We’ve arrived to Tayoun airport in November 2024 at 4pm, the weather was warm and kinda sticky and the sun was slowly setting down. Darkness shortly shrouded the surrounded towns before we reached our sleepover 15 min away via commuter 1 train. Easy to find & easy to reach.

We slept well and the next day we took high speed - shinkansen like train from Tayoun train station down to Chiayi – the base camp for tea hills. The train was extremely clean and fast. Within an hour we were in Chiayi, from where we took direct dirty bus to Shizhao. Bus went about an hour and half… slowly turning like a stiff caterpillar in the brutal bends of Alishan well concreted main road, climbing slowly and carefully, higher and higher to the sky. We actually wanted to cycling this road when planning this trip, but due to lack of time we’ve abandoned the idea and now seeing this road, we were quite happy. It is very steep and long road full of traffic. The heat would not make the cycle any easier. The climb was from zero up to 1500 msl. The views were incredible, but the bus had too dirty windows to take a photo and with so many steep curves in which the bus shake like a jello and squeaked like a chicken we were happy to hold onto our seats.

We’ve arrived in Shizhao around noon. Grabbed fast rice with bamboo shoots and wasabi tofu and without any hesitation head up to see the Tea trails. Somehow, we got so pumped up that we managed to walk most of the paths that afternoon. From “Sakura trail “(which weren’t in blossom as in November) to “Sunset trail “towards the end of “Mist trail” and head up to “Tea trail” and “Cloud trail” and back down to Shizhao in about 3 hours track. We got lost only at start as we wanted to start from “Love trail” but didn’t find it (oops!). Good advice to any fellow travelers… make sure you carry some water as it’s a bit dehydrating to roam around only with 300ml bottle in over 30 degrees Celsius weather. It was absolutely mesmerising to walk amongst the teas and all the trails, from start up to end of the Tea Trail, there’re mountains of tea bushes scattered between fire-treated wooden paths. It is like a fairy land. The tea bushes were in immense order. Camellia sinensis type, small dark green and perfectly pruned in Japanese ball shape style. No bugs nor diseases. Obviously, these are not sprayed plants as no needed in such a high elevation. The environment is perfect for them to grow. High altitude, mist, warm, clouds are shielding them from sun so they don’t get scorched, abundance of pure rain water and mist… oh that mist either slowly tip-toeing over them or speedily rolling over like our fellow citizens in cities going to work at morning. The mist, quietness and the whole energy makes this place a very meditative spot. One just feels the energy and happiness. The Cloud trail takes you through magnificent Japanese cedar tree forest. Clouds of mist are cutting through very often and covering all in dark, mossy and deep green grey colour. It’s just stunning. We slept over in amazing Xuan Yong tea factory. What a beautifully made place. All made of cedar wood, tea is fresh and juicy, in room everything you need and even heated toilet seat! What a treat!!!

When we arrived, we got keys to go check the factory and freely walk around tea plantation. It was about 5 o’clock and it got really fast dark with mysterious pinkish sky from the sunset and creepy grey fog. We managed to take some photos before total darkness surrounded us and dogs howled like wolves in the distance. Then the lovely lady tea us! The tea was light, smooth and creamy in mouthfeel & and very juicy. There were no bitter or off notes. It was extremely fresh and smelled almost like honeysuckle, with quite refine character of baked pears. We had a great night of sleep.

The next day we headed further towards Dadongshan peak 1976 msl. Breakfast was hearty and simple. Little iceberg lettuce, scrambled fluffy yet sweeter eggs with a sweet bun and cup of nice green wulong tea. We head out for the big track. Starting at lower point and going through the Mist trail a wooden platform with dzzz-million of steps is taking us through bamboo forest until it reaches the Tea trail. The walk is short but steep and even if the sun is behind clouds, the heat is exhausting. Tea trail is just beautiful, it is so high and people cannot get there with cars, hence nearly no one is on it:) now we passed the cedar filled Cloud trail and head up towards the promising peak. On the way we passed through incredible bamboo forest, few smiling locals and few tourists and some very funky mushrooms staring at us from the deep forest. Nearly at first peak and very short of breath, the elevation is 1865msl, but we still have a bit to go. Suddenly, the road is going down to displease us as one must think we will need to go back up again and then go even higher. On next crossroad we hear a freaking strange noise comes out of the bamboo forest and as we are as nosey old cats we must go see it. Turn out it was a group of naughty macaus monkeys. A very scary monkeys which became louder as we approached. It turns out we are not as brave, as one must have some respect sometimes from nature, so we turned out and head away via second trail. No messing around with or around any monkeys!!! Now the path is turning sharp up around elephant and lion’s rock… which meant to resemble these animals, but from any angle it still looks nothing like them (perhaps some delirious walkers gave them these names :). The path up is beautiful though, wooden steps between cedar trees, ancient, misty and quiet. Rain starts to fall. It’s humid and we are getting tired. More steps, some birds speaking in mandarin and more steps, nearly there. We did it. Milky thick mist was everywhere so we didn’t see a thing, but took brave photos with signs and boards left for strangled tourists with no view, it might be common on this misty peak, we thought 😊 The way down, well I shall not describe… let’s just say, we had not much food, it was raining and the legs gave up a bit. Managed to get down to Shizao to check in our new accommodation and tried to not fell asleep before the dinner at 6pm! After hot pot dinner, yes again hot pot, we had a very nice sleep.

