4 December 2018
After spending our morning cycling and climbing to the top of Ci'En Pagoda, we were extremely hungry. The best place to be if you are looking for dining options has to be at Ita Thao (伊达邵) !
Part 3 of Day 4 @ Sun Moon Lake
Part 3 of Day 4 @ Sun Moon Lake
1) Ferry ride to Ita Thao Pier (伊达邵码头)
2) Ita Thao Shopping Street
3) Sun Moon Lake Ropeway
4) Wenwu Temple (日月潭文武庙)
2) Ita Thao Shopping Street
3) Sun Moon Lake Ropeway
4) Wenwu Temple (日月潭文武庙)
2:30pm - After alighting from Ita Thao Pier, you will see Ita Thao Visitor Center, with the shape of a boat, straight ahead.
Check out the Map of Ita Thao (伊达邵)
Due to time constraint, we did not explore the streets at Ita Thao further. We did however, managed to grab some street food to eat along the way while figuring our way to Sun Moon Lake Ropeway.
Chicken Wing Rice seems to be quite popular hence we joined in the line and tried one too!
Rice stuffing inside the chicken wing. It is pretty filling, but I still prefer the chewy tender meat.
2:55pm - Our walk to Sun Moon Lake Ropeway along Ita Thao Lakeside trail is accompanied with scenic views of the lake
Sun Moon Lake Ropeway Entrance & Opening Hours
The Sun Moon Lake Ropeway is a scenic gondola cable car ride crossing two peaks of Mount Buji, to the Formosa Aboriginal Cultural Village (九族文化村). We utilized the Sun Moon Lake Pass which includes the ropeway round-trip voucher.
3:15pm - Spanning over 1877 kilometers, the 10-minute journey gave us a bird eye's view of Sun Moon Lake, Yuchi and Puli's basins and mountains. Noticed the cabins come in bright red, yellow, blue and green, which represent Sun, Moon, Lake and Forest respectively. If you like to go for the Crystal Cabin, the green colour cabin is the one with the transparent floor.
View of Formosa Aboriginal Cultural Village
3:45pm - After alighting from Sun Moon Lake Ropeway, we were actually in a rush to catch the next round-the-lake bus to Wenwu Temple! If we missed the bus, it will be much longer wait before the next bus arrives. So do take note of the timings as you make plans to tour around Sun Moon Lake.
Thankfully, one staff directed us to the bus stop and we were able to make our way there swiftly and got on the 3:55pm bus! The Sun Moon Lake pass makes travelling around Sun Moon Lake so convenient and we fully utilized the vouchers to take us around by sea, air and land.
4:05pm - Wenwu Temple : Our final destination for the day!
Two guardian stone lions stand on each side of the front plaza. They were donated by Wu Huo-shih (whose name meant 'fire lion'), the late chairman of Shin Kong Life Insurance Company.
Thanks to the Round-the-Lake roads, getting to Wenwu Temple is so much easier now compared to the earlier days. Back then, visitors have to take a boat to the pier below the temple and climb a steep flight of stairs up - hence also known as 'Stairway to Heaven'. Now, it has been renovated into a 150 meter path comprising of 366 steps that symbolise the number of days in a leap year. We actually missed taking a picture at the stairways which is right in front of the temple entrance.
According to https://www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw/, visitors will buy the wind chimes of their specific animal of the Chinese zodiac to ask for blessings. They will write their names and wishes, and go to the top of the Year of Steps to ring the chimes, and go down the steps and hang the chimes beside those steps that represent their birthdays.
Nevertheless, we also saw many wind chimes along the stairways within the temple.
Wenwu Temple comprises of three halls. The front hall is devoted to the First Ancestor Kaiji and the God of Literature. The central hall is where Guan Gong, the God of War and General Yue Fei stand while the rear hall is dedicated to Confucius and the Four Saints.
Outside of Martial Sage Hall - where you can find stone carvings of two dragons and a golden pearl between them.
Central Hall - Guan Gong's weapon - the Blue Dragon Falchion, named after its semi-lunar shape
Colourful nine dragons carvings outside the Hall of Achievement - House of Confucius
There are beautiful carvings surrounding the walls depicting scenarios of various era.
It is really gorgeous to catch the sunset view from Wenwu Temple. The myriad of colours in the sky with the reflections of the waters in Sun Moon Lake.
Wenwu Temple's architecture is majestic and grand! Definitely one of the most beautiful temples that I have been to with an awesome view.
5:05pm - We board the round-the-lake bus back to Shuishe before the sky turns dark. It has definitely been an eventful day and amazingly, we covered all the activities in 1 day!
6:40pm - Back to Blue Sky Bay BnB to rest for a while before we headed out again to settle our dinner and laundry services. To minimize our luggage weight, we try to bring minimal clothing and send our dirty laundry for washing every 2 days. Thankfully we found laundry service near to the BnB that we stayed in and paid NT220 (~$10) for washing and drying. It is the most expensive that we have paid for to date but we definitely need to send the clothes for washing as we will not be able to do so when we travel up to Alishan.
While waiting for the laundry to be done, we settled down for dinner at a nearby eatery and ordered 4 rice set meals.
A humble meal that is good enough to fill our tummies.
That sums up our Day 4 in Sun Moon Lake!
1) Sun rise at Sun Moon Lake
2) Cycling around Sun Moon Lake (Round trip between Shuishe and Xiangshan Visitor Center)
3) Boat tour (Shuishe, Ita Thao, Xuanguang Temple)
4) Ci-En Pagoda
5) Ita Thao Food Street
6) Sun Moon Lake Ropeway
7) Sunset at Wenwu Temple
DAY 4 RECAP
DAY 4 (Part 2) - https://bpdgtravels.blogspot.com/2019/04/taiwan-trip-day-4-sun-moon-lake-ferry.html
Check out our 2 Weeks Taiwan Itinerary Family Trip here
No comments:
Post a Comment