We decided to take a day trip to Sun Moon Lake* (leaving from Taichung), as it is one of Taiwan’s main water attractions. And we were not disappointed!
*Take the Nantou (Taiwan Tourist) bus not far from the Main Taichung Train Station – the information desk will give you directions.
Once we got there it was clear that they had looked after this body of water very carefully. The whole lake was pristine blue clear water with very little of it’s lake edge used. Taiwan has carefully built a cycle track/walk-way along one side of the lake (no hills) for you to explore at your own pace or use the water taxi’s to go to two other locations on the lake.
The first thing we found out is that there is no swimming in the lake. They want to keep the lake free from disturbance as it is a man source of food for locals and the edges of the lake are silty. They also have quite a lot of boat traffic and do not want any one to get hit by a boat. You can however book a spot on one side of the island to swim in its waters – you will need to book this in advance and have transport to get there. The only time swimming is legal is in September with the annual lake swim challenge. However, if you accidentally fall in…
When you arrive there is a small tourist village where you can find accommodation, hire a bike to ride, grab some food or head down to the pier to catch a water taxi.
We headed straight to the boats and set out for the other side of the island where the first stop did not disappoint. Here we would find a bustling little market with some local delights! Of course we had to try – when in Rome!
Then we headed for the gondola’s to get a higher view of the lake. What we didn’t know is that the rain had decided to set in just as we were nearing the highest vantage point.
At the end of the gondola was the Aboriginal (native) Village / Show which we did not have time for but we could see that there were quite a few similarities to South American and even Maori carvings on their buildings. I think you would need a good half a day to go through this tourist attraction.
This all took a bit of time so we didn’t get to stop off at the last water taxi destination and walk up to a monument erected for Chiang Kai-Shek (quite a steep walk). Darn. Another time (perhaps).
A real gem of a day-trip and you will want the whole day to explore. So get on the bus early.
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