Miaoli County

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#1

A Taiwanese friend suggested Miaoli County was an interesting place to visit. I visited Shitoushan a few years ago although my memories of it have faded. Some other places mentioned at Forumosa.com are Tai-an and Beipu. My friend recommended the following places:

苑裡 Yuanli – 華陶窯 pottery kilns

三義 Sanyi – 木雕 wood carving

公館 Gongguan – 桐花 Tong flowers

通霄 Tongxiao – 海﹐菊花 sea and chrysanthemums

Anyone visited these places or have any other suggestions? Also, I suspect the public transport to some of the interesting places probably isn’t great. Should I take my motorbike or bicycle there to make it easier to get around?

#2

[quote=“wix”]A Taiwanese friend suggested Miaoli County was an interesting place to visit. I visited Shitoushan a few years ago although my memories of it have faded. Some other places mentioned at Forumosa.com are Tai-an and Beipu. My friend recommended the following places:

苑裡 Yuanli – 華陶碗 pottery kilns

三義 Sanyi – 木雕 wood carving

公館 Gongguan – 桐花 Tong flowers

通霄 Tongxiao – 海﹐菊花 sea and chrysanthemums

Anyone visited these places or have any other suggestions? Also, I suspect the public transport to some of the interesting places probably isn’t great. Should I take my motorbike or bicycle there to make it easier to get around?[/quote]Taian’s good for hiking, Hakka food, and hot springs. The wood carving in Sanyi itself is good, but for more picturesque buildings you can go to the nearby Shengxin (or maybe it’s Xinsheng; can’t remember) train station area.

The hills around Nanzhuang are pretty nice. Shitoushan’s good too.

Like any touristy place, these places are better visited at off-peak times.

#3

[quote=“wix”]A Taiwanese friend suggested Miaoli County was an interesting place to visit. I visited Shitoushan a few years ago although my memories of it have faded. Some other places mentioned at Forumosa.com are Tai-an and Beipu. My friend recommended the following places:

苑裡 Yuanli – 華陶碗 pottery kilns

三義 Sanyi – 木雕 wood carving

公館 Gongguan – 桐花 Tong flowers

通霄 Tongxiao – 海﹐菊花 sea and chrysanthemums

Anyone visited these places or have any other suggestions? Also, I suspect the public transport to some of the interesting places probably isn’t great. Should I take my motorbike or bicycle there to make it easier to get around?[/quote]

Agree with Joe. To add, I’m pretty sure you need an reservation and a group for Yuanli. Sanyi is also great for the Youtong trees but it may be a little late now.

Otherwise, don’t like Gongguan. Grubby overcrowded hot spring village. But the nearby forest reserve is very nice.

Beipu is not bad for an afternoon. Nearby in Nazhuang there’s a great hot spring resort.

Yes, take your own bike. I like just cruising around the hills around Nanzhuang and Taian.

#4

I live in Miaoli.
Theres a lot more you can visit in Miaoli.
AndYes, I suggest you to take your motorbike .
The traffic is not bad here and you can find more beautiful spot here by yourself.
I recommend :nan zhuang ,san yi and da hu.(xue ba guo jia gong yuan)
You can view this first.
travel.miaoli.gov.tw/
Any more information I can offer ,tell me.
I see if I can help you.
Welocome To Miaoli.
:slight_smile:

#5

Sanyi’s got some fairly good hiking along the old railway. When I was there last summer they were pulling some of the rails up, but I’m not sure why. You could still walk along it though - it was a dirt path instead of a train track. Public transport is possible for Sanyi, although you may need to take a short taxi ride ($100 or so) from the train station to the wood carving area.

Sanyi tourist website

I’ve heard Tongxiao has a small Japanese shinto temple/shrine that is still in use and some traditional 3-sided farmhouses, although I’ve not been there to confirm. There’s a train station, so getting there by public transport is easy.

