We continued our trip around Nantou next morning and the first stop is Aowanda National Forest Recreation Area (奧萬大國家森林). Located in central of Taiwan and known to locals as ‘the home for maple trees’, where people will flock here for the colours of autumn foliage. We’re there in December and the traffic was almost a standstill way before the car park entrance.

For some reason, there’re only a handful of maple trees which have turned red or orange. Not the sea of reddish and orangey maple scene that I was expecting, better luck next time I guess.

Aowanda suspension bridge

Next is the hike to Aowanda suspension bridge deep in the park, which is another famed attraction here. The walk ain’t that difficult especially with the lovely natural surrounding view. Oh yeah, more negative ions!

Ok, now I see you…but damn, still some distance more to go.

Based on the time stamps of photos taken, it took us around 1 hour to reach Aowanda suspension bridge. But what awaits us was this long queue of people waiting to cross…so it took another 30 min before it’s finally our turn…gosh.

Apparently, there’s a restriction limit of 50 people on this 180-meter long bridge at any point of time and it’s only one-way traffic. No choice then, safety first.

The view on the bridge is simply spectacular but I did not take as many photos as I like since there’re many people waiting at both ends of the bridge. Also, the crossing part ain’t scary at all since it will ‘just’ be a 90-meter drop. *touch wood…LOL

On the opposite side of the bridge is a huge pine trees area but we didn’t explore much, as the queue back was even more maddening here. So we quickly join the queue after a short rest.

We continued exploring a little more before calling a break for lunch. Thereafter moving on to our next destination – Puli (埔里).

Stopover at Puli Brewery

On the latter half of the day, the driver brought us to Puli Brewery (埔里酒廠) for a short stopover as our Minsu’s check in time is 4pm. Not so much for us here since we are not into Shaoxing Wine. But if you are, the Shaoxing is made from rice and then fermented in wine pots for years before bottling. There’s also a Wine Culture Museum for those who want to learn more about its history.

Live music performance by two lovely ladies at the pavilion.

We didn’t stay here for long and left for dinner shortly after.

STAY: Puli Jia Yuan Minsu review

The lodging for the night was at Puli Jia Yuan Minsu (埔里民宿佳園渡假山莊). We occupied the whole of Block A which consists of 6 bedrooms and the stay was very comfortable.

There’s this arts and crafts session which you can join at the Minsu too, here are what we have made.