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A Stylish bnb in Yilan

Kmage Loft is a unique bnb. It is home to a Taiwanese photographer. Kmage is the name of his photo studio in Taipei. Locating in the middle of farm fields, Kmage Loft is an independent house with wide open view. The closest neighbor is across a small river. It is a tranquil environment with fresh air and very green. The house was not built by the owner Mr. Kuo Cheng Chang. However, he has spent a lot of money and effort to transform it into a great home to live, including changing the direction of the main door to avoid strong wind, adding windows to lit up the house. He also designed all the interiors and even made some furnitures himself. Impressive! Mr. Kuo bought the house for a better living environment with more green open space. So he designed it the way he wanted to live in . The reason why he rent out the house is because he travels overseas for work all the time. He wants his house to be a living home, not a vacant block. That’s…

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A Modern Service Area by the Beach

No. 9 Cafe at Wai Ao Service Area 外澳服務中心的九號咖啡

If you are driving from Taipei to Yilan along the coast line, Wai Ao is one of the stopping points for lunch or coffee break. You won’t miss this bright yellow structure with a big open door looking at the Turtle Island. This is the Wai Ao service area. There are parking space, a restaurant (No. 9 Cafe), and of course washrooms. For drivers, this is a nice area for a break. In the summer, this black sand beach is a popular place for surfing and body boarding. Many people come here on a day-trip by taking a bus from Taipei. Depending on where you are in Taipei, the bus going through the tunnel between Taipei and Yilan only takes one hour.

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DIY Spring Onion Pancake

Spring onion pancake DIY 三星蔥油餅工作坊

Spring Onion is one of the famous agricultural products in Three Stars Township in Yilan County of Taiwan. What’s so special about the spring onion from Yilan? Of course the local said that the ones grown in Three Stars Township taste better and a lot more expensive than other spring unions. All attributable to the unpolluted environment, fresh water from the upper stream, rich soil and suitable weather.  How serious are the locals with spring onion? Well, there are competitions every year to name the champion, first and second runner-ups of making the pancakes. While most recipes use spring union as garnish or toppings, people here use it as the main ingredient to make pancakes. In this trip, I have tasted spring onion pancakes from three different shops and I prefer this one. This farm offers DIY workshops for groups and individuals to make it. Depending on your time and mood, you may start from going down to the field to pick your own spring onions, wash them, to making flour dough to wrapping the finished spring onion cakes. It is…

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A Colorful and Romantic Journey

Yilan Train Station 宜蘭火車站

Launched in 2013, the Yilan train station and neighborhood (called Jimmy Square) has become a lovely open photo studio, decorating with some interesting art works of Jimmy Liao, a famous illustrator in Taiwan. I like Jimmy Liao’s illustration and think that he is a great artist with great imagination, excellent drawing skills, and very thoughtful. His style is original. He became famous after publishing some award-winning children’s books. I read his books. No kidding, it’s more for adults to appreciate, seeing the world from the heart of children. The theme of the Yilan train station is “Snapshots of your Journey”.  The area is decorated with larger-than-life colorful travel-related characters and sculptures. The selected scenes of Jimmy Liao include: the two friends waiting for a bus from “Starry night”, the characters of “Turn left, turn right” when they both left the apartment to start looking for a new place to live, the luggages of different sizes and shapes from “Subway”. It is also a great illustration of everyone’s journey – some sad stories, some romantic, some happy endings…

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Next Station is…Happiness

Wang Long Pi in Yilan, Taiwan 台灣宜蘭望龍埤

Wang Long Pi is a little lake area where the lake was formed by heavy rain and landslide hundreds of years ago. “Wang Long” means “looking forward for the dragon” in Chinese, meaning that people were looking for good weather to maintain a good environment for farming. Located in the middle of the mountain area and relatively higher altitude, the water level depends on the rain. It was dried up and left abandoned in 80s. Since 2001, the local Recreation Agricultural Department was formed. With the cooperation of various departments, Wang Long Pi was rebuilt through diverting water from the “big stream”, digging up all the muds in the lake, planting trees, putting fish in the lake, adding a foot bridge and pavilion, turning this area to be a nice relaxing outing place in Yilan. Wang Long Pi has become a tourist attraction after a romanic local drama series called “Next station is…Happiness” was broadcasted in 2009. The official English name of the drama series was “Autumn Concerto” but I prefer the Chinese name, more catchy. The Lake Cafe was where the drama was filmed. You…

