Tuesday 29 October, 2024

We had originally planned to ride to Sun Moon Lake and have a rest day at Sun Moon Lake, cycling around the lake and then ride to Beidou on Thursday. Because of my lack of cycling prowess on hills we decided to take a day trip to Sun Moon Lake with a small tour group and then ride to Beidou on Wednesday.  The route to Sun Moon Lake was approximately 79 kms, with the last 17 kms being uphill on a 7 to13% grade. I can’t do hills at the best of times, I certainly would not be able cycle 17kms up hill at the end of a day. The other fortuitous thing that happened because we took the day trip is that we can hole up in our guest house in Beidou when Typhoon Kon-rey hits on Thursday.

We had a lovely day visiting Sun Moon Lake. We were picked up by our tour bus at promptly 8:15. There were only two other people on this tour with an English speaking guide. They were from Australia. Mr Xiao who told us his English name and abbreviation, we could call him HP, like Harry Potter!  As we drove towards Sun Moon Lake he told us our itinerary for the day. There would be a boat cruise, lunch and time to explore a local village, and several short hikes up to temples. He gave us a little history lesson, he also pointed out various things on the drive.

One of the stories about Sun Moon Lake is that it was discovered by an aboriginal fisherman, who went back to his village and encouraged them to move with him to the lake as there was plenty of fish in the water. He was asked what this place was called and he called it Fish Pond lake.  When the Japanese controlled Taiwan they built a Hydro Electric Dam and the lake then became the size it is today. It is a semi-natural lake. It is called Sun Moon as there is a distinct division to the lake. Half of the lake resembles a sun and the other half resembles a crescent moon.

As we drove up to Sun Moon Lake,  HP showed us many Betel Nut plantations. The trees grow quickly and there is a growing market for betel nut. The trees can also be cut down and the material is very fibrous, it can be used for paper products. Betel nuts are similar to chewing tobacco and is quite addictive as it can give you a moderate high.  Although the nut is white, when chewing the leaf or nut it changes to a red colour and you can identify people who are chewing it by their red teeth, gums and lips. Ugh.

We arrived at the Visitors Centre and watched a short video on the area. The Xiangshan Visitor Centre was designed by a Japanese architect – Norihiko Ddan and Associates. The uniquely designed building has wood-patterned exteriors and wings that stretch like human arms embracing the earth, a very cool design.

The ladies toilets were very pretty!

Sun Moon Lake is a 800 hectare lake with a 35 kilometre shoreline. I think the Aussies and ourselves would have like to rent bikes and cycle around the lake, but the temples we visited were interesting.

We then headed out on our first boat trip across the lake to XuanGuang Temple.

A short hike up a hill to the temple that was built for XuanGuang. He had taken a bit of a walk to India to learn about Buddhism and bought translated scripts back with him. His pilgrimage took him 17 years. His relics were reportedly dug-up during the Japanese occupation and were then moved to another temple. I asked what relics were and HP told me they were bones. So basically they dug up his skeleton and moved them to a different temple.

After this temple we headed back across the lake to an aboriginal village for a traditional lunch.  Five of us at the table with a large lazy-susan in the middle and five to six dishes bought out for us to try. Pork, chicken, fried tofu, vegetables, rice and fish. It was very tasty. Afterwards we had time to wander around the Ita Thao shopping district. Ralf and I had some ice-cream and were very surprised that it tasted of tea. You would be amazed at the different ways they use tea here. Eggs boiled in tea, tea ice-cream even a vege broth with tea. Tea is grown in Taiwan. Some of the tea is Oolong, but the majority in this area is Assam as it was deemed to be the most popular tea in the world. The tea bushes were imported from India and grown in this area.

After our wander around we were taken by van to the Ci’en Pagoda. This was a 0.7 km trail with about 570 steps. At the top of the trail was a Pagoda, it was built by Chang Kai Shel for his Mother.  Can you imagine it’s Mothers Day, he traipses his mum up a .7 kms climb with 570 steps and goes “ta da look what I have got you as a present –  a 7 story pagoda perched at the top of a hill” Mum’s reply “Thanks Son but a box of chocolates and a bunch of flowers would have been sufficient.”

Ralf and I were the first to the top and then climbed the 270 steps inside the Pagoda for a great view over Sun Moon Lake. There was also a small house which Chang Kai Shek would stay at on his visits to the Pagoda. Unfortunately, you couldn’t visit inside the house, but you could peer into the windows.

After the Pagoda we headed to Wen Wu Temple. Wen Wu Temple is two temples in one.  The Cultural and Martial temple. It represents Confuscius, Wen Chang Di (God of Scholar) and Guan Gong (Saintly Emperor).

Wen Wu Temple sits on a property of 264,458 square metres it has three halls. There were two temples originally. When the Japanese Electric Company created the hydro electric dam, the water level rose and they had to move the two temples. The Electric Company offered compensation for moving the temples. The “managers” of the two temples decided to combine their resources, with the help of the electric company, and combined their two temples on this site. Most of the money to build this temple reconstruction was raised by local fund raising and there are multiple walls with the names of the benefactors. HP informed us when visiting a temple you enter through the right door and exit through the left door. The middle door is the mouth of the lion and you do not want to enter that way.

This temple is also where you could pray for assistance with medical problems or for matchmaking. I tried to trade Ralf in but nobody would have him. I guess I will have to hang onto him for a while.

Our final little hike was to the Nine Frogs. This little sculpture located in the lake indicates how the depth of the water. HP said that in the summer you can sometimes see seven out of the nine frogs, we could only see the top three.  It was a nice end to the day.

We headed back to Taichung and arrived back at 5:30. After showering, we met up with Bike Snail for dinner.

We met “Snail” in Angkor Wat in 2017 when we were last in South East Asia. He told us he was a slow bike rider and Snail was his nickname, he was from Taiwan.  In the meantime, he has travelled extensively in South America and was in Germany in early October. Ralf noticed on his Instagram posts that he was headed to Taiwan and told him we were in Taiwan.  Snail responded with I’m in Taichung, where are you? OMG we were in Taichung at the same time and managed to get together for dinner. Small world.

It was so nice to meet up with him, we chatted about his trips and he said as soon as he got a new passport, he would be leaving for Vietnam as he was finding Taiwan too expensive.

We have added an extra night in Beidou as there is a Typhoon headed our way.