In the summer of 2016, my grandparents, one of my uncles and I took a trip to Sun Moon Lake near Yuchi Township, in Taiwan.
During our stay we rode the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway over the lake, visited the National Museum of Natural Science, and on our return trip, stopped at the Qingshui Service Area.
One of the main attractions the lake has to offer is the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway, a gondola lift that stretches over the water. The ride offers an aerial view of Sun Moon Lake and surrounding forest, where tourists can see lake in all its natural splendor. There was even an option for to ride a gondola with a glass floor- the sight of the treetops flying by underneath gives the impression that you’re flying! The day we rode the gondola was a gorgeously sunny day. Sun Moon Lake looked like it came straight out of the front of a postcard- the water was a beautifully clear turquoise, and the waves rippled and glittered under the clear sunshine. Mountains crowded with lush green trees surrounding the lake on all sides, and fluffy white clouds drifted lazily against an expanse of uniformly blue sky. It was an amazing experience viewing such a beautiful place from the sky!
We passed through Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village on our way off the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway, and although we didn’t go to the actual theme park, building that housed the waiting area and the view of the other features of the park from the main building looked beautiful!
We stopped at a local shop in Yuchi for lunch. We ordered clear broth with fish balls and ba wan, a Taiwanese dish consisting of minced pork and mushrooms wrapped in a stick mixture of rice flour and starch. The broth was light and was accompanied well by the meatiness of the fish balls. The rice flour mixture of the ba wan was sticky, thick, and chewy, which provided a satisfying texture for the dish, underscoring with the savoriness of the pork within. Both dishes were delicious!
The National Museum of Natural Science, located in Taichung, Taiwan, featured a variety of exhibits about the biological history of the world. A number of steel optical illusions (designed by Jerry Andrus) stood outside of the museum. The illusion was fascinating; no matter which way you walked, if you were in front of the dragons’ faces, they seemed to turn their entire heads to follow you. The lobby of the museum featured a massive skeleton of a mammoth.
Inside the museum, replicas of various animals and their skeletal structures accompanied signs describing how and when they lived. I particularly liked the dinosaur exhibit, which featured life-size dinosaur skeletons and models.
There were even animatronic raptors and a T. rex!
Another exhibit featured tools and artifacts of ancient civilizations.
The last exhibit was another one of my favorites- it contained a number of plastic renditions of traditional Taiwanese dishes, which had been expertly crafted to look nearly indistinguishable from their actual counterparts! These replicas reminded me of the ones I saw during my trip to Hokkaido the year before, which you can read about in my post “Hokkaido: Fresh Seafood and Thriving Nature”.
As we drove back to my grandparents’ apartment in Taipei, we stopped at the Qingshui Service Area. It looked like a cross between an aquarium and a food court! The different food booths and shops displayed colorful, bright neon signs and were situated around a cafeteria decorated with lights shaped like fish. Circular tanks containing different sea creatures were installed both around the walls and along the ceiling, where mirror balls reflected the light of the shops’ fluorescent signs.
The Qingshui Service Area had a mesmerizing layout- the combination of an aquarium with a food court was accomplished with a unique design incorporating lights and structures in a way that I had never seen before. I would have never thought that a service area would have such a fascinatingly different design; I’m so glad that we stopped here!
I had a wonderful time on my trip to Sun Moon Lake- I loved soaring over the lake in a gondola, viewing the different exhibits at the National Museum of Natural History, and marvelling at the design of the Qingshui Service Area!
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