The Sun Moon Lake is the largest body of water within Taiwan. You can make a day trip to Sun Moon Lake from Taichung or even Taipei. In this installment of our Taiwan Travel Guide series, we share our wonderful experience of visiting the Sun Moon Lake and what to see in this world-renowned destination.
Sun Moon Lake Taiwan Blog
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The Sun Moon Lake is so-named because the eastern part is sun-shaped, while the western part resembles a crescent moon. It is one of the most visited attractions in Taiwan. Today, we are privileged to make a one-day trip to this beautiful lake.
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Getting to Sun Moon Lake from Taichung
It is best if you have the time to spend a night at the Sun Moon Lake.
But if you don’t, the Sun Moon Lake can still be experienced as a day trip. However, a bit of planning is required if you intend to cover the best attractions within a day.
For our DIY day trip, we bought a Sun Moon Lake pass at the Taichung HSR station. This includes return bus tickets from Taichung to Sun Moon Lake, tickets for the ferry ride, cable car, and round-the-lake bus.
Discover Book Travel Tip:
Want to make the Sun Moon Lake a day trip from Taipei? You only need to take the HSR from Taipei to Taichung and then follow the directions on how to get to the Sun Moon Lake from Taichung. To make your travel more convenient, consider an organized day trip to the Sun Moon Lake.
Sun Moon Lake Ferry
Our Sun Moon Lake pass includes a ferry ride from Shuishe Pier to Ita Thao Pier.
There are 4 stops along this ferry route:
- Shuishe which is closest to where the buses from Taichung stop at;
- Lalu Island;
- Xuanguang Temple and
- Ita Thao Pier.
Ita Thao Pier is next to Ita Thao Shopping Street and the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway.
It was not indicated on the pass which ferry we were supposed to take. We only managed to identify the correct ferry by comparing the photo on the pass with those at the pier.
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The Ferry Journey
The ferry operates at a frequency of 20 minutes and there are both outdoor and indoor seats on the ferry. Soon after we left Shuishe Pier, visibility decreased so greatly that the ferry had to suspend operations. Passengers were given the option of alighting at the next stop and continue on by bus. Otherwise, we were to wait on board until the ferry resumes operations.
All the passengers on the ferry soon left one after another, leaving only Tommy and myself on board. Just after the last passenger left, the ferry resumed operations, and we had the entire ferry to ourselves!!
To save time and money, you may want to consider a three-day tour of Taiwan’s top attractions: Alishan, Sun Moon Lake, and Cingjing Farm. Wander through ancient forests and and pastoral landscapes. Enjoy stunning views of the country’s largest body of water. Click here for more information.
Ita Thao Pier
Our destination was the Ita Thao Pier. This was where we will continue on with the scenic Sun Moon Lake Ropeway.
We were charmed by this series of cute frogs lined up along the walkway to welcome visitors.
Ita Thao Visitor Centre is located at its pier and is where ferry tickets are sold.
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Ita Thao Shopping Street (伊達紹商店街)
One of the best things to do at Sun Moon Lake is to visit Ita Shao Shopping Street. This is the place where the best food and shopping is. However, our priority now is to get to the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway for a scenic cable car ride up to the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village (九族文化村).
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Ita Thao Lakeside Trail
From the Ita Thao Pier, we could see the cable cars of the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway in the distance.
The Sun Moon Lake Ropeway was around a kilometre away from the pier. It is connected to the pier via the Ita Thao Lakeside Trail. This trail is a nice scenic, quiet and easy walk which we enjoyed thoroughly.
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Bubble Tea Making Workshop at Taichung’s Chun Shui Tang (春水堂)
Sun Moon Lake Ropeway
The benefit of getting the Sun Moon Lake pass – no need to join the queue for tickets!
As with our experience with the Maokong Gondola in Taipei, there are 2 kinds of cable car cabins that you can choose from – the Crystal Cabins are the ones that comes with glass bottoms, and the regular ones are the ones with a solid floor.
There are 4 colors for the cable cars – orange, blue, yellow and green. Only the green ones are the glass-bottomed ones. The operating policy is to make you share cabins if the queue gets too long. So if you don’t want that to happen, be there earlier before the crowds come!
The benefits of a glass-bottomed cabin. It is a thrilling ride as we have a feel of exactly how high up we were.
The fantastic views of Sun Moon Lake from the top. It makes this cable car ride well worth the time and money.
The Sun Moon Lake Ropeway brings visitors up and across the mountains to the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village (九族文化村). The Village is the one and only stop on the ropeway.
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Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village (九族文化村)
The Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village houses the largest outdoor museum in Taiwan and displays the traditional homes and architecture of Taiwanese nine principal aborigine tribes. Here, there are also traditional performances by native aborigines and traditional aboriginal delicacies. What’s most interesting though, is that it also houses an amusement isle with some interesting rides.
Tommy had been to the Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village before, so we had no intention to visit it again. In addition, there’s an admission charge. Regardless of whether you want to visit the Culture Village, all passengers have to alight at the station and transfer to another cable car for the trip down the mountain.
We went down taking exactly the same ropeway route that we came up in. There were a lot of tourists at the station, and we were just glad to be ahead of them.
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Next Stop – Ita Thao Shopping Street
Next stop for us will be the Ita Thao Shopping Street. This is the best place to eat and shop at the Sun Moon Lake. Stay tuned!
To save time and money, you may want to consider a three-day tour of Taiwan’s top attractions: Alishan, Sun Moon Lake, and Cingjing Farm. Wander through ancient forests and and pastoral landscapes. Enjoy stunning views of the country’s largest body of water. Click here for more information.
We hope you find this article useful in your trip planning. We love to hear from you. Please drop us your comments in the comments box below.
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