Everyone who goes to Taiwan almost always only go to Taipei and Jiufen, I was so happy that I squeezed in a day for Taichung – just in time for their flower festival! I personally don’t like receiving flowers as a gift but seeing fields of flowers was like a dream come true. <3 I would die to see more places like this!
We were so lucky ’cause the first day of the festival (that happens from November to December only, I think) was on the last day of our trip. The tour only popped out at rtaiwanr.com the day before we left for Taiwan. I’m so happy I checked again. This was definitely the highlight of my trip. Even though the flowers weren’t at their full bloom since it was the first day, I don’t really mind. They were simply beautiful! 🙂
We purchased a private tour. The driver didn’t speak any English so my Mandarin was really put to the test. Thankfully, we survived! I even got the driver to take us to places that weren’t on the itinerary and skipped the ones that were boring, haha! Yay! My 11 years of learning Chinese has finally paid off!
From Taipei we took an HSR train (which is basically Taiwan’s Shinkansen and KTX) to get to Taichung’s HSR station.
Ahhhh, the weather was nice. Since it was a bit rainy in Taipei, it was refreshing to see the sun out the whole day in Taichung! I will only be covering the highlights in 2 parts, by the way. You are reading part 1 right now! Part 2 will be up in a few days so stay tuned!
A street art in Taichung, the Rainbow Village, was painted by Huang Yung-Fu, a veteran soldier who fought for the nationalist army to fight the communist troops in Mainland China and fled to Taiwan with their leader, Chang Kai Shek. He is now 87 years old! *.*
With Huang Yung Fu! <3
I wish I had seen the Xinshe Sea of Flowers at its peak. It would’ve been magical! Well, more reason to come back, yes? Haha! It was still really refreshing as I had always dreamed of going to Hokkaido to witness something like this. Little did I know, Taiwan has a little bit of it as well. Actually, Taiwan has a little bit of everything that makes it so special. I can’t wait to see more of it. 🙂
Photos taken using my Sony A6000 mirrorless camera from iClick Outlet.