The next day was our travelling day, but first we must meet our TEA supplier Mr. Chen Cheng. After that we will travel from west side of Taiwan to easy side. Anything is possible… that’s our motto. But first things first - big breakfast which included amazing local wulong tea and local coffee. On the way down to Shizuo, we invaded Buddhist temple (:P) with our good thoughts and prayers. Right next to the temple was the place we met with Mr Chen. We don't speak much mandarin so were quite worried how the conversation will go, but the owner like an experienced stock trader pull out a mobile phone with translator. Then he pour us tea and we chat. It was absolute pleasure to talk to him as with his over 30 years of experience in tea growing, it was like meeting the grandmaster!

His story was quite impressive as he planted his first tea trees in 1986 and it took him about 10 years to master the art of manufacture. His little factory is called Xin Shang " New Ways of Tea". His garden covers something over 2 hectars and he has team of 10 people plus extra helpers for plucking. We talked about the tea seasons in Alishan and he mentioned that the winter tea harvest starts each October and last till start of November. He then quickly boiled the tea for us with 100 degree C water, this is the gong fu cha style method. They do use a little cooler temp. to brew the tea in summer as it’s so hot to drink hot tea, but generally everything is brewed Chinese style, 100 degree Celsius for 1 min and multiple infusions. We’ve asked about the pruning and if this is how they also pick the Tea leaves and he said no the Japanese style bush shaping is only for pruning and as they do pluck leaves manually. He showed us a video of processing – which included Sun wither, indoor wither, heating, separating, oxidising, heating, ball shaping & drying – a really long process to obtain one of the best Wulongs in the World. He also said that they actually pluck only twice per year rather than multiple times which gives the Tea bushes some resting time. I really like that as nothing should ever be over used. We thanked Mr. Chen Cheng for meeting us and we surely will bring some exquisite teas from him, but now we had to bounce as needed to catch the unreserved bus, in which we luckily got two seats. Then train to Taipei and train to Hualien right away… no time to anything.

Hualien on the east coast of Taiwan. It had been hit by 3 Typhoons & one earthquake this year 2024 and the last typhoon was about 10 days before our arrival, swiftly followed by the earthquake. The weather was looking gloomy on arrival and as news spread, the amazing Taroko Gorge – Unesco World heritage, has been closed due to landslides and debris from the last typhoon-earthquake combo. And on top of that we’ve figured that the beautiful Hualien sea is un-swimmable due to unstable strong currents. When we arrived, it was already dark. Hualien has a famous night market, which smelled like Paul’s feet after one constant week in wellies. It wasn’t exciting.. But the sea was beautiful and we tried some bubble tea and new Korean restaurant which has its own Taiwanese twist and mochi which really weren’t the best. Nevertheless, it was not raining so we stopped at random bike stop near train station to rent a scooter and go check on the amazing gorge. The person at the rental didn’t speak any English but was willing to rent us some very dodgy scooter for 600.00 Twd. He gave us the key and helmets and said bye-bye. The streets were confusing but our google maps worked without connecting so we hit the highway to Taroko gorge, praying it won’t rain. The highways were very wide, there was a line for bikes, which we took. Farting 60km/h and smiling like free young couple as it reminded us our scootering in South East Asia back then, when we were young. Few reds, few tracks, few bikes & dare-devil old lady going on RED light, passed us on this huge road. It was really quiet.

