When I was young, my dad often drove us into the mountains. We must have covered just about every mountain road in Taiwan. The highlands are cool and the air is crisp — nothing like the humid heat down on the plains — and I have always preferred the mountains to the beach. But our daughter tends to get carsick and struggles with long rides, so even at four years old, I had never taken her up into the mountains. This time my dad offered to treat us to a stay, and I figured it was the perfect chance to finally take her to the mountains and get some cool air.
We left Xinbei at around five-thirty in the morning, drove just over an hour on Freeway 3, and exited at the Zhu-3 interchange. Sun Link Sea is much deeper into the mountains than I had imagined — even after getting off the highway, it took another full hour to reach the toll gate. We arrived just after nine. I had assumed I would be the first one there, but I was actually the last to arrive; both my younger brother and my dad were already at the gate. The parking lot was nearly full by the time we pulled in. Any later and we might not have found a spot at all.
It happened to be hydrangea season. The whole resort was blanketed in hydrangeas of every colour — absolutely beautiful.
We hopped on one of the resort’s free electric shuttles straight to Songlong Rock Waterfall. The buses run frequently and are included in the admission.
Our daughter was keen on the suspension bridge, but we headed to the waterfall first. Below Songlong Rock sits a large natural cave — quite impressive. The spray made her a little nervous when we got too close, so she quickly decided she preferred the bridge.
We looped back and were planning to have lunch at the Songlong Rock canteen, but our daughter insisted on crossing the suspension bridge again. Her cousin followed along. One pass wasn’t enough, and they went back for a second, hand in hand. After that, the two of them wanted to keep climbing, and that’s how we ended up all the way up at Tian Di Yan.
Tian Di Yan — supposedly shaped like a pair of eyes — honestly looks more like a pair of nostrils. I asked the kids to pose for a photo with the “giant nostrils.”
Still buzzing with energy, the kids decided they wanted to take the other trail down — a longer loop. My nephew grew quieter and slower with each step. Our daughter pushed ahead on her own for a while, then asked to be carried. By the time we sat down for lunch, my nephew was fast asleep in the stroller.
We walked down instead of taking the shuttle. Our daughter asked to be carried almost immediately, and ended up perched on my shoulders, delighted, draping her skirt over my head.
There were other waterfalls along the path, but our daughter wasn’t interested, so we moved on. There was a small stream by the trail, and I let her dip her hands in — ice cold. She loved it and kept asking for “the cold cold water” the whole rest of the way down, even after we’d left it behind.
Back near the parking area, we had ice cream and rested for a bit. My parents hadn’t come down yet, and the return shuttle queue was long. It started to rain, so we decided to head straight to the hotel and meet them there.
My dad was treating us to Ginkgo Hotel for the night.
After we checked in and got settled, the kids immediately piled into our room. All three of them spent a good while bouncing on the beds. Then my dad suggested walking over to the Xitou shopping street to visit an old colleague of his, Uncle Huang. He was delighted to see us, but the kids couldn’t sit still for long and drifted back to the hotel one by one, until I was the only one left, quietly eating snacks. Uncle Huang has been renting a room near the Xitou parking area since retiring and spends most of his time up in the mountains. A lovely way to live.
Dinner was at the hotel’s ground-floor restaurant. We ordered quite a lot. Most dishes were modest in portion despite being billed as “large,” with one striking exception: the eggplant arrived in a quantity so absurd we wondered if we were the only table that ordered it. Most things were quite good, especially the cabbage.
After dinner, we walked to Yaoguai Cun (Monster Village). The road was pitch dark with no street lights, which felt a little sketchy. As for Yaoguai Cun itself — honestly, it was pretty dull and a bit tacky.
The next morning, after breakfast, we walked over to Xitou Nature Education Area. We took the park shuttle straight to University Pond and wandered from there. Our daughter gave Xitou low marks — no waterfall, no cold stream. I hadn’t been here in twenty-three years and barely recognised anything.
After the group photo, we headed to the youth activity centre. Our daughter spotted a Slinky-type toy and wanted it, so we bought it. A moment later she came bounding over to snatch it back from me, not watching where she was going, and tumbled down three steps. Fortunately I had plasters on me. A little boy of about two, seeing our daughter cry, walked over hand in hand with his mum and offered us a bottle of water. Such a sweet kid.
Lunch was back at the hotel, and after a nap in the car, we made our way back to Taipei.
Note: This article is translated from Traditional Chinese.
