!  We went to Cing Jing for a day trip!  No regrets!

But how do we get there? We joined a day tour to Cing Jing.  Hassle free trip.

Well, I did spend some time doing research on how to get there independently from Taichung city to Cing Jing (vice-versa).  However, many forums and sites we were unsure if its reliable.  Different people says different thing.   There wasn’t any firm answer.  Besides, there wasn’t any transport back to Taichung in evening.  There was an indicative of the last bus back to Taichung from Cing Jing, but we afraid we will miss the bus or the bus may be full?

As we only want to spend a day trip there, leave in morning and back in the evening.  Taking public transport to Cing Jing was not easy as there is a bus transfer in Puli even when return back to Taichung.   If we miss the bus in Puli to Cing Jing or the bus did not arrive punctually, we definitely waste our time.  We also found that Cing Jing is a kind of like a Resort place.  Most tourists overnight in Cing Jing.  Very rare tourists like us would only spend a day trip there.

The reason we do not overnight is because, there isn’t anything to do at night in Cing Jing. We would rather stay in Taichung city to continue with our good exploration in the night market or at the city streets.

Cing Jing located in the highlands.  Clouds, many hills, scenic and land filled with sheeps are the words to describe the place.

How do we get the tour?  There are not many travel agencies offer day trip when google search.  We joined the tour when we arrived in the City Inn Hotel.  We looked at the brochures available at the hotel lobby.  Definitely there are travel agency brochures that offer day tour.    Apologise again that I forgotten how much for the day tour to Cing Jing.  Never thought I would need to write a blog report about  my trip >.<

The trip was marvelous.  The van came to fetch us from our hotel at 9am. Beside us joined, a group of family members from Hong Kong joined too.  It was about 8 tour members in the coach.  We had a quick breakfast in the hotel.  The interior design of the dining area was pretty modern and interesting.. I enjoyed the cosy of the dining area and the variant of the food…. loved it.

Our tasty buffet breakfast at City Inn Hotel in Taichung

The tour did not bring us direct to Cing Jing.  The tour also brought us to a monastery called Chung Tai Chan Monastery.  The monastery is located in Puli town between Taichung City and Cing Jing. It has got a very large building that looks abit like a castle to me with many large sculptures in the building.

Chung Tai Chan Monastery

After the visit we proceeded to Cing Jing.  The road is uphill and winding.  Along the hill the scenery was so beautiful as if we were in a European country.  The van alighted us at a resort where we had our lunch there which was included in the tour package.  The guide asked us what we would like to have, fish, beef, seafood or chicken.  Well we chose beef and seafood.  Beef in noodle, and seafood in fried rice.  Salad was a side dish that we can eat all we want.

Our lunch meal included in the tour package

Well, the lunch meal was so-so.  Nothing really fantastic though…

Our tour guide brought us to visit the art boxes decor…. Ok.  Pretty interesting. I find that Taiwanese have the talents in art though.  Don’t you think?

Arts in Paper boxes

 

After the shops visit and art boxes, we then proceeded with our visit in Cing Jing.   We were stunned of the beauty scenes in Cing Jing.  There were lots of sheeps and we were above the clouds.  The journey from Taichung to Cing Jing although it was pretty far, around 2-3 hours drive – the visit really worth for the long journey.

There were shows too.. horse performance.  But we did not watch the performance as we were too busy exploring the scenic view and snapping of photos. We skipped the performance.

The sheeps do not afraid of humans. They van be daring when comes for food. Another pic shows the horse performance stage. We skipped the performance.

Beautiful scenery at Cing Jing

Windmill and Sheeps at Cing Jing

 

Along the pathway, we arrived to the stalls where we supposed to meet our tour guide there.  There were stalls selling fruits and snacks…  Once all members arrived, we back to our van and headed back to the Taichung City.  We requested to drop us at Zhonghua Night Market as we heard that it was another night market that recommended  to go.

Zhonghua Night Market

Zhonghua Night Market is a market for youngsters.. somewhat like Ximenting though.

Enjoyed walking at Zhonghua Night Market. By the way, we loved the banana chocolate crepes.. yummm

Guess what?  We enjoyed walking at Zhonghua Night Market than Fengjia Night Market.  Why?  Because it is a youngster night market where we find different than the usual night markets and what we really like most was it is a combination of shopping centres and food stalls.  It is something like Ximenting but there were more stalls than Ximenting though. The weather was cool.  We went into the shopping centres for shoppings and also had a cup of coffee when we felt the cold weather was unbearable and out when we looked for food.   Zhonghua Night Market was actually recommended by a lady where we were seated in the same cable car to Maokong Gondola.  We had a chat and she was from Taichung.  She was the one recommended us to visit Zhonghua Night Market that she said it’s a must visit night market in Taichung.  and Yes! we glad we met her and glad we did!

If you are traveling to Taichung, you can miss Fengjia Night Market but definitely not Zhonghua Night Market. The good news is the night market is not far from Taichung Train Station. Walking distance about 10 minutes walk.

