After three very packed days of travelling, the last day of our Taiwan trip was relatively leisurely, or meant to be anyway. With our return flight in the evening, we only planned to see a small number of places of interest. We had booked a cab, by internet and several follow-up whatsapp messages, to drive us around to the sites of our choice, and take us to Taoyuan International Airport at the end of the day. With a group of four sharing the cost, hiring a cab for one day was very viable option for local sight-seeing. In the end, the places that we visited were mostly in the out-skirts of Taipei, including Yangmingshan Garden 陽明山公園, Zhuzihu 竹子湖, Juming Museum 朱銘美術館, and lastly a brief stop at Yehliu Geopark 野柳地質公園 before heading to the airport. In hindsight, it was a rather over-ambitious itinerary for the day, and early December probably was not the best time of the year to see Yangmingshan, especially if one had hoped to see its famed cherry blossoms. I think we were mostly trying to take the most out of our hired cab to see places that would be harder to visit by public transport.
After a simple breakfast at a cafe in the vicinity of our hotel, which was very close to Taipei Main Station, we checked out of our hotel rooms and took our luggage to the pick-up location pre-arranged with the cab-driver. Upon finalizing our itinerary with the driver, we set off to our first destination --- Yangmingshan Garden. It was a fairly chilly December morning with a slight drizzle, and the handful of visitors there were in no comparison with the crowds that would be common on a typical weekend in the spring.
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| A popular tourist attraction --- Floral clock at Yangmingshan Garden 陽明山公園. Looking a little bare in the early December day without the decoration of bright coloured flowers. |
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| Yangmingshan Garden 陽明山公園 |
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| Yangmingshan Garden 陽明山公園 |
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| A playful red-bellied tree squirrel 赤腹松鼠 at Yangmingshan Garden 陽明山公園 |
After spending an hour or so at Yangmingshan Garden, we headed towards the fairly close-by Zhuzihu 竹子湖, where we planned to have an early lunch before driving further north to Juming Museum 朱銘美術館.
At Zhuzihu, a most interesting thing happened as we drove onto a small side road intending to take a turn back onto the main road and eat at one of the small restaurants there. While we were waiting to turn at the road junction, a scooter drove right beside us. The driver of the scooter, clad in a chef's white costume, called out and asked whether we were looking for some place to eat. It transpired that he was the owner of a restaurant in Zhuzihu. He implored us to eat there, guaranteeing that it would be our best meal in our trip. Succumbing to his enthusiasm and sincerity, we agreed. Happily putting back on his helmet, he led us along the narrow winding road and arrived at a small flat-roofed hut in the middle of fields of vegetables. The location, hidden among the surrounding mountains, and the rustic charm of the restaurant certainly made it a nice escape from busy city life.
As it was still too early for lunch, we first took a stroll through the surrounding fields. In the spring, many of the fields would be covered by blooming calla lilies 海芋. However as it was not in the season, such a picture could only be left to our imagination.
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| Stopping for lunch at the rural Zhuzihu 竹子湖. The owner (clad in white), can be seen chatting with some well-satisfied customers. |
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| Zhuzihu 竹子湖 |
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| Zhuzihu 竹子湖 |
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| As it was not the right season, this one was just about the only calla Lily 海芋 that we could see. |
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| Zhuzihu 竹子湖 |
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| Zhuzihu 竹子湖 |
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| Zhuzihu 竹子湖 |
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| Zhuzihu 竹子湖 |
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| Zhuzihu 竹子湖 |
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| Rural restaurant at Zhuzihu 竹子湖 |
After strolling around for a bit and taking in a good breath of the fresh though chilly air, we returned to the restaurant for lunch. It was fair to say that the quality of the food was actually surprisingly good!
After a sumptuous lunch, we carried on our way to Juming Museum朱銘美術館. The museum was truly an eye-opener, with an enormous and very impressive collection of paintings and sculptures of the renowned artist, displayed both indoors and out-doors. A random selection of some of the pieces, just a tiny fraction of all the exhibits, are shown below.
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| Sculpture at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Sculpture at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Sculpture at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Sculpture at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Painting at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Painting at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| "Being not covetous naturally leads to a high character" |
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| "The seed of art is planted in the field of the heart" |
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| Sculpture at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Sculpture at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Sculpture at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Sculpture at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Sculpture coming to life at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Sculpture at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Sculpture at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Sculpture at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Sculpture at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| An enormous outdoor exhibit at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
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| Sculpture at Juming Museum朱銘美術館 |
As we had spent more time at the lunch and at Juming Museum than we had originally intended, our planned brief stop at
Yehliu Geopark 野柳地質公園 became even more brief than planned. In fact, after getting there, we decided it was not worth paying the fee to enter the park due to the limited time we could spend inside. So we just took some photos from a distance and spent the time looking in the local souvenir stores instead. A proper visit to the Geopark has to wait till a future trip to Taipei. Nonetheless, we were not too disappointed, as we all felt extremely satisfied with all that we had seen already in this
four-day trip to Taiwan.
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| Yehliu Geopark 野柳地質公園 |
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