Before reaching Aowanda, we passed by a tourist spot, a stone listing it as ‘The centre point of Taiwan‘. We didn’t get down to take a photo with it however.
The Center Point of Taiwan
Soon, we reached the foothill and our driver drove us up the winding roads to the entrance. It took about 1 hour from the bottom until we reached the gates at the Aowanda Forest Recreation Area.
Winding Up the Road At Aowanda
We had to pay an insurance fee for the driver and a small entrance fee for ourselves. While driving up, our driver said that the roads were only recently opened after the heavy monsoon caused landslides and rendered the area too dangerous for visitors. We asked him when it was closed to public and realised that it was the date we originally planned to go! It was really a coincidence as we would not be able to visit this place if we arrived two weeks prior.
Aowanda Tourist Information Centre
After arriving at Aowanda National Recreation Park after a long drive, we were all eager to just get off the cab to exercise our legs. We decided to travel light by putting all the unnecessary stuff in the cab, since we knew we would have a lot of walking and trekking ahead.
We then headed to the Tourists Centre for its restrooms, refilled our water bottles, checked out the informative exhibits on Aowanda Forest and did the rubber stamping before proceeding to our journey ahead. Cat had read up on the place before our trip and allocated 2.5 hours for our stay here.
Aowanda Forest Sights
1. AUTUMN MAPLE TREES
We first headed towards the Cabin Zone and passed by the Red Resort Restaurant. We saw several maple trees with their leaves turning yellow and red due to the autumn season and took out a zip-lock bag, where Dar would pick up some leaves and put them into the bag as memento.
He enjoyed the activity at first and placed a number of leaves in the bag. However, he decided to invert the bag and pour out all the leaves thereafter, thinking that the leaves did not meet up to his expectations. -_-| According to him, “The leaves are too curved.” So in the end, we only had one maple leaf in the bag. We did not think much of that however since we expected to be coming across more maple trees later anyway. (unfortunately, we did not encounter anymore nice red ones after this…)
2. CABIN ZONE 小木屋
When we were at the Cabin Zone, we saw a number of wooden huts lined up nicely beside the pathway. From what we understand, these are ‘chalets’ which are rented out to visitors who were at Aowanda for a longer stay.
3. AOWANDA FOREST PATHWAYS
INSTAGRAMMABLE PHOTO SPOTS
4. LAKE WITH LOG
As we walked on, we came across a lake with a log placed in front of it, which we made good use of by sitting down on it. We also took some photos before moving on. (The weather was still cool then, so we were wearing two layers)
5. CHERRY BLOSSOM GARDEN 櫻花園
We soon noticed a beautiful tree with orange leaves and headed towards it to get a closer look. There was a rotating sprinkler which was watering the plants so we were careful not to get splashed.
After taking photos with the tree, we noticed that its leaves were unlike that of the maple trees, and realised it could be a cherry tree instead (we didn’t know we were in the Cherry Tree Garden that time). We had thought that only maple trees were the only type of tree planted in Aowanda that would change the colours of their leaves during autumn.
6. STRONGMAN SLOPE 好汉坡步道
We then reached the beginning of a long flight of steps downhill, and were a little amused by the name given to this pathway. We were thankful that we were going down this way instead of climbing up, as it would surely be a challenge for us since we did not think we can call ourselves Strongman, Strongwoman and Strongboy.
START OF A STEEP WALK DOWN – Are We Going the Right Way?
Since our ultimate destination was the Aowanda Suspension Bridge (奥万大吊桥), I started asking myself why were we going downhill instead of uphill since the suspension bridge should be built high up in the mountain. I soon discovered the reason myself, through the hard way. Blame it that we were too enthusiastic to read the map properly. Read on to find out…
>> Read Next Post : Aowanda National Forest Recreation(Part 2)
>> Read Previous Post: Cycling Around Sun Moon Lake
Taiwan 30Oct to 6Nov 2012: Day 3 Nantou Itinerary
- Cycling Around Sun Moon Lake
- Aowanda National Forest Recreation
- Cingjing Small Swiss Garden
- Homestay B&B – Misty Villa
Read More on Taiwan Itinerary 2012: 8-day Taiwan Itinerary (Chiayi, Taipei, Hualien, Nantou)
Read our Summary Itinerary Post for Taiwan Nov 2018 Yilan | Taipei : 5-Day Taiwan Trip Itinerary: Nature and Fun
Travel.Snap.Stories 
Leave a comment