The next day we took train to Riufang. Then another train - local slow-mo to shifen waterfall. It was pouring rain. Honestly freaking monsoon. Shifen is the widest waterfall in Taiwan and it’s huge, impressive and few stations from Taipei. On top of that, it is a wish-lantern releasing hell (they say paradise). The slow-mo train was full of people, but what we saw after was even worse. The train station in shifen is surrounded by buildings which have stalls, there’s no place to walk and the whole long line to the shifen walking path is overfilled by creepy crappy selfie taking people who wish for things and sends lanterns (I think they are made of plastic) with huge fire and their written wish to the sky. Yes, it’s beautiful, but if you cannot get through and tiny walk to waterfall and journey back takes hours, it feels like death in Venice! Shifen waterfall was beautiful but it’s not the same if you being pushed by people or forked by their umbrellas. We had coconut pastry pancake with two ice cream balls and coriander - very nice! Took the same slow-mo train back and head out to Jiufen.

Jiufen was incredible. I’m not sure if it’s unesco but if not, it should be. It is a mountainous town with sea view, green mountains and temples settled within. The town has steep stairs and narrow streets which are full of stalls and lightning red lanterns. It’s like a dream. They say that Myazaki was inspired by this town and made Spirited away, but he denies it saying he took inspiration from different bath place in Japan. This makes sense but still the resemblance is there. The place is full of teahouses, it is a heaven for us! We found our very quirky accommodation and as it was still raining and got very dark, we hit the streets to find some food and see those lanterns in action. It was just so beautiful, crowded but not as much as the waterfall. We had a quick noodle soup with almost no veggie, very simple but good. We also tried fried stinky tofu, with cabbage in top. It was very nice. It smells sour but it tastes good. Like fermented tofu. The pickled cabbage on top was just yum-cherry. We also got some twisted cheese thing which tasted little like churros.

Next day we went to the most famous teahouse, Amay which looks like 3 store old wooden building with red lanterns, overlooking the whole Jiufen and sea. They made us Alishan tea the gong fu style. Absolute treat! After that we ate amazing sesame oil, garlic noodles and went up to Mt.Keelung. This is a short walk up 588m high hill. Thousands of steps - my legs were shaking like a jello afterwards. It was raining but we joined the raincoat cult and purchased these amazingly colourful thick raincoats, which everyone wore as they cover the whole human - and it looks as if the town is full of rainbows smurfs ;) Mt. Keelung was empty. No one likes to walk these days, which is a huge advantage for us. On the way back we even managed to take nearly empty local bus back to Riufang. The bus drivers go fast … into curves like rallies… so we were back to the train station in 5min while the driver was missing teeth and happily chewing some dodgy betel leaves. Amusing.

We arrived to Taipei. Omg Taipei is huge, crowded and polluted. Shortly after walking around the famous Dihua market we got sore throats and full noses. Perhaps wearing masks here would be a good idea, not only for transport. We struggled to find food. At the end we ate spicy noodles in one shop but they were delicious, perhaps we were delirious from the exhaustion? We also got very lost in underground :P We decided to walk around as it was only 5pm and by going for the original bubble tea we accidentally did the whole political walk to the Chiang kai shek - Memorial hall. Apparently, this was some nasty dictator who killed many but also improved the whole Taiwanese industry. Well, this place was huge and very well lit. We love cities in nights… they just look better than in daylight. The huge gate opened up to two massive temples on side and the memorial hall at the end connecting all in perfect cross. It was monumental and beautiful. After that we decided to take metro to Tower 101 to see it in the night glory. And it was very glorious. The stores around are all posh designers while trees are shimmering like on Christmas and street performers are crammed nearly on each other, each singing on their own tune. Masses of people are walking and hanging around, but the streets are huge and they can take it. We walked through all quite hungry… again, no food. Where is all the food? The next day we had spicy noodles for breakfast and one of these Japanese waffles like fish - Taiyaki filled with Hojicha tea and mochi - real delicacy! We checked out the town hall, then beautiful Buddhist temple and head out to natural baths. We ate just lovely Jajang noodles with some pickled veggie in Taipei 101 and went up the thousand steps to elephant mountain peak. It was dark and the lights were on. The climb was easy and steady. The view was indeed stunning.

Then we had one last bubble tea and head out to the airport. Now only the 14 hours flight back to Scotland remains alongside all the beautiful TEA memories 😊