台中行 TAICHUNG [ plus 高雄 KOAHISUNG ]

[hangchoi]

Aowanda is famous in red Maple Leaf and Sakura, but it needs an 2 hours walk to reach the maple forest and it was not an appropriate time to watch Sakura. So I just took a few pictures for something else....

There are a number of different zones / scenery to visit and the only way to get there is by foot. The zones are linked by footpath like that on the forth picture. We walked at least  3- 4 km that afternoon.

[hangchoi]

The park is huge but part of them was destroyed by landslide during earthquake.....You can see from the following picture how large the affected area was....

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We were back to Taichung that night and we stayed in a poor hotel with lots of PRC guys. They opened the door all day, yelled in the corridor, etc. We had a noisy night.

The first picture was the view from our hotel room, overseeing the bus terminal (that's why we picked this hotel). The second picture was a sculpture on the street corner.

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The next day, we took an hour and a half ride by bus to Sitou National Park. Another park famous in pine tree, bamboo type forests.

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One of the must-see items there is a tree of 2800 years old.

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This looks like a normal wooden walkway...but in fact it is built at high level....see how high it is....

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You have to walk through a lot of pine forest and bamboo forest in order to see the old tree and other sightseeing spots. The third picture is a house made by bamboo.

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This is called University Pool but I don't know why. When we walked to the pool, we had some companies running around us and on the tree....

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Where more and more tourists went to this park, the people there built a Japanese style village next to the park. It is called Kuma (妖怪村). They put all the weird things there, even the signage......

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Visitor can buy a visitor ticket, which includes the round trip bus ticket to Taichung, the ticket to the park plus a souvenir.....You can write your wish on the souvenir and tie it on the tree.....