{"id":28100,"date":"2018-12-10T23:47:05","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T15:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=28100"},"modified":"2026-03-15T20:39:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:39:27","slug":"12-days-in-taiwan-day-04-sun-moon-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2018\/12\/10\/12-days-in-taiwan-day-04-sun-moon-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Days in Taiwan \u2013 Day 04 \u2013 Sun Moon Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sun Moon Lake<\/strong> \u2014 the largest body of water in Taiwan, a favorite spot for newlyweds (especially from Hong Kong, as driver Kong quipped) to have their wedding photography shoots done or just honeymoon away, and also a mandatory inclusion for any visitor’s itinerary to Taiwan. The lake is known for its elevation of 748m above sea level, and is encircled by mountain ranges.<\/p>\n

But maybe it’s just me, or also that we just came from a beautifully serene morning at Xitou Nature Education Area<\/a> where we’d walked among awesomely majestic trees \u2014 but I finally found Sun Moon Lake to be a little flat and mass-market touristy. Sure, it’s scenic, but it’s also not finally any different from any lake you might have seen elsewhere. OK, I guess it’ll be more unique for Singaporeans since we don’t have any bodies of water worth mentioning on our tiny island!<\/p>\n

Unless you’re going with one of the more exotic ways to go around and check out the lake \u2014 e.g., by renting electric scooters or bikes \u2014 most visitors will take the ferry. Basically, there are three piers around the lake, and the ferry circuit brings visitors from one pier to the next. The ferries are pretty frequent \u2014 at about 20-minute intervals \u2014 and queue lines do form, though thankfully no one seemed to want to shove or push, but just wait their turn. So even if you miss one or can’t get on the current one because of crowds, you just need to wait for the next one that’s coming in another 20 minutes. Ferry tickets for the round-robin circuit were NTD300\/SGD13.50 for adults, and our kids had to pay the full price too.<\/p>\n

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NTD300 \u2014 reasonable enough pricing, and you can go as many rounds as you like.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pier that was most meaningful for us was probably Ita Thao Pier, on account that our kids were dead hungry from not having lunch yet at past two, and there’s a few dozen small eats stalls and a handful of sit-down eateries too at the district that faces the pier. Ling wanted a place to sit down and get some proper food, so we ducked into a small eatery that was offering Hong Kong-styled dim sum. The dim sum wasn’t particularly memorable and was also very slightly more pricey than typical street food pricing. But hey, it’s food. And as though that wasn’t enough, the kids finished off with Chinese sausages from a street stall right in front of the pier.<\/p>\n

I didn’t find the place particularly beautiful, but here’s a couple of pictures nonetheless. The panoramas were done using the Samsung Note 9.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Shuishe Pier, or Stop 1 and where we got on the ferry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Lots of boats to ferry visitors around the lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Some casual shots of Shuishe Pier here…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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…and here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Xuanguang Pier\/Stop 2, where the famous Xuanguang Temple sits nearby. We didn’t check that out \u2014 Ling still has a general aversion to visiting temples.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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View of the lake from Xuanguang Pier.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Approaching Ita Thao Pier\/Stop 3.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The ferry driver’s control station. Snapped the picture when he wasn’t looking. LOL.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Hong Kong-styled dim sum at the shopping area of Ita Thao village. A little pricey, but when you’re hungry, you don’t complain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Chinese sausages grilled up by two aunties. Ling couldn’t quite make out what the sausages were made of, and she reads and speaks better Chinese than I do. But a local who was also buying from the same stall came to our rescue. The Taiwanese are really friendly and helpful!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Canon G7X II for family wefies!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Ita Thao Village with its small cluster of shops, eateries, and street food.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We spent just three hours at the lake, having arrived just before 12:30PM, and eventually leaving at 3:30PM. The last stop for the day: Cingjing<\/a> (finally!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sun Moon Lake \u2014 the largest body of water in Taiwan, a favorite spot for newlyweds (especially from Hong Kong, as driver Kong quipped) to have their wedding photography shoots done or just honeymoon away, and also a mandatory inclusion<\/p>\n

Read More 12 Days in Taiwan \u2013 Day 04 \u2013 Sun Moon Lake<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[608,613,618],"class_list":["post-28100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-sony-a7-iii","tag-sony-fe-24-105mm-f4-0","tag-taiwan-2018","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/blog-2018-taiwan-day-04-A7_00478-sun-moon-lake.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38573,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28100\/revisions\/38573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}