A glance over the lake in the morning shows pretty good why it is so famous. The mountains are vanishing beatifully in the background in green and blue colours.

It has a little bit of Cote D´Azzur feeling. Yachts in the harbour, luxury hotels on the beach, bars und coffee shops.

We are nor sure about what to do today. Are we fit enough to cycle around the lake? We do not have a clear idea of how far it is in the beginning. Soon it came out only 30 kilometers which is not that much for a day. Shouldn't be a problem?

bike tour around the lake

On the other side of the lake a Youth-Aktivity-Center with byclicles for rent is available. Mountain bikes as a matter of fact. Never rode a mountain bike so far. Let's see.

The bikes can be chosen out of different models. And amazingly the are all well prepared. Quickly I get used to the new bike but the noise of the tyres is somehow annoying.

As we get on very quickly we decide to take the loop completely.

Needless to say there are again temples on our way. Two of them are located on oposite boarders of the lake.

up and down

The weather turns out again as perfect. No wind bothers the ride, sunny and dry.

Souvenirs: tea and rice wine

As most of the time during this trip we do not overstrain ourselfs. A lot of pictures to take, resting, having an ice cream or a beer. Special cooked eggs in tea, delicous. At the end we need to have some souvenirs. Local special products like tea and rice wine is what we take. And we're not the first tourists from Germany.

But before buying it's allway tasting. Two differnt kind of tea - leave to draw only a minute. No matter if green or black tea. It is possible to use the teat up to 5 or 6 times. Even black tea tastes better the second time.

Another thing we learn is that age does matter for rice wine too. We take two bottles of three year old wine. Let's see if this still tastes good when we're back home...

Late in the afternoon we start to our next stay in Tataka, the base camp for Yushan hiking. 1500 meter in altidude up. It is getting dark and almost no artificial light around so we bypass the small road at first. Though we arrive after dinner. Not so bad - we are not that hungry.