18th November 2014
Cingjing is a very hilly area, we came here for the farm and view. We booked a room in a very nice looking hotel. Well, most of the hotels in this area were very beautiful, the only difference was the distance to the farm 青青草原 and convenience store. So, it's best to choose a place which provides dinner.
Anyway, the hotel we chose was Energy Vacation Village (the name was kind of weird), the room we booked has a roof window and the balcony overlooking the gorgeous view of hill tops and sky, not some man-made structure. So, after we checked in the hotel, we stayed at the room for hours, sitting on the balcony and just simply enjoyed the view. Well, for our trip in Cingjing, we decided to go easy and as leisurely as possible. Then, dinner time, our packages included dinner, we had steamboat. The portion was so big that I almost couldn't finish it. I was and I am a big eater, that was really a lot. So satisfying.
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| Energy Vacation Village 愛力家民宿 |
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| Energy Vacation Village 愛力家民宿 |
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| view from the balcony |
After dinner, we walked to the Little Swiss Garden, it was not far, but the road was quite dark, not many street lights. From the Energy Vacation Village, we passed by many beautiful hotels. Nice! We bought a ticket and the staff there told us that we could use the remaining ticket stub to re-enter the Little Swiss Garden. It was not a big place, and we finished touring the place very fast, then we waited there for the fountain show, when we were stationary, the coldness was felt. Luckily, I kept a scarf in my bag. Well prepared, Hehe! There're flowers, sculptures, illuminations, etc. The fountain show was ok, not much variances though, when it finished, one of the kids there shouted, "That's it?" That was my feeling too.
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| Little Swiss Garden at night |
After that show, we went to the 7/11 to buy some snacks. There was a mini cardboard corner with a few animals and buildings, cute! Back to the hotel after that, ate snacks and watched dramas before went to bed. Funny though, the bed was equipped with an electric blanket, when I lied on that bed, it was so warming, I had chilly feet issue during winter, it was so comfortable under that electric blanket, however, at the middle of the night, I woke up sweating, it was too hot and it became quite unbearable. So, I off the heating. Then, good night sleep until the next morning.
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| corrugated cardboard animals and buildings |
Me and CY wanted to catch the earliest bus to Cingjing Farm, so we woke up early to a gorgeous sun and had a really sumptuous breakfast. After breakfast, we went back to the room and tidied up the luggage and checked out of the hotel, we left the luggages in the hotel lobby and walked to the bus stop. Actually, the farm entrance was not far from the hotel, it's just a few stops away. The good thing on taking the bus was we saved our energy, the farm entrance was in a higher altitude. So, basically, in the farm, we walked from higher ground to lower ground. Very thoughtful!
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| view from my room in the morning |
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| Cingjing Veterans Farm |
The sun was very bright that day, great for taking photos. However, the grassland was less green than I thought. It looked a bit yellowish. We walked there leisurely from one point to another point. There're many sheep, I didn't dare to touch them, just snapping photos from afar.
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| Cingjing Veterans Farm |
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| sheep |
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| sheep |
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| red leaves, it was autumn! |
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| Cingjing Veterans Farm |
There was no sheep shearing show that day. However, CY was very interested to feed the sheep, so she bought a pack of sheep food and fed them. I think that the sheep was very aggressive, once they smelled the food, they would swarm towards the person with food, I found it scary. But many people were amused with that.
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| Cingjing Veterans Farm |
The Cingjing farm was divided into a few segments, when one got out from one segment to another segment, one needed to stamp the hand with the stamp provided at the entrance/exit area. A kid was having fun with the stamp, and stamped a few times on his hand, kid! The ink was not difficult to wash off though, after a day, it was gone completely.
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| Stamping for multiple entries into the farm |
For the next segment, more grassland with sheep and many Holland style buildings. Saw a couple who took wedding photos there. Well, lucky for them, the weather was good with clear sky.
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| Cingjing Veterans Farm |
Although there was no sheep shearing show that day, there was a horse show. The show was amazing, really captivating. The horse riders were awesome, they stood on the back of the horse, did acrobatic moves on the horse backs, etc. So interesting!
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| horse show |
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| horse show |
I personally found that the miniature horse a highlight of the show. Everybody was laughing so hard when this horse came out to the stage. LOL!
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| cute horse |
After the horse show, we continued the journey and somehow we were closer to our hotel than the entrance of the Cingjing Farm. So, instead of turning back, we walked straight. We passed though some forest trails and there were many plants, didn't see any insects or animals except sheep though. Then, we reached the Bubugaoshen trail 步步高昇步道, the literal meaning of the trail was going upwards one step at a time, but instead of going up, we were going down. Wow, luckily we started from the entrance of Cingjing Farm, if we started from this Bubugaoshen Trail, by the time I managed to climb up all these 487 stairs, I would be too tired to continue the journey. However, some people were actually climbing up the Bubugaoshen stairs, thumbs up to them!
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| Bugugaoshen trail 步步高昇步道 |
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| Bubugaoshen trail 步步高昇步道 |
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| flowers common along the Bubugaoshen Trail |
Our transport to Taichung was arranged at 2pm, since it was still quite early, we decided to re-enter Little Swiss Garden to see the day view. We used the ticket stubs from the day before to re-enter. Well, the day view was ok, comparable to the night view. Since the ticket could be used as a coupon to be used in the Little Swiss Garden, we had a light lunch there, I had flower tea and waffle. Well, I felt so empty after eating that, craving for carbohydrate. LOL!
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| Little Swiss Garden at day |
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| Little Swiss Garden at day |
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| Little Swiss Garden |
After that, we walked around the area before going back to the hotel to collect the luggages and waited for the transport (it was arranged by the hotel). Actually, it was not so convenient to come to Cingjing, the easiest way was to hire a car to take you around, however, it was too expensive for the two of us, if there were four or five of us, the average transport cost would be cheaper. Finally, our transport came, and with other travellers (a newly married couple, two friends from Hong Kong, two friends from US), we went to Taichung.
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| beautiful hotels in Cingjing, even the road was like in a picture |
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