Sun Moon Lake

We enjoyed a beautiful day trip to Sun Moon Lake.  It was about an hours drive from the apartment.  Once we were out of the city a little ways the smog cleared and drive was very pretty.

Loaded and ready to head out

The area of Sun Moon Lake reminded me very much of a ski town in Colorado...narrow, windy  streets loaded with shops and restaurants.  We poked around in the shops for a bit. We all enjoyed looking around, Zane loves to watch all the people.  We found Zane the cutest little music box with the Big Bad Wolf and the three little pigs. 

Chinese love cute things! SO does Zane

Zane's new music box

After lunch we walked down to the lake.  It's very big with lots of tour type boats that all seemed to be loaded full of passengers and lots of play boats.  The water was very clear and absolutely beautiful  We will definitely go back when the weather gets warmer and enjoy the lake.  The view of the mountains  from the lake side is breathtaking.

So many big boats

When we were driving in I had seen a Pagoda way up in the mountains and really wanted to check it out.  We loaded back into the car and started driving  up the mountain. It was a pretty narrow road and their were LOTS of people riding rented bikes up road.  These were not experienced cyclists getting their exercise, these were just average people making their way to the top.   With drop offs on both sides of the road I thought they were nuts!  We wound around until we found where you parked to walk to the pagoda.  Since the tour buses could not drive to this spot it was not crowded at all. We loaded Zane into the backpack and started up the hill. It was 239 steps to the top with pathway between those steps.  It was a beautiful climb with lots of vegetation to provide shade.

Best way to the top!

As we climbed the view of the lake below was amazing!

It was totally worth the climb.  The pagoda was very cool!   And then we climbed to the top of that....154 stairs to the top and we could ring the gong, plus the view from there was the best yet!

This is Eric....he is our assistant, interpreter , driver and has been invaluable to us these first few weeks.

Stairs inside the pagoda to the top

A very heavy, very loud gong....Zane loved it

I am really glad we took the time to climb all the way up.  It was a lot of fun and the weather could not have been more beautiful.

I love looking at all the temples here.  We stopped at one today that had some really pretty features.  I always love a dragon and the one on this Temple was really nice. When I look at theses temples and all the detail I think about how many hours went into the carvings and details. And there was the god of love.  His story is that he lives on the moon and if you pray to him he will "tie" you to the person you are supposed to love.

The god of love

All in all it was a very fun day.  I look forward to sharing our next adventure!

Laura