New Taipei Tea Region
You can be standing in pouchong country a little over an hour after leaving Taipei Main Station. Pinglin has the museum, the river and trails you can finish in an afternoon; Shiding’s old street is built out over the water; Sanxia makes a green tea unlike anywhere else. All three work as day trips.
Itineraries4
- Pinglin in a day: the museum and the waterDay tripPinglin Tea Museum → eco park → a tea-banquet lunch → riverside park → old street → the shopping street → suspension bridge → fish-watching walk → Shuiliujiao trailThe easiest of the four, mostly flat. Two hours in the museum, half a day for the rest.
- The Hutong old trailDay tripTea Museum → Qianyuan Temple at Shuide (trailhead) → the Hutong ruins → the stone bridge → lunch at Huliaotan → Huliaotan suspension bridge → the “dog-tooth” river bed → Cushihu bridge → tea gardensTrail shoes needed. The “dog-tooth” formation is cut by the stream — stay out of the bed after rain.
- The Queyuku trail and the terracesDay tripTea Museum → Pingshuang Road → Cushikou trail → tea gardens → the Yuguang slab bridge → terraced fields → the stone-house settlement at Dashehu → Dashehu trail → Cushihu bridge → Huliaotan bridgeThe most scenic. Dashehu is a great bend in the Beishi river, and people still live in the stone houses.
- Nanshan Temple and Shigongjiwei mountainDay tripTea Museum → Pingshuang Road → Dashehu lookout → tea gardens → Nanshan Temple → Shigongjiwei trail → a country lunch → an organic tea garden open to visitorsThe biggest climb of the four. From the top you see the Taipei basin and the Xueshan range.
Sights and trails
The only public museum in Taiwan devoted to tea, built as a Minnan-Anxi courtyard house. The permanent galleries run all year, with changing special exhibitions. There is a full write-up under Tea houses.
The old street is short and quickly walked; tea-leaf egg rolls are the local speciality. The footbridge crosses the Beishi river, with the fish-watching path directly below.
Stilt houses stand on boulders in the stream bed, and the two rows of buildings roof the lane over into the “street that never sees the sky”. A century-old stone house opens at weekends. The Danlan trail was the Qing-era road from Taipei to Yilan.
When this road through Shiding was widened as a scenic route, six lookouts went in along it; on the right day you get a sea of cloud. Comfortable by car or motorcycle.
The temple’s stone and wood carving took decades and is often called an eastern palace of art. The old street is a long row of red-brick arcaded façades.
Things you can do yourself
A walk and a pick at the Ankeng gardens, a farm lunch, brewing practice, then fixing and rolling. Sanxia makes Longjing from the Qingxin Ganzai cultivar, and Biluochun — one of the few districts in Taiwan built on green tea.
An organic tea garden at Zhongdakeng in Pinglin that practises “farming Zen” — a day without work is a day without food, and the labour is the lesson. Contact them in advance.