Full-Day Private Tour Taipei Tamsui-Kavalan and Shiding Old Street

Meet your tour guide and driver at the hotel lobby, and then head off to Shiding District in New Taipei City. Just sit back and relax, enjoy the 90-min drive to the idyllic mountain town.

Your tour starts with a visit to the magnificent Thousand Island Lake, which shares the same name with the famous scenic spot in Hangzhou City, China. The lake is located in the south of Shiding, it was once an inhabited village before it was flooded to create the catchment area of Feitsui Reservoir. As the water rose, it submerged part of the mountains and resulted in a lake with countless islets scattered here and there. The stunning landscape resembles the Thousand Island Lake in China, hence the name.

The superior geographical location and the pleasant climate that Shiding is endowed with nourish the tea plantations around Feitsui Reservoir, and cultivate the two of top 10 Taiwanese teas, Wenshen Paochong Tea and Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea (Dong Fang Mei Ren). The next stop, Bagua Tea Plantation, is at a short distance from Thousand Island Lake. The tea plantation was so named because the neatly planted rows of tea bushes look just like the symbols of Eight Trigrams.

Before noon, you will pay a visit to the workshop of Hsu’s Noodle. ere you will experience a hands-on activity making your own Taiwanese vermicelli. Follow the instructor step by step, shake and pull the noodles until them become quite thin and almost break. Lastly, enjoy a fun and unique dining experience—flowing noodles (nagashi somen) —vermicelli flowing down a chute, savor this amazing and delectable craft.

Your tour continues with an easy walk along Shiding Old Street. Shiding Old Street used to be the distribution hub of tea merchandising for the adjacent districts such as Pinglin, Shuangxi and Shengkeng. In addition to tea, the textile dyeing industry and coal mining industry also made this street busy and prosperous. Because of the geographic conditions, the houses were built along the river, however, the hinterland beside the river was limited, therefore, people started to build houses above the riverbed directly, and supported the houses by only a few stilts. That makes a unique scene of Diaojjiaolou (stilt houses) and the roofed street. Besides, the Hundred-year-old Stone House and Yuanguang Blacksmith Shop also bring a feeling of nostalgia.

Shiding Section of Tamsui-Kavalan Trails is the southeastern route of Tamsui-Kavalan Trails, which connects Kavalan(now Yilan) and Bangka(now Wanhua) and used to be the main road of exporting tea and Mayflower gloryberry in the past.

Ambling down to the end of the west street of Shidin Old Street, you can see the entrance of the Shiding Section of Tamsui-Kavalan Trails. The trail in the woods is shaded by the foliages of trees, where the river is running in parallel; every year in May, the Tung Trees on the sides are in full bloom and create a fantastic view of a trail of scattered snow-white petals. If you keep walking forward and pass the viewing platform, you will see the towering National Highway No.5 is right above the trail, coincidentally making a scene of the modern high-way contrasting the historic trail.

Before the end of the one-day tour to Shiding, you will visit Shiding Wulu Fortune Temple, one of the most popular spots in northern Taiwan, where dedicates to 5 Gods of Wealth. Besides the splendid appearance of the temple, the “dragon pillars”, the statues of the deities and the incense burner are resplendent with gold, the dazzling “rotating fortune lights” on the ceiling make the temple even more magnificent. Since you are here, why not exchange some lucky coins with Huye (Tiger God), pray for wealth and prosperity, and bring the blessings of the God of Wealth back home?

After that, you will head back to downtown Taipei around 16:30 and arrive in your hotel around 18:00.