We also glad that we did not plan to stay a night in Cing Jing in our itinerary.  As you know, there wouldnt be anything to do in Cing Jing at night.  We might as well, spend the evening in the Taichung city and have a good walk in Zhonghua Night Market. 😛

It was a tiresome and fulfilled day.

So.. what’s our next day schedule?  Stay tuned….

 

 

 

Dry weather…

The weather is so dry in Singapore. It has been in this weather since early January. First time Singapore experiences this weather.

Feels like autumn season. How I wish. Unfortunately not.  I can feel my skin is drying such as face and hands.

What is happening to the earth?

4-hour (approx 13km) Macritchie Reservoir Park Walk…

Long Long hiking + walking..

Interesting walk but very long… and tiring. It took 4 hours to complete the 13km trails. The trails are from Moderate to Difficult.

It was a jungle, scenery, muddy, longs stairs, rocky walk..fortunately it was fun..

Meeting point was in Bishan MRT..and buses can be boarded at the Bishan Interchange however, ensured everyone taking breakfast as the trails were long.

The walk started at 10am and completed at 2pm…

Where we walked at Macritchie - trails from Moderate to Difficult

Where we walked at Macritchie – trails from Moderate to Difficult

A recommended place to spend for your weekend.  Although at first half there wasn’t any scenery except dense forest… but the 2nd half,.. the reservoir was very entertaining for us to keep walking while enjoying the view of scenery.

West Coast Park

As Clementi Woods has got nothing interesting to check out, we proceeded to West Coast Park.  We took a break at the McDonald’s which is located right at the main entrance of West Coast Park.

McDonald's at West Coast Park

Sundae cones - slurp! Slurp!

Playground...kids favourite..

We came to sandy playground… quite a large area for children.  Even i gotten pretty excited with the playing equipment there… Lots of climbing, swinging and hanging..hahahaha….Its nice being a “monkey” and act like a kiddo for awhile 🙂

Pyramid playground...

 

Fun....

 When walking further to the seaside, there are a lot of boats, yachts and ships are seen very near to the West Coast Park… I have seen  many seaside places in Singapore, till now i have not found any good spots for laying at the beach and swimming……  Although Singapore is an island, but its not a recommended place for water sports.  I think maybe the sea is already using for water transportation……….

Sea at West Coast....

Jetty for yachts...

Side road at the West Coast sea...

Never seen a tree like this before.... Cannon Ball Tree

I wonder what's inside the "fruit"? Or in the past, the "fruit" were used it in the war?

Dog Run Corner

Aha!  Dog Run Corner… play ground for doggies… It is a field, fence surrounded the doggy area… The field is quite large, half of the football field… So it is safe for the dogs to runaround without leashing them.  But the authority do not resposible if anything happen to the visitors….. Anyway, we do not care and walked into the dog run area for snapping some pictures…. 🙂

cute dogs

A dog on a blue ribbon

Dog with frisbee!!!

Doggies park

German Shepherd

Dogs & Owners

Nature Walk – Kent Ridge Park & Clementi Woods

Well, we did go for the nature walk… yes.. The nature walk Part 2.  We continued our trail where we last stopped was at the Alexandra Road (Alexandra Arch).  It was another exciting adventure..   I think I should give you a brief introduction of where we went by referring to the map below:

Seems complicated huh? I just made the map look awesome and made it look “adventurous”..hahaa…

Alright, the first trail was Hort Park. Nothing really interesting about this place… if you like plants, you will enjoy this place because practically, Hort Park is a garden with all types of plants kept there… There are Grasshouses where the houses are to keep sort of plants inside (visitors are not allowed to go in)…so only allowed us to look inside from the outside. Frankly, I don’t enjoy the Hort Park walk… because the plants are not maintained… 20% of the plants are half dead.

Hort Park

Who is this pinky lady?

 

Water Garden infront the Hort Park entrance

 

Hort Park Entrance

When entered the Hort Park, there is a large field.. I wondered what is it for?

 

Nude Lady statue...eeeeeeeeee

Glasshouse.. What's inside?

Direction to Canopy Walk

 

Trail after Hort Park

 

Trail up the stair way..... fuh fuh fuh!

 

Trail up the stair way..... fuh fuh fuh!

 

Up Up and away!!

After the walking and walking… at last we reached the canopy.

Ahhh.... We arrived the canopy walk....

 

Who we met here.....?

 

Canopy

 

Scenery from the canopy

 

Army tank being displayed at the top..

 At the Kent Ridge Park there is a large pond surrounded with trees……..

lets take a break here... facing the pond...

 

Let's picnic here... let's see what I have here....I got Hello Panda biscuit

 

Picnic... water and biscuits..haha

 

Tortoise spotted at the grass and pond....

 

Tortoise spotted

The pond is situated next to Science Park Drive.    We ended the Kent Ridge park walk from here.  We took a bus and MRT transport to Clementi station and continue the walk at Clementi Woods…

Clementi Woods

Just an ordinary park

The Clementi Woods is just an ordinary park that has nothing interesting to check about……….  we then proceeded to WestCoast Park.  Please refer to the next blog.