We took my parents and brother on a day trip to Sun Moon Lake a few days before the wedding.  We couldn’t have asked for a nicer day: it was sunny, reasonably warm, and crowd-free thanks to it being a non-holiday weekday.

Sun Moon Lake is located in Yuchih Township, in Nantou County, close to the geographic center of Taiwan.
After a brief walk along part of the shoreline, we got back in the car and stopped at Wenwu Temple [文武廟].  The last time I visited this temple there were over a dozen tour buses parked in front, today was comparably quiet as there were only three.

The temple has great views and a lot of color, making it a wonderful place to photograph.

The giant lions in front were a donation from the late chairman of the Shin Kong Insurance Company:

We ate lunch at The Richforest Resort [儷山林哲園名流會館] which has a lovely view of the lake [I’ve heard mixed reviews regarding the rooms].  I was apprehensive whether or not my parents would like the Pineapple Shrimp [鳳梨蝦球] on account of it being smothered in Japanese mayonnaise, but it turns out they loved it so much they wanted to know where to pick up such mayonnaise in the States:

My dad liked this lightly fried fish dish best, I forgot what it was called, but it was delicious:

if I recall correctly I ate about half the Mountain Boar with the rest split between six other people:

The resort had a lovely dock with outdoor seating.  From this picture you can see the gondola being built in the background which will connect Sun Moon Lake with the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village [九族文化村].  I can only hope this cable car system isn’t plagued with problems like the Maokong Gondola has since its first day of operation.

Our next stop was Syuentzang Temple [(玄奘寺], which was built in the Tang Dynasty style.


The lake’s Lalu Island [拉魯島] is sacred ground of the Thao aboriginal tribe.

That’s all for this post!  I’m actually going back to Sun Moon Lake tomorrow morning for an end of the year company trip.  I don’t think I’ll be taking too many photos with such a tight schedule of mandatory team-building activities.