Painting pomelos
Pengiun pomelo
There is a new craze in Taiwan: Painting pomelos.
From what I have heard, it started out with a man who returned home to his parents’ pomelo orchard with an unusual idea. He had been a wild son and had never helped out much at the orchard previously, but after spending some time in jail, he was trying to go straight. His idea of painting and selling pomelos as edible art was met with skepticism from his parents, but he went ahead and did it anyway. Some of the neighboring farmers liked his creations and encouraged him to go further with it, and very quickly his pomelos proved very popular. Soon he had custom orders coming in and even had companies wanting gift packs of pomelos with their logo painted on to give to their clients. He received a lot of press coverage, which has bore fruit (pardon the pun) to this new craze.
I wouldn’t be surprised if painting pomelos becomes a national pastime every Full Moon Festival, the same way that making eggs stand up is synonymous with Dragon Boat Festival. It’s actually a really fun thing to do with the kids. Here are our creations: A pengiun, a floral pattern, a landscape (by Jossy – 8 yrs old), and an abstract creation (by Rinny – 6 yrs old).
Enjoy painting your own pomelos!
Pingxi Branch Rail Line – Shifen
Shifen, the home of the annual Pinxi Lantern festival, is a quaint mountain village with a special connection with the railroad and Taiwan’s coal mining industry. To get there from Taipei, you can take the local train to Ruifang (in the direstion of Keelung), and then buy tickets and transfer to the 12km-long Pingxi Branch Line. An all-day return ticket only costs NT$52!
Originally built to transfer coal from the surrounding mines, the railway line winds its way through heavy bush, following the upper Keelung river as it turns into a gorge nearing its source. When we stepped off the train and wandered down Shifen Old Street, we were quite astounded, as it was the first place we had ever seen with shops straddling a railway line, not a road.
The train moves through relatively slowly, as they stop and take off at the nearby station, and the shop keepers are known to call out when the train is coming, but they didn’t while we were there so it’s best not to rely on that!
There are a variety of shops to buy traditional Taiwanese snacks from with most of the lantern shops being halfway down the strip. We chose to set a lantern off from Grandma’s Flying Lanterns, which is down the far end, because we had heard good reviews. The brightly-colored shop has a multitude of photos on the wall of entertainers and politicians, and “Grandma” and the others who helped us set up our lantern were very friendly.
There are two options for lanterns – single color ($100) or multicolor ($150). If you want to make a smorgasbord of wishes, you can choose a multicolored lantern but we just went for green, which represents health and growth (however each shop seems to have different representations for colors). We flew our lanterns during the day, but were recommended to come back another time in the evening as it is an even more spectacular sight.
As with many other activities in Taiwan, if you decide to make a trip to Shifen, it would probably be better not to go during the weekend or a public holiday. The train can get overly crowded and the peaceful nature of the village would disappear (although you would see more lanterns in the sky).
There is much more to the Pingxi Branch Rail Line than Shifen. The entire ride takes about 45 minutes, but and you could spend the whole day exploring the region around the four main stops, which includes other attractions such as waterfalls and a mining museum. Here is a good blog on this if you want to learn more.
Leofoo Resort, Guanshi (zoo hotel)
View from our balcony
As the only zoo resort in Asia, Leofoo Resort in Guanshi, Hsinchu County provides an out-of the-ordinary experience for guests. Sitting in the comfort of our room’s balcony watching exotic animals from Africa go about their business was quite mesmerizing. It was especially surreal waking up the next morning and drawing the curtains to such a sight. The main complex forms a u-shape with the hotel’s zoo grounds in the center. There are rhinoceroses, ring-tail lemurs, miniature zebras, giraffes, pink flamingos, and more.
Guests feeding the ringtail lemurs (NT$599 pp)
Our package for four adults and two children was NT$20,680 for a night. Our room had two toilets, a bathroom with two separate showers, a king-sized bed on the lower level, and a loft with two king-sized beds, and, as mentioned, an awesome balcony. You can see a video of the room here. The package included a nice buffet dinner and breakfast and a zoo tour.
