Last week, everyone in the CIEE Shanghai program went on their week-long trip. The four destinations were Hong Kong, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Taiwan and I was one of the twenty five student who went on the trip to Taiwan. It was honestly an amazing experience and I suggest that if you every have the chance to go, definitely do it! We had six days and five nights to travel around the island and be tourists.

On this trip we first flew into Taipei, then went south to Sun Moon Lake, continued south to Kending, circled back north to Hualien and Toroko National Park, and then finally spend our last night/day in Taipei before we flew back to Shanghai. There was a lot of time spent on the bus but it was still so much fun.

Day 1

The trip started off with a 7pm flight from Shanghai, China to Taipei, Taiwan and it was a very, very bumpy ride. On top of the flight being delayed, there was a ton of turbulence for this hour and a half flight. At one point we were eating dinner and my friends’ tea/ coffee was spilling all over their trays because of how much we were moving. My one friend, who has been on planes almost her whole life, said that she’s never been on such a bumpy ride. She said that a 747 shouldn’t even move that much. Then when we landed we kind of landed on one wheel before balancing ourselves. My other friend, who has also been on planes her whole life, said that it was the worst landing she’s ever experienced. Considering, this has only been my fourth plane ride in my entire life, I was scared to say the least. It was a great start to the trip….

Day 2

We stayed at a hostel for the first night and then departed for Chiang Kai-shek’s Shilin Residence. Here we saw his house and a beautiful rose garden.

After this we went to the Taipei National Palace Museum. It holds hundreds of thousands of historical relics that covers over 5,000 years of Chinese history. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the museum but here’s a picture of the outside of it!

After this we were off to our next stop- 日月潭 (Sun Moon Lake)

Night 2/Day 3

日月潭 (Sun Moon Lake) is a lake situated in the mountains and it’s gorgeous! When we first arrived it was nighttime so since our itinerary didn’t have anything planned for the night before, we got to explore the small town around our hotel. The first thing we found was a small night market.

Then the next day we went on a boat ride to an island on Sun Moon Lake!

After our quick stop at the lake, we were off to our next stop- the Buddha Memorial Hall!

Next stop, Kending!!

Night 3/Day 4

After a long drive, we finally made it to Kending! The land of warm weather and beaches. We ended day three with a trip to the night market and I realized that night markets are my favorite places to be. There’s a ton of delicious food and so many shops to buy almost anything you could want. The next morning for our first day in Kending, we went snorkeling, banana boating (omg so much fun!) and then went to Longtian Grassland and Eluanbi Lighthouse. I was ecstatic. I love the beach and swimming and doing beachy things so much that I couldn’t hide my excitement.

While we were given free time to explore the cliff side at Longtain Grassland, we were in awe of four little goats prancing around the cliff. Obviously this meant tons of pictures.

After that we spent a rainy few hours at Eluanbi Lighthouse and then another night at the night market.

Day 5

On our fifth day of your trip we unfortunately had to leave Kending and continue on our journey. On this day we went to 猫鼻头公园 (Cat Nose Park) and then on a countryside bicycle tour before heading north to Hualian.

I seriously loved the bike tour. We saw a lot of scenery but what made it better was the fact that Lulu and Nai Cha followed us. So bike ride + doggies = a great day.

Next on our itinerary, Hualian!

Day 6

For this part of the trip we walked through part of Taroko National Park with our awesome blue helmets and then went to 九份 (Jiufen). Taroko National Park is one of the eight national parks in Taiwan and is named after the Taroko Gorge, the landmark gorge of the park. The path we walked went through some of the cave tunnels and it also followed one of the small rivers that flowed between the mountains.

On the bus ride there, our tour guide suddenly got off the bus to go to this stand-alone building and when he gets back on he has two giant green bags. He starts pulling out these light blue helmets and there’s so much confusion on the bus since we weren’t actually sure what we would be doing at the national park.

“What are the helmets for?”

“Falling rocks.”

“Oh”

 

After this we were off to 九份 (Jiufen). The name of this town originates from the Qing Dynasty when there were nine families living here. Every time shipments of food or other things arrived in the village, they would always request nine portions (jiufen in Chinese) and then this later became the town’s name. Also, if you’ve ever watched Spirited Away, you should know that the town of Jiufen inspired this movie.

Then we were on our way back to Taipei! When we got to Taipei, we had the chance to go to the Shilin night market. One thing that you should try in Taiwan is the oyster omelet. We had the recommendation from our tour guide and it was delicious.

Day 6

And this was our final day in Taiwan :(. We had free time until early afternoon to do whatever wanted before we had to head to the airport. So a bunch of my friends and I decided that we were going to go to Taipei 101, the fourth tallest building in the world. We wanted to go to the top and see Taipei. My friend, Colleen, has a friend who has been living in Taiwan for a while and she helped us get to Taipei 101 and show us around a bit.

Overall, this trip was so much fun! I wish I could’ve spent more time traveling around Taiwan, but all this means is that one day I should plan a trip to go back and continue where I left off!