Taiwan 2017 Day 6: Cingjing

DAY 6: 11 DEC 2017

Green Green Grassland at Cingjing

Rise and shine!

Another day of adventure begins and we are off to Cingjing today!

I wanted to visit Cingjing during my previous trip.

However, we couldn't secure any accommodation as we booked late.

This time round, I made sure I secured rooms in Cingjing before planning our trip itinerary.

There are two popular home stays (民宿) amongst Singaporeans:

Starry Minsu and Mistyvilla.

I decided to approach Mistyvilla as I loved that they were a few minutes walk away from 

eateries such as Mos Burger and Starbucks.

I emailed them during the September holidays and got a reply within a day.

The cheapest room quoted didn't have a view.

So, I booked two wonderland rooms with balcony and the view was amazing!

We stayed on the "second" floor which required 5 flights of stairs from the lobby 

to get to our rooms.

It was torturous, but everything was worth it for the view from our room.

As we stayed on a Monday night, which is off peak,

each room costs NT 2800 a night.

To get to Cingjing, you can either take the nantou bus, which is the most popular option,

or book a shuttle or cab.

I checked with Mistyvilla regarding the transport arrangements and

their quotation was slightly higher than what I have read online.

Hence, I decided to book a shuttle through Kkday.

The bus company provider was Okbus and they whatsapped me a day before to

confirm my booking and to keep me updated with the car plate number.

I paid a total of S$162 for a return trip for 4 pax.

I selected the 11am shuttle as I wanted to explore Green Green Grassland (青青草原)

in the afternoon.

It was a winding road up the mountain with spectacular views.

I was feeling a little queasy after a long ride and I thought I was having motion sickness.

Little did I know that it wasn't motion sickness but instead, it was stomach flu...haha.

We arrived at Mistyvilla at 12.45pm and proceeded on to check in.

I have previously paid a deposit to secure my booking and I paid the remaining in cash

when we arrived.

Nita, one of the hosts, explained how we could go about our day, the routes we could take

and also arranged for us to take their shuttle to Green Green Grassland at 2pm.

They were selling the sky bridge tickets at check in which were refundable 

in the event that we choose not to take the sky bridge.

Being stubborn, I wanted to try out the 步步高升 trail and decided not to purchase the tickets.

In the end, we walked the sky bridge back to the minsu...haha.

Apart from Maggie and Nita, we had a cute little host there too.

Niu niu is the resident dog there and she is a really friendly French Bulldog.

We grabbed a quick lunch at Mos Burger and boarded their shuttle up to Green Green Grassland.

This is the main and only attraction available at the time of our visit.

Little Swiss Garden and Carton King were under renovation.

We spent our entire afternoon at Green Green Grassland!

We were driven up to the highest part of Green Green Grassland.

We purchased the entrance tickets there and off we went!

The view together with the autumn colours was stunning!

I have never seen sheep this close in my entire life.

It was really cool to pet them and feel how thick their coat of wool is.

The sheep are pretty calm when we approached them and we managed to snag

loads of photos with them.

They were selling sheep feed too if you wish to feed the sheep or want a great photo shot.

They get pretty aggressive when they know you have food for them.

We were fine without the feed, so we decided not to get any!

As it was a weekday, there wasn't any sheep shearing show.

There was a horse riding show at 3.45pm but we decided not to go for it.

We hung around this section till 4pm and that was when I started to feel very unwell.

We didn't visit the other section as it would mean climbing tons of stairs and slopes again.

We decided to take a slow walk back to our accommodation via the sky bridge.

Each ticket costs NT 50 and it is worth every single cent!

The skywalk promises picturesque mountain view.

The weather was good and we could see the sea of clouds too.

We took 45 minutes to complete the entire skywalk.

Just take your time to breathe in the fresh air and soak in the view right in front of you.

Ticketing counter for the skywalk closes at 4.30pm and

the bridge closes by 5.30pm if I am not wrong.

So do purchase your tickets beforehand if you intend to do the skywalk.

We wanted to have some hot drinks at Starbucks before returning back to Mistyvilla.

To get to Starbucks, we had to take another trail for 20 minutes.

Along the way, you will pass a 7-11 and Carton King.

For dinner that night, I have arranged for dinner at Mistyvilla which was highly

recommended by my friend.

It was between a hotpot or Yunnan style dinner.

We chose the Yunnan style dinner as we had already had two hotpots in this trip.

The dinner was good and worth it.

It costs NT 300 per pax.

It got really cold when the sun set and it was probably 7 degrees at 7pm.

Thankfully, I packed winter wear for this trip.

The electric heating mat on our bed did a really good job in keeping us warm throughout
the entire night and I never wanted to leave the bed!

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Click here for our Day 7 adventures

or retrace our steps here for our Day 5 adventures!

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