Our room (downstairs)
Upstairs in the loft
The zoo tour would usually cost NT$950 per person and consists of a forty minute (although advertised as seventy minutes) safari style tour of the extended zoo grounds. Until this, we thought the zoo grounds were just the ones at the resort, but we subsequently found out that Leofoo Zoo has been around for more than thirty years and the resort is actually an extension of this. LeoFoo Zoo’s African Safari is reportedly the only open-sky wild animal park in Taiwan with more than 70 species and over a thousand animals. We couldn’t see the 400 baboons because they would jump all over the van, but we drove through the American Black Bear, Bengal Tiger, and African Lion (with 40 lions!) enclosures, amongst others. We took this tour before checking out and it was a nice way to end our stay. Our guide said it was a good time to see the animals as they usually sleep later in the day. There is also a train tour through the zoo if you go from the adjacent Leofoo Amusement Park.
First lion…
Second lion…
Third lion!
The resort provides free pickup at The Westin Hotel, Nanjing Road, Taipei at 9:30am arriving at 11:00am. Although this sounds good, it’s not really ideal as check-in is at 4:00pm (although we were able to get in at 2:40pm) and it seemed like an eternity to wait to get settled in. Over this time, we had lunch at the deli-style restaurant: fried rice and bacon and cream pasta, which were both good.
The deli restaurant
The Pheonix restaurant (buffet dinner and breakfast)
The Lion King kids play hut
There’s a small wii/movie room (but the wii was not operational while we were there) and a hut 5 minutes walk away with for toys, books, and activities for kids. If the weather had been better, we probably would have rented some bikes to have a further look around.
Feeding the goats on the zoo tour
If you’re planning a stay, I recommend going in the off-season, not just because prices might be lower (not sure about this) but because there is not a lot of space in the lobby and children’s areas, and I couldn’t imagine how squashed it would be when its full.
Hsinchu on foot
If you’re planning a stay in Hsinchu, you can have all your transportation fees taken care of for the price of a train ticket (which is around $390 for the fast train return from Taipei). It’s just over an hour to Hsinchu from Taipei so going as a day trip is an option, but if you’re wanting to stay overnight with budget accommodation, I recommend the Golden Swallow Hotel. There’s plenty to do within walking distance of the main train station.
The Hsinchu City Glass Museum and Hsinchu zoo are both located in Hsinchu Park. On the way there, you could check out the residence of Hsin Chih-Ping, who was Hsinchu Junior High School’s principal. It was built in the early 1920’s by the Japanese and has some interesting and quirky architectural features such as the closets for storing sliding porch doors and the heating system for the bath.
The East Gate stands in the center of a roundabout just down from the train station. Hsinchu city was first established in 1733, and a wall with four towers was erected around it in 1826. In the Japanese era the wall and three towers were torn down, leaving just the East Gate, which now stands as a symbol of the city.
The area around the station is bustling with activity at nighttime with bands often playing at the outdoor auditorium and a wide variety of shops to visit. You can check out the traditional snacks of Hsinchu, such as pork meatballs or fried rice noodles, or if you want western-style cuisine you could walk down to Square’s, a small American-style diner at 38 Shengli Rd (on the cobblestone street bordering the “moat” just down from the East Gate). If you go there, I recommend the chicken fajita for $260.
For more info about Hsinchu in English, check out http://wikitravel.org/en/Hsinchu and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsinchu
Hsinchu zoo
Established in the Japanese colonization era around the same time as the neighboring glass museum buildings, the Hsinchu zoo is the oldest zoo in Taiwan. For only $10 for adults and free for kids, Hsinchu zoo is a nice budget activity. The zoo is well-shaded and has a relaxed park-like atmosphere and although it is small in size, it has more than 300 distinguished into 120 species which are mostly birds and primates, with crowd-pleasers such as bengal tigers, hippos, orangutangs, and crocodiles.
Cheerful music plays from speakers disguised as rocks throughout the zoo and animals are easily accessible, with one deer roaming freely amongst the visitors.
When we visited, the croc was in the pool right next to the pane of glass and the hippo was thrusting itself out of the water, mouth wide open (although this was probably because it used to getting fed by visitors but I’ll say no more on that subject). With Hsinchu’s cooling wind and the natural shade of the trees, Hsinchu zoo is a fun outside activity even on the hottest of days.
More info here.
Hsinchu City Glass Museum
The Hsinchu Glass Museum is the first museum in Taiwan to center around the theme of glass. The museum building, which was reconstructed in 1936, was first used as a residence for Japanese royals and government officials. The museum has several areas devoted to glass exhibits and some educational areas for kids.
