Taipei Tea Region
There are tea gardens inside Taipei city limits, which is reason enough to go up once. The gondola puts you on the tea hills forty minutes out of downtown; in Nangang the osmanthus flowers in autumn and the whole hill road smells of it.
Itineraries2
- Maokong by bicycle or on footDay tripNCCU → Zhinan Road → Caonan → the Maokong tea exhibition centre → the Zhanghu tea gardens → the Zhang Nai-miao memorial hallZhang Nai-miao is the man who brought Tieguanyin from Anxi in Fujian to Muzha; the hall stands beside his family’s garden.
- A day on the Nangang tea hillsDay tripNangang No.1 Citizens’ Farm (flowers, field games, making toon sauce and osmanthus jelly) → an osmanthus tea meal → the osmanthus grove → Nangang’s daylily hill → a guided walk of the tea-hill heritage sitesGood with children. Nangang is one of the birthplaces of pouchong, and the osmanthus is grown for scenting tea.
Sights and trails
Board at the zoo and ride four stops to Maokong. A few cabins have glass floors and queue separately. It shuts in bad weather — check before you go.
Free, and it covers where Muzha Tieguanyin came from and how it is made. The medium-to-heavy roast carries fruit acidity and charcoal — nothing like a high-mountain oolong.
The hillside is lined with tea houses, most with outdoor seats facing the Taipei skyline. One pot buys you a long sit — that is how it works here.
Things you can do yourself
Run by the Nangang Citizens’ Farm and good with children. Book ahead.