Taipei

陽明山
Yangmingshan National Park

Located at northern part of Taipei, this area consists of various parks, trails and sightseeing areas. We started with Zhuzihu (竹子湖) where Calla Lilly flower field is, then drove our way closer to one of the fumaroles in the area. The sulphur smell was quite strong as expected. We did not go to one, but there are also many famous hot springs on this mountain.

熊空茶園
Xiong Kong Tea Plantation

Xiong Kong Tea Plantation in Sanxia District, Taiwan. We were lucky to be able to see tea picking in action as there is a week or longer gap between each harvesting session. This is also one of the fewer farms that still does tea picking by hand as opposed to using pruning machines. There is also a cafe near the entrance with a terrace that overlooks the mountains. We saw a drone operator there who was trying to capture images of cherry blossom trees from above. He was dressed with National Geographic gears, but we didn’t find out if he worked for NatGeo or if he was a NatGeo enthusiast.

坪林區
Pinglin District

Located on the southeastern Taipei, this rural district known its tea business and the world’s biggest tea museum called Pinglin Tea Museum (坪林茶業博物館). This used to be a popular stop for anyone going from Taiwan to Yilan County, but after the highway was built, the traffic to this area reduced and many of the businesses closed doors. The museum has been renovated recently and it feels modern, but the rest of the district feels run down and there are many buildings that appears to be abandoned or unmaintained.