Around the back of the building, next to a small lake is a cafe which offers light snacks such as the very Taiwanese green tea waffles with red bean ice-cream. They also offer DIY glass projects for kids on a bench overlooking the lake under the shade of a tree.
For $130 each, our little ones came away very satisfied with a picture made from glass pebbles on a small wooden noticeboard.
At the time we visited, glass blowing demonstrations were conducted from 2pm-4pm in the adjacent building.
Miniature glass art pieces are made in the same area and can be purchased for less than $100 at stalls outside the museum. And if you’re going, don’t forget to visit the Hsinchu zoo, which is right next door and only $10 for adults!
Golden Swallow Hotel (Hsinchu)
A few minutes walk from the main train station, the Golden Swallow Hotel offers budget accommodation in the heart of Hsinchu. Prices range from $800 – $2200. As with most hotels in Taiwan, prices are cheaper during the weekdays. We payed $1800 for a room with two double beds, which would have been around $1500 during the week (Fridays are considered part of the weekend and Sundays not). Check in times during the week are 3 o’clock and 5 o’clock otherwise.
The room we got was tidy with a big flat-screen TV, mini-fridge, and a reasonable bathroom. There are bikes available for use by patrons, and they will store your bike if that’s the way you’re travelling. There are also a couple of computers if you want to get online and wireless if you have your own laptop, and free use of laundry facilities (powder included). Breakfast is included with a choice of toast and spreads or a Chinese-style buffet. There are plenty of things to see and do within walking distance, such as the Hsinchu Glass Museum, Hsinchu zoo, the residence of Hsin Chih-Ping, night markets, Sogo, Eslite, and so on. All things considered, the Golden Swallow Hotel is great value and recommended as a low-budget base for a Hsinchu stopover. If you decide to stay there, you should probably make sure to book well ahead, especially during peak periods.
Address: No.13, Minzu Rd., East Dist., Hsinchu City 300, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
Tel: 03-5227151-3
JianGuo Flower Market
A great place to go is the JianGuo flower market in Taipei. It’s covered by an elevated freeway, so is especially good for a rainy day. The entrance is from Sinyi Rd/JianGuo Rd intersection (near DaAn Park) or the other end at RenAi/JianGuo roads and is only open on weekends. If you’ve got extra time, you can also check out the artist’s and jade markets, which are also under the same roof. Stopping off halfway through the flower market at one of the food stalls for a snack is a good idea. It lets you feel more part of the surroundings, not just passing through.
We were looking for something for the kids to take away. Our main priorities were for something low maintenance that doesn’t attract insects. Our original thoughts were narrowed down to bamboo and mini cactus plants, but it didn’t take us long to find something even better, and something the kids took a real liking to – dried flowers. They are very colorful and also cheap – only $20 per bunch.
Down the market a little further, we found something else very popular with children in Taiwan: “Magic water balls”. These are bought in small packets, and when added to water they soak up the water and expand. After a few hours they become like semi-transparent, almost glowing, colored balls a couple of centimeters in diameter.
At home, we added these to a vase and with the girls’ dried flowers to create a nice souvenir of our day at the flower market.
The finished product
Cardboard box car
This is a little toy car we helped make for our daughter, Rinny’s, kindergarten project. She had made four wheels at school and was given a straw and some wire. We put a couple of little boxes together, cut the straw and threaded the wire through them for axles, and decorated it with colored paper and pen. We also made a trailer for it because her big sister, Joss, got a bit jealous and wanted us to make something for her.
Toys – Log Builder
We just got a new building toy for the kids which looks really good. It’s called Log Builder (made in Taiwan) and is around $1000 (we got it for $700 as a deal from using our ShiHua credit card), which I think is pretty good value.
Log Builder box
It comes with 162 wooden pieces of different shapes and sizes needed for creating building projects. There are 50 “Idea cards” to give inspiration. They are categorized into basic, advance [sic], and challenge [sic].
Basic idea card
Advanced idea card
Challenging idea card
On the back of each card, there are instructions to follow that specify the number and types of materials needed.
Idea card instructions
These don’t provide step-by-step instructions – you just have to go by what is in the picture, so some guidance is necessary to show the kids what to do.
The finished product
If your interested, you can purchase it from treemall (the website is Chinese only).
Taiwankids 