Beipu is quite nice, but very, very crowded on a Sunday. There is a small b&b you can stay at, although Beipu is very quiet after about 8pm. There’s some old streets and temples, which is where most people go, but if you head slightly out of town there’s a valley that’s great for photo’s. To get to Beipu by public transport, you’ll need to take a bus from Jhudong (I think that’s its name), which is near Hsinchu.

Even though all of these places are reachable on bus/train, you’d be much better off with your own transport.

#6

There are a lot of quiet villages aorund Miaoli and Xinzhu.
Quite different from the cities .
tongxiao,xi hu …you can see the some traditional 3-sided farmhouses.
you can try the Peipu leng quan .Nice place to visit.
I drove there at that time.But motorbike is more available.

#7

I’ve recently come back from a four day motorcycle trip to Xinzhu and Miaoli. I discovered some great places there. I’ll make a few brief notes.

Beipu – very interesting town with beautiful temple and some nice tea houses and interesting old buildings. The cold springs outside town looked like they needed a bit of attention. They hadn’t been cleaned for a while. Better to swim in the river beside the springs. Above the springs is Wu Zhi Shan or Five Finger Mountain which has some temples and you can hike to the top. Great views from this mountain.

Nanzhuang – This is a very nice small town surrounded by mountains. There are a few minor attractions in the town itself. The nearby Dong He valley has many aboriginal villages. The Xiang Tian Hu tribe is a Saisiat village with a museum. It is well worth visiting the museum and also this village is in a spectacular location by a lake surrounded by mountains.

Yuanli – Hwataoyao is a little difficult to describe. It is a garden and pottery centre. The entry ticket is not cheap ($380/450 on weekdays/weekends). I think it is well worth a visit but if you don’t speak Mandarin you would really need someone who can translate for you so you can properly appreciate it all.

I have made a photoset at flickr with photos from the trip. I am also posting a travelogue on my blog. The first two days are online now. See Taipei to Beipu and Beipu to Nanzhuang.

#8

Nice pics.
NanZhuang is a very beautiful place .
I will go there this summer again.
Did you visit the Long Teng Duan Qiao in San yi?
Thats a wonderful place to see.
I hope you have tried the Hakka tea…lei cha.

#9

[quote=“wisher”]Did you visit the Long Teng Duan Qiao in San yi?
Thats a wonderful place to see.
I hope you have tried the Hakka tea…lei cha.[/quote]

I just posted Nanzhuang to Sanyi which has a picture of the broken bridge. I will post about the Hwataoyao tomorrow.

I have tried lei cha several times. I have a photoset at flickr showing the stages of making it.

#10

Well,I can’t see the NanZhuang to Sanyi.
And if you have another chance to come to Miaoli,You can try to visit
Gong Guan,Taian,and Da Hu.

#11

[quote=“wisher”]Well,I can’t see the NanZhuang to Sanyi.
And if you have another chance to come to Miaoli,You can try to visit
Gongguan,Taian,and Da Hu.[/quote]

I fixed the link. I really would like to go back and visit Tai’an. Also I would like to go to Xiang Tian Hu for the “pygmy dancing” next year.

#12

Wow,you have been to many places of Miaoli.
Some of them I have not been for a long time.
Mingde Reservoir will have the new resort in a few years.
The famous movie “Lu bing hua” was filmed here.

I like Shibi Village .
But I never have chance to attend the"pygmy dancing" in Xiang Tian Hu .
Thanks for sharing those pictures.
I can introduce my hometown to my friends through your Pics.

#13

We were driving in Miaoli County (MingDe Reservoir) a few months ago, and walked across a suspension bridge to a temple (I know, that’s not very specific, but it’s the best I can do…), and then across a water-level road/bridge to a campground with some little caravans and tenting facilities. We spoke with the owner, who gave us his card. It all looked very well run, and we’d like to return. Trouble is, I lost the card, and couldn’t find the place again if my life depended on it!

Does anyone have any info on this place? We’d like to stay in the caravans for a night or two before it gets too hot…

#14

I really liked Tongxiao as a place to get away from Taichung County. A scooter ride along the coast is worth doing. Some of the hugest watermelons I’ve ever seen grow in the area.

