Upon arriving in Cingjing and checking into our home stay, our first priority was to visit Cingjing Small Swiss Garden, a garden decorated to look like an European Garden. In fact, Cingjing is known to be “Taiwan’s Little Switzerland” due to having rolling hills, vast green grasslands, and scenic mountain views similar to Switzerland. (Interestingly, we managed to visit the ‘real’ Switzerland a few months later)
Area outside Small Swiss Garden
It was around 5pm when we finally settled in our room. We liked the spacious room and admired the scenery from our balcony for a while.
Outside, the temperature was very low and we quickly took out our thick jackets. Surprisingly, it felt much colder in Cingjing than Alishan area even though Cingjing was at a lower elevation. Maybe it was near evening. I was wearing a normal short sleeve blouse over a Uniqlo long sleeve heat-tech and a thick trenchcoat and still felt cold. I made sure that Dar wore a thick windbreaker jacket, a thick sweater jacket, a long sleeve shirt over a long sleeve heat-tech in four layers and he seemed comfortable. Quickly, we started heading for the Cingjing Small Swiss Garden which was very near our home stay.
The tickets were bought at a cheaper price from the home stay owner. She told us that if we visited Cingjing Small Swiss Garden after 6pm, we could visit again in the morning. We did not ask the reason but I expected that it would be very dark and we would not be able to take nice flower photos. One thing we realised in Taiwan is that, it starts turning dark around 5.30pm and at 6pm, it would be like 8pm in our country.
To reach there, we walked along the path towards the 7-Eleven Mini-mart and took a look at some nice shops selling souvenirs outside the entrance before deciding to go in because we were not hungry yet from the late lunch. We would also need to rush for time to visit Green Green Grassland in the morning and thus would not have time to go to this place again.
The area was beautifully decorated with small windmills and a nice train with seats in a European setting. Everything was visually appealing and there was also a postal shop selling stamps, postcard and providing postal service. This type of shop could be found in several places of interest in Taiwan and is very popular with the Taiwanese themselves as they like to send postcards to their friends.
Small Swiss Garden
Entering the garden, the sky was still bright enough so we could still take some flower pictures. They were nicely arranged with little paths and even had cute little cows…We “mooed mooed” along the path with Dar, laughed and enjoyed playing catching with him for a while.
It quickly turned very dark when it was almost 6pm. It was like someone suddenly threw a blanket over the sun. The surroundings became a magical wonderland as the lights lit up and it felt like one because it was extremely cold even though we were all wrapped in thick jackets. We tried to ignore the chilly air and took some photographs with the nice lighting and hid in the coaches for a while pretending we were Cinderella. Dar loves the pumpkin coach so much and kept getting in and out of it.
After one round, there was not much to explore as it was a rather small garden and we could not take anymore pictures with the colourful flowers (as it was all black…O_O) so we went outside of the garden intending to wait until it was time for the musical fountain at 6.30pm.
Musical Fountain Performance in Cingjing Small Swiss Garden
We came back in again when it was time and it was very cold as we sat with a few other tourists in the foldable chairs provided. We can place them anywhere we like and sat right in front of the fountain. There were ducks swimming in the dark and we pointed them out to Dar. We sat down and waited. All of us staring out into the dark, anticipating the moment because there was no person in charge telling us when it would begin.
Just when I felt myself turning into ice, the music finally came on and our little boy was stunned by his first view of the dancing fountain. We had seen more spectacular views in Sentosa Singapore so we thought this was just ‘so-so’.
He was a bit worried though and asked, “What was that?” Vin replied, “The water is dancing according to the music.” Boy-boy thought. “Why is the water dancing???” Vin and Me (tired voice): “Just enjoy the music…” (too tired to explain the technicalities to this curious boy). A little while later, we saw the ducks lining up in front too and told Dar that the ducks were also watching the show so he should just enjoy it. After squirming through three/four songs, it finally ended and we were left in the dark again. Well, we did not want to just leave without completing the show.
Dar was still alright (He got four layers on him) and wanted to explore the garden again but I was freezing and thus, we quickly rushed out and into the 7-Eleven for hot food and drink.
2: Bee Pollen Shop / Paper Carton Shop
While waiting for the musical fountain, we decided to go upstairs to check out the popular restaurant, “Carton King” (blogged about on several blogs because furniture were made of paper carton) but while walking past it, a lady offered us a taste of the bee pollen crackers that she was selling. It was quite tasty and Dar kept wanting to eat it. (the lady must be anxious that the ‘tasting’ became ‘eating’).
Before Dar ate up all the crackers for tasting, we bought a packet ourselves to show our appreciation (the aroma of the bee pollen was really good and it was not too sweet! regretted not buying more). The packaging was really nice too and would make a good gift. After looking through the menu, we did not like the western dishes and the hefty prices and went down to sit in the train seats to chomp on the crackers while waiting.
The Paper Carton Shop was affiliated with the Paper Carton Restaurant and had interesting things made of paper.
There was also a nice small little house for photo opportunities to remember our trip. This was what I like about Taiwan’s places of interest. They would do up the surrounding areas with nice decorations too and make it easy for one to take a nice picture of the trip.
After the show, we went to the 7-eleven to eat our Bento Dinner. It was a simple and tasty dinner that did not cost much. (Read the ‘food‘ post)
[ STAY . SLEEP ]
Misty Villa 雲濛仙境
Coming back from Cingjing Small Swiss, we had to walk up several flights of stairs to reach our room up on the topmost level.
As we settled into the huge room, we were still excited over the day’s events. It had been a long day for us as we had cycled in the morning, hiked in the afternoon and walked in the gardens at night. It was an amazing feat for our little boy as well. He was still energetic as he had slept in the cab for a while on the way up from Aowanda.
We could go out to the balcony and view the nice scenery unobstructed. The owner told us that we could see the sunrise straight from our room, provided the weather was clear then. The bathroom was located near the entrance. It was a bit too spacious for us and was not partitioned from the toilet area so it got pretty cold when we were showering in it as the the cold air still seeped in.
The hot/cold water dispenser (the brown cabinet next to the clothes hanging area) was situated at the corner of our room so it was convenient filling up our water bottles. Wifi connection in the room was relatively strong and stable.
After the night in Alishan, we knew we need to close the balcony door and not let in any cold air so the room was at a comfortable temperature. Despite the cold air, the beds were very comfy with an extremely thick comforter so we did not feel cold when we slept in our sweat pyjamas.
The place was also near the Small Swiss Garden and the convenience store, Seven Eleven and that was one of the reasons why we chose this minsu to stay in. Climbing up and down stairs could be a chore though since three-person rooms were all situated at the highest floor and we needed to get to the ground floor of the home stay before we could get to any of our destination.
The ground floor consisted of their restaurant with an adorable parrot perching near the counter. The owner offered good directions and advices for our travel plans and was selling tickets to the Small Swiss Garden and Green Green Grassland at cheaper rates. She provided us transport to go to Green Green Grassland in the morning and the driver informed us how to come back by walking.
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Taiwan 30Oct – 6Nov 2012: Day 3 Nantou Itinerary
- Cycling Around Sun Moon Lake
- Aowanda National Forest Recreation
- [Food] Cingjing
- 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
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