Archive for the 'Central Taiwan' Category

The Jhongliao Loop – Extended Edition

Published February 3, 2012 Central Taiwan , Cycling , Nantou County Leave a Comment
Tags: ,

Cycling in Nantou

I was off to an early start on Sunday morning. I met up with my riding partner at a nearby 7-11 for an adventure into Jhongliao Township [中寮鄉]. Jhongliao is located east of Nantou City [南投市] and north of Jiji Township [集集鎮]. Most of my rides in Jhongliao begin with a steep but manageable climb to Pingding [坪頂]. After wrapping up the climb, we stopped at the Pingding Sacred Tree; A massive camphor tree believed to be over 1,600 years old. It’s tranquil and quiet, making it my favorite spot to stop when traveling in this direction. The only sounds were those of our conversation with a ham radio enthusiast we met on the climb up and that of a nearby resident’s dustpan hitting an object. My riding partner had plans for the rest of the day, so he turned back down the hill from which we came while I traveled in the other direction towards northern Jhongliao.

Continue reading ‘The Jhongliao Loop – Extended Edition’

2012 Nantou Sand Sculpture Festival

Published January 25, 2012 Central Taiwan , Nantou County 1 Comment
Tags: ,

Nantou Sand Sculpture Festival
This year’s Nantou Sand Sculpture Festival [南投市貓羅溪畔沙雕藝術節] runs through February 12. We went yesterday afternoon when the sun came out for the first time during the Lunar New Year holiday. This year’s theme is Taiwanese Cinema. There are sculptures inspired by recent Taiwanese movies such as Seediq Bale [賽德克‧巴萊], Cape No. 7 [海角七號], Monga [艋舺], Island Etude [練習曲], and others.

More Information:

Location on Google Maps

2012 Nantou Sand Sculpture Festival Website [Chinese]

Posts from the 2009, 2010, and 2011 festivals.

Plum Blossoms of Liujia

Published January 24, 2012 Central Taiwan , Nantou County Leave a Comment
Tags: ,

Stop at Liujia, Nantou County

Too Early

A stone’s throw from Fengguidou [風櫃斗] is Xinyi Township’s Liujia Plum Farm [柳家梅園].  Liujia is home to a huge plum farm which covers a small hillside. You may recognize this area from China Airline’s 2008 Calendar featuring supermodel Lin Chi-ling.
Continue reading ‘Plum Blossoms of Liujia’

The Plum Blossoms of Fengguidou

Published January 23, 2012 Central Taiwan , Nantou County Leave a Comment
Tags:

Fengguidou 1/1/2012

Plum King

Tucked away in the mountains of Xinyi Township, Fengguidou [風櫃斗] is an amazing area for seeing Plum Blossoms [梅花] every winter. I visited Fengguidou on New Year’s  Day this year and some of the plum trees were just starting to bloom. Here’s a small collection of photographs from the trip.
Continue reading ‘The Plum Blossoms of Fengguidou’

Very Hungry Caterpillars

Published December 24, 2011 Central Taiwan , Nantou County , Photography 2 Comments
Tags: , ,

Euploea mulciber

Euploea mulciber [端紫斑蝶]

Despite passing Puli’s Muh Sheng Museum of Entomology more than a dozen times I’ve never had the opportunity to step in until recently. If you’re into insects than you ‘ll likely thoroughly enjoy the museum. Outside the museum is a butterfly greenhouse while inside hosts a few display cases of various insects from Taiwan and around the world [including a walking stick about as long as my forearm]. The museum’s second floor houses display cases filled with several thousands of preserved insects. The most notable of these is an extremely rare hermaphrodite butterfly [one-half of its body is colorful while the other-half is dark].

Continue reading ‘Very Hungry Caterpillars’

Sitou’s Monster Village

Published October 22, 2011 Central Taiwan , Nantou County 3 Comments
Tags: , , ,

Monster
Beware of Monsters

Sitou’s Monster Village [妖怪村] is a small Japanese-inspired tourist curiosity located next to the Mingshan Hotel.  We visited the Monster Village along with the nearby Sitou Forest Recreation Area [溪頭森林遊樂區].  The village is filled with charming wooden buildings and lanterns and is populated by a handful of cartoonish monsters who disappointingly don’t seem too interested in devouring tourists.

Continue reading ‘Sitou’s Monster Village’

Jhongsing Village Lotus Ponds

Published June 25, 2011 Central Taiwan , Jhongsing Village , Nantou County , Photography 4 Comments
Tags: , , ,

Lotus
Last month, I had some free time to kill so I headed to the Jhongsing Village Lotus Ponds.  This was my first visit to the ponds with my  Micro-NIKKOR 105 f/4, which I acquired last year.  The Lotus Flowers [荷花] in Jhongsing Village always attract quite a crowd when they are blooming and the day I went was no exception.  Given the bad light from my late start, the heat, and the crowds – I decided to make this a brief trip.
Continue reading ‘Jhongsing Village Lotus Ponds’

Sun Moon Lake Ropeway

Published April 3, 2011 Central Taiwan , Nantou County , Yuchih Township 9 Comments
Tags:

Sun Moon Lake

Sun Moon Lake [日月潭]

During my parents’ visit to Taiwan I took them to the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village for this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival [九族櫻花祭].  While there, we rode the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway [日月潭纜車] to Sun Moon Lake and back.  Tickets for the ropeway were included with admission to the Aboriginal Culture Village.  The ropeway is about 1.8 kilometers in length and gives visitors a bird’s-eye perspective of the area’s lovely scenery.  I’ve heard of people waiting several hours on weekends to ride the ropeway; luckily, we visited on a weekday and waited roughly a half-an-hour.

Continue reading ‘Sun Moon Lake Ropeway’

2011 Nantou Sand Sculpture Festival

Published March 10, 2011 Central Taiwan , Nantou County Leave a Comment
Tags: ,

Nantou City Sand Sculpture Festival 2011
The now annual Nantou City Sand Sculpture Festival was held last month at its usual location along the Maoluo River.  Cathy and I took my parents there during their visit to Taiwan during the Lunar New Year holiday.  I am happy to report that this year was free of any incidents of vandalism.  Here is a small collection of photographs from the event.

Continue reading ’2011 Nantou Sand Sculpture Festival’

I’ve got Yellow Fever

Published March 1, 2011 Central Taiwan , Cycling , Nantou County 8 Comments
Tags: , ,

G2C R7.1 SRAM Apex
The G2C R7.1 with SRAM Apex

A couple weekends ago, I met up with Taichung City slickers Michael T. and Drew K. to go shopping for a new bike.  After checking out T-Mosaic and a Specialized shop we were off to 185 Warehouse in Dakeng.  There I test rode one of their house brand [Generation 2 Cycles (G2C)] bicycles – an aluminum alloy frame with carbon chainstays, fork, and seatpost outfitted with SRAM Apex.  I talked to the product manager James Murray, who is one of only six people I’ve ever met in Taiwan that’s taller than me and he told me they had a large frame available, in the color of my choice, and could outfit it with SRAM Apex for under $45,000 NT.

Continue reading ‘I’ve got Yellow Fever’

Next Page »

Categories

Feel Lucky?

View a Random Post

Lotus

Brown Hawk-Owl

Cyrestis thyodamas formosana

Butterflies of Taiwan

Papilionidae
Nymphalidae
Hesperiidae
Pieridae
Lycaenidae

Want To Be Listed?

Contact Me

Low Tide in Kending

Archives

Subscribe/Other

Subscribe via e-mail or a feed reader

Featured in Alltop

Travel Blogs - Blog Catalog Blog Directory

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 48 other followers