We were initially quite worried whether we’d find appropriate accommodation after we decided to do a night at Cingjing, so we didn’t wait to lock in a room reservation once our travel dates were locked in. Truth to tell, there’s no lack of minsu-styled places to stay in (‘min’ means locals, ‘su’ means home stays), and there are also apparently Airbnb options even. I reckon one needs to be finally mindful of how long you’re going to stay in Cingjing. Basically, if you’re looking to only visit Cingjing Farm, then a day-trip out of Taichung is fine, as Cingjing Farm can be easily covered in a single day, even with the 90 minute journey each way from Taichung and Cingjing and back. If Mt Hehuan is on the itinerary, then yep you need to spend a night in the town: an ascent up the mountain without stopping will already take at least 35 minutes, slightly less down – and you’ll want to spend at least an hour at the numerous stops to soak in the sights!
The other major point of consideration is whether you want a room that will face the morning sun. We intentionally chose one that would. At the point of booking, we knew that we would unlikely do the trip up 4AM departing trip up Mt. Hehuan to observe the morning sunrise – so a sunrise at Cingjing is the next best thing, and you’ll need a room with an unobstructed view facing east for that. That we dropped sunrise at Mt. Hehuan turned out just as well in this particular instance, as I don’t think the fiery red cloud layer I witnessed would had been visible over at Mt. Hehuan! I’ve never seen anything quite like it before, and I’ll post up a view of it when we’re back in Singapore.
We saw quite a few accommodations in the Tudor-style architecture, so The Cotswold Villa isn’t actually unique in this sense. And while we can’t speak for the other minsu stays, The Cotswold Villa has a jaw-dropping stunningly decorated reception and exhibition area on the first floor. The Villa is fairly small – just four floors, and I reckon there’s maybe just a dozen rooms in the villa, with perhaps 3 or 4 rooms each floor. The room we had had a view of the mountain range just yonder, two queen-sized beds, a shower-stall and toilet with heated floor tiles, a 42″ flat-screen TV – all lovingly furnished in lacquered wood. Breakfast is served at the dining room in a neighboring wing. Amenities wise is fairly basic – and we’re not complaining since this was just a one night stay.
What really impressed us though and made the visit really memorable was our minsu host Jennifer. She’s an elderly lady I reckon in her mid to late 60s, with a very genial personality and briefed us with great clarity and patience. I think she stays in the villa itself, with her room on the first floor, so your needs are pretty much well-taken care of if you need help at odd hours.
Pictures!
One last bit about the Cingjing area – and specifically Inako Valley View Restaurant that Kong brought us to for lunch on Day 05. The restaurant is so named I reckoned because in the distance, you can see a valley with a tiny lake. That, or that the restaurant really does sit facing a small valley with hills on both sides. Either way, the view from the restaurant is indeed quite pretty, though obviously only in the day time when there’s light. The house specialty is roast chicken, and it’s served with rice, sauces, vegetables, and also soup. Like the other restaurants we’ve visited in Cingjing, the menu options are sized by how many persons you need to feed. We were initially worried that a two person meal wouldn’t be sufficient for a family of four – but we were assured by the wait staff that it would be.
And boy, were they right: there was a huge bucket of rice – enough for four adults – a fairly large and well-fed chicken sent to roast, a cabbage dish, and winter melon soup. We struggled to finish everything – where’s the Ang Mo when you need him haha. Total damage was NTD700/SGD31, and personally, I liked this meal more than the pricey Spring Ground Hotpot dinner the previous night.
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