It's an old joke, but a reliable one because he is always true in Taiwan. A name here will never be a name, he's always a bunch of names. Even in the case of the Sun and Moon Lake, one of the biggest attractions that the Pacific island formerly known as Formosa has to offer.
Everyone who comes here visits the island's largest lake, named after the sun and the moon because one shoreline looks like a crescent moon, but the other supposedly looks like the sun's wheel. But originally the body of water on the western slope of the central mountains in the rural township of Yuchi in Nantou County was called Dragon Lake. For a while. Later it was given the name of a Dutch missionary Georgius Candidius, who worked in Dutch Formosa 400 years ago. (See my former posts about Taiwan here)
The mainland Chinese, who came to Formosa with Chiang Kai-check, decided to call it Sun Moon Lake - and transformed the body of water, originally created as a reservoir for a pumped storage power plant, into a tourist highlight. Not without reason is the lake today considered one of thirteen national scenic areas in Taiwan.
Weekends are tourist days
Thousands Tourists descend around the Sun Moon Lake over the weekends, and hotel room rates zoom up on Friday and Saturday nights. The best thing you can do is try to visit the lake during a weekday if you want to avoid crowds of mostly nervous visitors from the peoples republic of china.
Those who drive up the narrow serpentine roads to the lake, which lies at an altitude of 760 meters, will find a work of art made of concrete and steel that has been developed by every trick of modern architecture, an artificial oasis with boat docks and bathing bans, cable cars and a restaurant, huge bus parking lots and beaches.
In a war-shaped bunker
The hydroelectric power plant, which until 1960 covered all of Taiwan's electricity needs, is just one building among many. Much larger and more splendid are the Ci-En pagoda and the reception building for tourists, a kind of a war-shaped bunker. Her you will find informations about the geology and history, but also the incomparable souvenir store, which offers not only agricultural products from the region, but also souvenirs from the rich indigenous culture of the region. https://www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw/en
Swimming in the lake is prohibited, as is eating or drinking or chewing gum on the grounds. The taiwanese government isn't the funniest one. However, around the lake leads a 30-kilometer-long bicycle route, you can also hike. The real highlight of a visit here is the cable car ride up the mountain, which starts at the ultra-modern bottom station.
High in glass-cabins
Outside of the Chinese vacation season, the house seems oversized, as where thousands of people can be quequed, there are only a few dozen standing around. Then it's off up the mountain in the glassed-in cabins, not particularly fast, but very high. The Taiwanese, who are really in love with cable cars and are actually quite quiet, reserved contemporaries, beam with delight as the small gondola jerks upwards, rocked back and forth quietly by the wind.
From above, the central mountains of the island are seen in a haze. The forests look dusty, the lake looks dull, lying there unmoving without a single ripple. Much more adventurous than the lake tour with the cable car, which is more like a ride on a carousel, is the return trip on the narrow roads back down to the sea. The road creeps along endlessly, and in the evening the tour takes us right into the setting sun. A great experience.
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