If Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, Yunhsien Dreamland (雲仙樂園), is the most content, at least in the off season. The swimming pools have been emptied, many of the rides are under repair, and the throngs of children are noticeably absent. What the dreamland becomes during this time of year -- especially on weekdays -- is the perfect place to take a date.
For those unfamiliar with it, Yunhsien is an amusement park that sits atop the magnificent waterfall in Wulai, Taipei County. A two-minute cable car ride across the river takes you to the top of the adjacent mountain to a place that's half playground and half Chinese garden. Imagine the ponds and pathways of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall placed on a picturesque mountaintop, but with games and rides instead of a monument to a dictator.
PHOTO: DAVID MOMPHARD, TAIPEI TIMES
During peak season, the obvious attractions are a large swimming pool and slide, a golf driving range and a bicycle rollercoaster that doesn't involve any coasting, rolling is difficult enough. There are a number of other rides like it that generally involve sitting in something that moves along a track for a minute or two. Unless you're six years old, they're largely forgettable with the exception of a haunted house ride that certainly every cunning teenage boy in the metropolitan area has taken his girlfriend to.
With many of those attractions shuttered and the teenagers in class, the place becomes a dreamland for young lovers, who would rather spend an afternoon rowing a boat on the large fishpond that feeds the waterfall or have their picture taken by the many streams that feed into the pond. Of course, the haunted house remains open for them, too. Some things never change.
A testament to just how romantic a spot Yunhsien is: it has a jewellery store with a plentiful supply of ladies' rings.
"I think we sell more engagement rings than any other jeweler in Taiwan," said Ms. Wu, who has watched the shop for a number of years. "I just hope they stay on people's fingers!"
The one major drawback to Yunhsien it's that it closes at 5pm, when the park empties and the cable cars fill with families heading home. But here's a little-known secret: the cable car leaves Yunhsien again at 6pm and 8pm. A good thing to keep in mind if your date is going well. If it's going particularly well, there's even a hotel and villas on the grounds, but be prepared to pay top-dollar for a room; after 8pm, you're a captive audience.
To get to Yunhsien Dreamland from the Hsintien MRT station, you must first take the bus to Wulai (
Wooden houses wedged between concrete, crumbling brick facades with roofs gaping to the sky, and tiled art deco buildings down narrow alleyways: Taichung Central District’s (中區) aging architecture reveals both the allure and reality of the old downtown. From Indigenous settlement to capital under Qing Dynasty rule through to Japanese colonization, Taichung’s Central District holds a long and layered history. The bygone beauty of its streets once earned it the nickname “Little Kyoto.” Since the late eighties, however, the shifting of economic and government centers westward signaled a gradual decline in the area’s evolving fortunes. With the regeneration of the once
Even by the standards of Ukraine’s International Legion, which comprises volunteers from over 55 countries, Han has an unusual backstory. Born in Taichung, he grew up in Costa Rica — then one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — where a relative worked for the embassy. After attending an American international high school in San Jose, Costa Rica’s capital, Han — who prefers to use only his given name for OPSEC (operations security) reasons — moved to the US in his teens. He attended Penn State University before returning to Taiwan to work in the semiconductor industry in Kaohsiung, where he
In February of this year the Taipei Times reported on the visit of Lienchiang County Commissioner Wang Chung-ming (王忠銘) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and a delegation to a lantern festival in Fuzhou’s Mawei District in Fujian Province. “Today, Mawei and Matsu jointly marked the lantern festival,” Wang was quoted as saying, adding that both sides “being of one people,” is a cause for joy. Wang was passing around a common claim of officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the PRC’s allies and supporters in Taiwan — KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party — and elsewhere: Taiwan and
Perched on Thailand’s border with Myanmar, Arunothai is a dusty crossroads town, a nowheresville that could be the setting of some Southeast Asian spaghetti Western. Its main street is the final, dead-end section of the two-lane highway from Chiang Mai, Thailand’s second largest city 120kms south, and the heart of the kingdom’s mountainous north. At the town boundary, a Chinese-style arch capped with dragons also bears Thai script declaring fealty to Bangkok’s royal family: “Long live the King!” Further on, Chinese lanterns line the main street, and on the hillsides, courtyard homes sit among warrens of narrow, winding alleyways and
RSS