Taiwan With Kids: Cingjing / Qingjing 清境

4 of us @ Cingjing Farm - 26 Nov 2017

(Please click here to read the first part of our adventure in Taiwan - Taiwan With Kids: Taichung 臺中)



MISTY VILLA 雲濛仙境


Albert, our Taichung driver drove us to our accomodation at Cingjing quite late.
We booked 2 nights at Misty Villa 雲濛仙境 as we wanted to experience staying in a Minsu.

So what is a Minsu? A minsu is like a homestay/bead and breakfast/guesthouse kind of accommodation, where it is usually run by family and is a good chance for you to have a taste of local life. Minsu accommodation is also very popular in Taiwan.

Maggie was personally there to greet us although we arrived late at night.
The reception area was spacious and homey, with quirky deco everywhere.

She told us briefly the rough map of Cingjing, and also the breakfast time etc and took us up to our room.

We booked the Wonderland Double Room, with an extra bed. Breakfast was included as well.
This was the door to our room.

I was surprised to see that our room was quite big even with the extra bed added in it. There were still plenty of floor space to our luggages and to walk around.

There were the basic amenities like TV, hot water kettle, coffe & tea, tables and chairs.
The bathroom was huge as well, but then there were no separate shower area from the toilet, so when someone showers u cannot actually poo inside as it will be wet.
And also it could be quite damp even when we opened up the small little window.
And being wet and cold is no fun here in Cingjing as it was really cold up there!

Oh ya, there is no heating facility in the Misty Villa, as in most Minsu-s I supposed.

One thing that Maggie/Nita told us in advance before we booked our room was that there were ~75-80 stairs up to our room.
Since we were all still young, we were ok with it.
So now let me show you the stairs to our room. Haha/

This is the first two flights of stairs from the reception. Then you will reach the breakfast area and there will be a door.

 

Open the door and it will be the outdoor area.

Climb one more flight of stairs. 

Lastly, climb this stairs (sorry, this photo was taken from the top of the stairs instead of the bottom) and you will then reach our room. :)

 

To tell the truth, it was easy climbing up these stairs because there were breaks and it was not a continuous climb. I mean, unless you have leg problem or if you are an elderly. 

Even my 60+ yo mum had no problem at all climbing up those stairs twice a day. ;)

Oh ya, don't worry. They will have someone to help you bring up the luggages to your room!

Misty Villa was really very cosy and pretty.

Let me show you in some pics.

This is the road leading up to Misty Villa. Just a short walk up the slope and Misty Villa is on your right. 

Posing with our accomodation behind him.

The beautiful morning view while walking down.

The breakfast area (photo source: http://www.misting.com.tw/restaurant.php)

I forgot to take a photo of our daily breakfast here.

Breakfast was served from 8am-9am every morning. There was quite a wide spread. There were bread and porridge and usual stuff like eggs/sausages/ham.

My only concern was that the food was a little too oily. But then we were quite satisfied with the spread and taste. 

The misty view from our room's balcony.

Overall, it was a really good stay at Misty Villa.

Nita/Maggie were really friendly without being overbearing and it gave us a very homey feel to it.

There was an occurrence when Khye vomitted once at night. He wasn't really sick or anything, probably just ate too much or indigestion.

Anyway, we called up reception and Maggie personally came and helped us wiped the gunk and changed the bed sheets even though it was night time already.

She was really helpful.

The other best part in staying here is due to the location of the minsu.

It was strategically located very near to the eateries/bus stops and everything! So we didn't even need to hire a driver at Cingjing.

From the entrance of Cingjing Farm, you can actually walk all the way down to Misty Villa. So it was really convenient!

**Please take note that the Little Swiss Garden and Carton King were closed for renovation when we were there.

CINGJING FARM 清境農場

We walked down a little to whether the eateries are (Starbucks/7-11 etc) and there was a bus stop and there was already a long queue waiting for the bus to bring us up to Cingjing Farm.

Queued for the Nantou bus that would bring us all the way up to the entrance of Cingjing Farm. It costs us NTD$20 each. Khye was free if I remembered correctly. 

Weekend ticket to Cingjing Farm is NTD$200 for adults. Khye paid only NTD$20. 

Upon reaching there, we decked out our warmer jacket. We even wore our wooly hats because it was cold up there, especially 9+am in the morning!