#15

Wisher & Wix -
Thank you for the Miaoli information. My wife was born in that area and always speaks well of it. She always insists we buy rice from Miaoli. Says it just tastes better…now I know why!

We plan to make a 3-4 day trip there sometime.

#16

Yesterday I drove through Nanzhuang and went all the way to Lùchǎng (Luchang/鹿場). Many of the sakura and other such flowering trees are in bloom now, making the Nanzhuang area look even lovelier than usual. I don’t know, however, if the peak blossom time is approaching or already past. Surprisingly, Nanzhuang wasn’t stuffed with people around noon. It was much more crowded when I passed back through around 6 p.m.

This is doable as a day trip from Taipei. There are also [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/b-b-rec-in-the-mountains-of-hsinchu-and-miaoli-counties/51171/1 places to stay[/url].

The trail through Shénxiān gǔ (Shenxian Valley / 神仙谷) looked especially nice. (But not so many flowering trees there.) Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to walk farther than the suspension bridge. Someday…

#17

I was in nanzhuang for a couple days two weeks ago. Sure was lovely. Stayed at that place in the hills you linked to.

Didn’t see any cherry trees blooming at the time so the season should just be starting.

Luchang was a great surprise. Pretty little high mountain village with most of the buildings still old Japanese clap board style. What I love about nanzhuang is that it was developed only in the past few years so lots of old houses around the countryside and the new places for tourists are mostly wood or brick. Real emphasis on not overdeveloping.

#18

I went to TongXiao a few weeks ago to write an article for a magazine about it.

It is not a bad place to visit for a quiet weekend away. They have some really nice guest houses and they will all pick you up at the station and rent you a bicycle to get around on.

http://www.tungshiau.gov.tw/measage_t.asp

i’m sure I found an English version of this, but can’t seem to find it now.

#19

Anywhere around SanYi is nice especially up to to the XinSheng Station. There are loads of beautiful hidden valleys all over Miaoli, a large part of the county being mountainous or hilly. You can drive around DaHu, SanYi, SanWan, GongGuan and just come across stuff. If you like Hakka food then Miaoli is the best spot in Taiwan to try some and there is still a strong hakka and farming culture here, not apparent immediately from the outside but spend anytime there and you will see. Miaoli is very safe and peaceful, Hakka people are generally low-key, shy almost and will almost never bother you (though some of the hordes of tourists at weekends might!).

Taian hot spring area and the entrance to ShuiBa is very scenic and some of the best hot springs in Taiwan (By the way there are no real hot-springs in GongGuan, only from DaHu up to Tai-An, but I agree the town should be by-passed by any traveller, but GongGuan township is itself nice to drive around- MM).

Flying Cow ranch is a good spot for families and adults too. TongXiao, Zaocao and the Zhunan area are nice for the hilly and coastal landscape, very different than the interior area of Miaoli, quiet places in the main and there are nice coastal/beach walks around TongXiao. You can take the train and get on and off the above places and walk around. Taiwan beer has a big brewery in Zhunan, not sure if there are tours open to the public or not. TongXiao used to have better beach facilities but they seem to have been abandoned/run-down/destroyed in typhoons.

NanZhuang is a beautiful spot, high up towards the central mountains (need a fairly decent set of wheels), this time of year is ideal to go, as other posters mentioned there is a nice aboriginal area with lake and pine forest nearby though almost always shrouded in mist it seems. Beiwan is great to catch some hakka food and drinks and get a feel of old time Taiwan (similar to Neiwan in Xinchu, which is great for looking at fireflies). I wouldn’t recommend MingDe reservoir so much but I guess to visit once may be worth it.

#20

It’s also a really great road to cycle on–the #124, that is.
It’s about a 50 kilometer loop around the # 124 and the # 3. Great climb up to the temple and a beautiful winding drop back to the # 3. It’s even nice a cool in the summer.