Sun Moon Lake

My dad planned a busy itinerary for us while we were in Taiwan, so after our trip to Taroko National Park, we headed on a tour to Sun Moon Lake near Taichung. Since tourism has spiked in Taiwan, multiple travel agencies have started popping up so tourists can easily explore the country. My dad signed us up for three days of tours in Taichung so we could explore the area and also visit my uncle and my cousin. We arrived in Taichung by train (from Taipei) and met up with the tour guide (also named Grace), who took us to Sun Moon Lake.

Sun Moon Lake got its name from the unique terrains that look like sun on one side and crescent moon on the other. The tour guide arranged for us to bike around the lake; since my mom doesn’t ride a bike, Ken offered to get a tandem bike so she could enjoy the view:

They open the lake for swimmers once a year around the mid-Autumn festival and swimmers have the opportunity to swim 3000 meters during the festival.

It was a little overcast on our visit day, but still beautiful. This is Lalu Island, which is mostly gone due to water levels and an earthquake:

If you’re visiting Sun Moon Lake, you should also take a gondola ride to enjoy the views:

The ride is about 20 minutes and it was foggy on the day of our visit, but cool to see different parts of Sun Moon Lake:

We spent the afternoon eating Taiwanese food and drinking tea from the Sun Moon Lake area. The tour guide did a really good job telling us about the area (and spoke in both Chinese and English) and dropped us off at our hotel so we could have dinner later that evening!