Carton King and Small Swiss Garden in Cingjing, Taiwan

Do you see a heart in the sky?

Gonna write a short travel post to get us through mid-week! A destination that we had planned in our Taiwan trip was Cingjing (清境). I really love Cingjing as the weather was cooling and windy – no more humid and warm weather, hooray! The reason why the place is so nice and cooling is because Cingjing is located at 1,750 metres above sea level, with temperatures ranging from 15 degrees Celsius to 23 degrees Celsius from May to September (it’s a lot colder from October to April).

We were there in August last year, and it coincided with the summer holidays in Taiwan, so Cingjing was the perfect place for families and tourists to visit to hide away from the hustle and bustle of the city and away from the humid and warm weather.

Entrance to the restaurant -Honey Museum No. 6 (蜜蜂故事六號館) / Carton King (紙箱王)

There are a few popular places to visit – I’ll blog about the pretty awesome minsu that I stayed in and Green Green Grasslands (青青草原) in the next post – I’ll first blog about the Honey Museum No. 6 (蜜蜂故事六號館) / Carton King (紙箱王) and Small Swiss Garden (瑞士小花园)!

Interior of the restaurant

One is most likely to be amazed by how almost everything in the restaurant is made with corrugated paper / fiberboard – from the ceiling, lamp shade, tables, chairs, shelves, cup and napkin holders and even plates! They are surprisingly extremely sturdy (though I won’t say the chairs are very comfortable to sit on for long hours!)

Besides serving food and drinks, there is also a section near the entrance where they sell honey and related products. The staff was really nice and friendly – gaving us lots of honey to try. We ended up buying a bottle of honey and honey vinegar each – we were persuaded!

Very innovative, isn’t it?

Stewed pork ribs with champagne honey sauce

Honey liquer stew beef shank

There are 10 yummy set meals to choose from, including 1 vegetarian and 1 kid’s meal, and they are priced pretty reasonably between NT$200 to NT$360.

Left: Boxed drink; Right: Eiffel tower made of paper!

We payed a little extra to buy a boxed drink (it’s just a packet of drink inside a box) so that we have a little memorabilia to bring home (the box itself).

On the first floor there’s a souvenir shop where one can purchase paper models of Eiffel Towers, Leaning Tower of Pisa and other famous architects to build at home. There are also other interesting DIY kits to buy back but I resisted the temptation 😉

Carton King (紙箱王)

No.28, Dingyuan Vil., Ren’ai Township, Nantou County 546, Taiwan (南投縣546仁愛鄉定遠新村28號(小瑞士花園))
Souvenir shop opens 9am – 9pm
Restaurant opens 11am – 8pm (3 sessions – lunch; tea; dinner)
Minimum spending NT$80 per person, excluding 10% service charge
(http://www.cartonking.com.tw/ – in Chinese)

Small Swiss Garden (瑞士小花园)

The Small Swiss Garden is also popularly known as “Taiwan’s Little Switzerland” because the garden emits a Northern European atmosphere. It is located just next to the Carton King restaurant, so it’s a great place to explore before or after lunch. However, I will suggest visiting before lunch as the mist usually sets in in the afternoon.

Handmade windmills decorating the park – lots of effort went into the decoration of the garden!

Pretty pink windmills adorning the garden

The garden is not very big, but it’s definitely a great place to take photos!

Lily flowers

Right at the end of the park is a small green house, housing a variety of plants. We were in luck as when we were there, the lily flowers were in full bloom – the flowers were absolutely stunning!

Duckies swimming leisurely in the pond

A downside of visiting in the afternoon is the probability of the mist setting in (and very likely to rain), so it’s actually best to visit in the morning! We also bought animal feed to feed the ducks and fishes in the pond.

Even though the weather was pretty chilly, we still bought a small tub of honey ice cream to share at the end of our walk! I just can’t resist the temptation of food haha!

Small Swiss Garden (瑞士小花园)

Located just next to the Carton King!Entrance fee of NT$120 per person

Will blog more about Cingjing in the next post! Meanwhile, for the rest of the posts on Taiwan, see our Taiwan travel itinerary here!