Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area — Attraction in Yuchi Township

Despite kinda being known as over hyped and over capitalised to locals because of it's immense popularity amongst foreign and domestic tourists alike, I'd strongly argue this is still one of the best scenic/tourism area in Taiwan, you just have to go about it in a different way than the handbooks. For starters, most restaurants and shops have their prices jacked, so although counterintuitive, there's no need of trying to getting any local specialties here, as they're most likely not here at all. If you really want to eat or buy souvenirs, I would recommend doing that at the tourist information centre, it's the tall one just by the parking lot, where there are chain restaurants and their own stores that won't rip you off as bad. When it comes to the actual "touring", it's okay to go to the attractions, just avoid the paid activities. Also don't skip the drive around the lake, especially if you're an automotive enthusiast, it's so good as a route with carefully maintained ultra smooth tarmac and lines of medium...

Worst tourist location I ever had. I could not imagine how they could put a huge, I mean huge, concrete structure in the center of a scenic natural site and claimed that it was an award winning design. It's like blasphemy to the natural beauty of the lake. Later I was not as surprised when I saw there was a concerted effort to build all kinds of superstructures all around the lake all these years to convert a natural Park into an urban tourist site. My thirty-years-long memory of the original lake was totally destroyed. In addition to the ruin of my sight, my hearing was hurt when the management allowed the super disturbing noice of the renovation and the high frequency of the compressed air cleaner to be operated in their full capacity during my morning visit. There was a poster saying that there will be a concert coming. I thought they were preparing enthusiastically for the audio enjoyment of those concert guests in the expenses of the hearing of the ordinary visitors like me. Now you know what I...

Love this place. Must do. Best to budget 2-3 days. There are many B& B available. Best to stay on the Shuishe side. Easy to get to from Taichung train station by "nantou" bus, about 1.5 hour, fast ride. If stay 2-3 days, best to purchase package with bus RT, bike, boat, round the lake bus, etc. Must bike both bike paths! Each has beautiful views to offer and sites to explore. Bike paths are excellent and easy, except for a couple uphill, but doable. Bikes with 5 gears are okay. Do budget time for stops to take in views and explore. Recommend bus to visit Xuanguang temple and Cien pagoda, (stop at Xuanguang, visit this, then hike up to Cien, then walk down and down to Xuanguang pier) take boat on way back. Some days are cloudy, so make the most when you have sunny day...should have beautiful sunset from boating position. Wenwu temple can be visited as part of biking, need to visit all levels of temple. Wenwu is an amazing temple, go up and up, make sure to go thru to...