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Cherry Valley Roast Duck Cuisine

Cherry Valley roasted duck in Yilan 宜蘭櫻桃烤鴨

If you are not a vegetarian and like ducks, do not miss out the famous Cherry Valley Duck Cuisine in Red Lantern restaurant. It is located in Silk Place, the only international 5-star hotel in Yilan. The hotel is connecting to a big shopping mall so please ask the hotel front desk when you get there. Going from the shopping mall can be confusing. The menu is extensive, offering a wide variety of Chinese food, including dim-sum.  Of course the famous five-course Cherry Valley roast duck set is not to be missed. It is good for 4 to 6 people sharing. It was delicious!  The signature roast duck nigrili is on top of this post, the featured image. The Cherry Valley roast duck has nothing to do with cherries. The duck breed was originally from northern China and called Peking duck. Then it is brought over the Cherry Valley in the UK where the breed was widely farmed and distributed. Yilan has become the breeding place in Taiwan with high quality of water and agricultural environment for Cherry Valley ducks, supplying high quality…

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Memorial Hall of Yilan Administration

Memorial Hall of Founding Yilan Administration 宜蘭設治紀念館

The Memorial Hall of Founding of Yilan Administration was the residence of the provincial magistrates (chief government official of Yilan) during the Japan occupation. The residence is a few buildings put together with a nice elegant garden, mainly Japanese style. The story began with a discussion of preserving an old champhor tree in the garden. That lead to a retention of the whole building and the neighborhood. When it comes to historical buildings of Taiwan, many of them are Japanese.

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The Castle Cafe

Castle Cafe in Toucheng Township, Yilan County, Taiwan. 台灣宜蘭頭城金車城堡咖啡

If you drive from Taipei to Yilan, this Castle Cafe is a good coffee break option. Locating in the middle of the hill, Castle Cafe overlooks Pacific Ocean and the famous Turtle Hill Island (Guishan Island) of Yilan. A spectacular view! Built and owned by King Car Group, the Castle is open for public. There’s no obligation to buy coffee at Mr. Brown Coffee at the Castle. You are free to hang out and picnic outside and take pictures of the building. It is a tourist attraction and certainly a nice place to visit with great view.

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The World’s Best Whisky

Kavalan Whisky

If you visit Yilan, everyone recommends a visit to Kavalan Whisky Distillery. I am not a whisky fan but I went take a look anyway. Driving into (or through) the factory is surprisingly pleasant. It was spacious, clean, very green with rows of neatly planted trees, and there are lots of egrets in the yard. It takes a few minutes to drive through the factory to arrive at the Whisky Distiller building which is open for public. Kavalan Whisky is founded by King Car Group in 2002 when Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization. “Kavalan” is the name of the aboriginals from flatland which is Yilan today.  It is a vast lush flatland facing Pacific Ocean with a backdrop of some tall mountains.  The location was chosen because of the unlimited supply of pure fresh water from the snow mountain and the central streams. Water is critical to the success of the whisky business. Walking through the Whisky Distillery is self-guided. You just have to follow the signs and read the information in the exhibition halls. It was very interesting, even to people like me who…

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The Plum Lake with no Plums

Plum Lake in Yilan 宜蘭梅花湖

Just an hour away from Taipei, Yilan is a nice and calm county where you will see a vast area with green rice fields, farmlands, mountains, forests and lakes. The Plum Lake is a good place where you can spend time to relax by the lake, take a walk or paddle boat in the lake.  There are a couple of restaurants and a few bed and breakfast place by the lake where you can spend a day or a weekend there. Don’t expect to see plums there! I’ve seen other posts saying that there are plums during the season (usually between end Dec and Jan/Feb). It was wrong! The name “Plum Lake” came after one of the senior government officials who commented that the shape of the lake with a little island in the middle looked like a plum flower. Not that there are real plum trees! I heard from a local that there were discussions about planting plum trees so that the name of the place ties in with “Plum” but it hasn’t happened yet. Who knows. May be there are some next time…

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