Taiwan is China only nicer. Everyone is friendly and  its very clean but they are still Chinese as Taiwan is not officially recognised as a country.

We found a very good value tour using five star hotels so we had a week of luxury. After weeks of economy we were going to make the most of it!

Starting in Taipei we were picked up by coach for our first destination, the famous Sun Moon lake. Its the largest lake in Taiwan and 748 metres above sea level. It is said the east side of the lake resembles the sun and the west side resembles the moon although you might need to be a local to see this!

 

 

The Ci en pagoda trail takes you uphill  on paving for about 700 metres to the 46 metre high pagoda built by Chang Kai Shek in 1971. Constructed  in memory of his mother it was said to be one of his favourite places. From here the views of the lake are fabulous.

The Wen Wu temple is a Confucian temple Wen means scholarly and Wu is martial arts and originally they were two separate temples. Now combined you take the 366 steps known as the stairway to heaven up to it. On either side the prayer bells move in the wind like wind chimes. You can buy one and add it to the steps if you want to.

Then back to our luxurious hotel room with two huge beds and a private balcony with views over the mountains. The toiletries were super posh, there was even a face mask. We did eat the nice fruit but we didn’t try the enormous  marble hot spring tub. A good start to our tour.