 

And it was a really misty morning too. Look how misty and cold it was!
It was really difficult to navigate our way on the farm as visibility was low and we could see like less than 100m in front of us.

First/top part of Cingjing Farm is Green Green Grassland.
There was supposed to be a Horse Riding Show where highly skilled riders originally from Mongolia would be doing stunts. We could hear noises and sounds of horns and speakers but we couldn't see anything. We just followed the sound and the crowd.

In the end we found it, just next to us.
Look at the visibility......

The Horse Riders acrobatic show was finished when we reached.
But then there were pony and horse riding. Children can ride the pony for a little fee. They actually just walk a small round, perhaps just a 1 minute walk haha.
Khye wanted to ride one so we paid for him to go on a ride.
Khye and his pony.

 

Then yee-yee also wanted to get up a horse and so we paid for another 2-person ride on a horse.

Erm...where is the horse's head? lol

After that, we saw many sheep coming near us and Khye was so happy to see those sheep. 

And so we went to buy the sheep food from the machines and we started feeding them. 

Khye had so much fun feeding them. Look at the smile and joy from his face!

Boy, the sheep were hungry and fast and clever!!!!!

Look at the short video clip of Khye feeding the sheeps....

Khye who is an animal lover really loved the sheep.

But the sheep's fur is really really thick. You need to really squeeze it only you are able to feel its' body! haha. The super thick wool is really thick to give them the warmth needed up in this Cingjing mountain!

Look at how "fat" is this sheep when compared to Khye!

Look at this little fella hugging the sheep. 

 

 

I tried to take a photo of the 4 of us together with the sheep!

After about an hour or so, we reached the half way of Cingjing Farm.
By then it was not so cold anymore as it was already almost noon.

We walked along stalls selling food and fruits and vege.

We stopped to grab some lunch. We had some pizzas and some soup and Khye had some of his favourite Taiwanese sausages as well.

 

I think all of us enjoyed the vast land in Cingjing Farm with its cool, crisp air.

 

We just sat down and chilled. 

The scenery is actually really beautiful up here in the mountains. But due to it being so foggy, we couldn't see the view which was such a pity!

Mum, sis & Khye with one of the windmills there.

All 4 of us posed with some sheep behind us.

 

 

There were actually many people when we were at the Horse Show earlier but I don't know where were they coz after awhile I didn't see them anymore!

No complains though as we just happily posed for photos without anyone bombarding our photos!

 

See...no one but us! So nice! 

 

 

Used a timer on mum's camera to capture this photo of us. 

This place was also the last place as we then found the entrance of the 487 Steps Trail, just opposite here. 

487 STEPS TRAIL

This trail is one of our favourite in whole of Taiwan.
We were so lucky the mist lifted and the views as we walked down the steps was amazing!
This view greeted us as we walked down...

No filter. Just straight from my phone.

Beautiful, huh?
Both my mum and the view. "_"

 

 

The mountain range far away with shades of blues and greens. 

As we walked down, there were indication telling us how many steps we had taken.
Here we were at 150 and 300 steps down.

 

View of mum from the bottom up.

 

Khye as we reached the midway at a rest stop to the side.

At 350, 400 and 450 steps down.

 

Khye was such a trooper.
He walked the whole morning at Cingjing Farm and also walked down all 487 steps all by himself!!!
No regrets brought him to Taiwan with us at all!

This was the final 487 steps and we took a photo of us with 4 of our shoes to show that we conquered it down! haha
A really recommended walk down from Cingjing Farm!

Since we were already almost downhill and not too far away from our villa, we continued walking.
Saw many stalls selling fresh vege and fruits while walking.

 

Those vege and pears were huge! 

 

And thiese chives were sooo huge!

Biggest chives ever!

We were tired as we finally reached the eatery place.
We settled down for some food at the food court!
Bought the rice sets from 7-11 and surprisingly it tasted quite good.

 

As we were tired and didn't wanna come out later, we bought some instant noodles (Taiwan is famous for its instant noodles as well) and some fruits and just had that for dinner!

Our dinner!

Overall, it was a great day!

Lotsa walking but really worth it!

**Please take note that the Little Swiss Garden and Carton King were closed for renovation when we were there.


Please click here to read the rest of our adventure in Taiwan:-- Taiwan With Kids: Taichung 臺中