台北縣平溪鄉 Pin Xi, Taipei. What a lovely place!

Pin Xi is so beautiful. It takes about 40 minutes on the bus from Mu Za (木柵) Taipei. If you take the train from Taipei, it takes about 1.5 hour. Though bus ride is faster, I recommend train ride. Pin Xi Line has the best scenery to offer. When I was on the train going into Ching Tung Village (菁桐村), which is the last stop on Pin Xi Line, I was so impressed by the mountain views!

In fact, besides the scenery, there's basically nothing to do. All you do is walking! I quite like walking there because the train tracks are right in the middle of the village, and if you are lucky enough, you get to see Formosan Blue Magpie (台灣藍鵲)! I was really excited when I saw them flying in the sky. By the way, the air is so fresh and the water is so clean. It is a paradise. However, being a city boy, I guess I can only handle 2 nights there! I probably will go mad if I live there.

I was so amazed to see dogs sleeping like that (like corpse!) on the train track! I guess they know exactly when the train will come.




Wong Ku Station (望古站), what a tiny stop!








Waterfall! A pretty interesting one, which looks like eyes!


Mountains there are so pretty, especially when clouds start to swamp around them. Lovely scene, which is like a Chinese painting.




Palace Restaurant. I believe this is the most famous restaurant in that area. It is a traditional Japanese house with a lovely Japanese garden. The house is very clean and beautiful. The food they serve is amazingly tasty. I tried the steamed taro with ribs. Yummy!

I stayed in Tokyo Guesthouse, which is right behind Ching Tung Station. It is very small but very clean. The owner of the guesthouse is so nice. My friend wanted to fly the sky lantern (天燈), and she taught us how to do it. Comparing to other guesthouses around, Tokyo Guesthouse is really the best option in Pin Xi. She told us the best time to visit is around the 15th of lunar January, which is around the Lantern Festival. During that period of time, we can see tons of sky lanterns flying on the sky at night. I am thinking of re-visiting the area on that time. It will definitely be a wonderful experience.