Total Miles Traveled: 40,599
Mao Kong (translated “Empty Cat”) is a small village in the hills outside of Taipei known for its tea farms and tea houses … and plenty of street dogs. Maybe that’s why there are no cats!
To get there, you take the MRT to the Taipei Zoo and then take the Mao Kong gondola for about 20 minutes up to the top. Don’t wait for the “crystal” gondola – it’s just a glass bottomed car that you pay more and have to wait in line for.
The village is small and spread out, with many tea houses tucked into the hills. There’s a local bus you can hop on to get around to the different tea houses and sights, or you can hike along some local trails.
We stopped in at one of the more quaint houses and tried their local te kuan yin (translated “Tea of the Iron Goddess Kuan Yin”) tea.
It’s pretty neat because they don’t just give you a cup of tea – they allow you to experience it in a traditional way, known as a “gong fu” style. There’s a video of Tony doing (he says “fumbling through”) the tea ceremony, but that’ll have to be shared another day since the video won’t seem to upload completely. 🙁
While our tea house didn’t have a view, it did have a pretty neat décor. There was an indoor koi pond and to get to our table, we had to hop from rock to rock. Our table was Japanese style so we sat on a mat. The floor below us was clear and we could see the koi swim underneath. Pretty cool!
One could spend an entire day trying different tea houses, looking at the view of Taipei, and learning more about the history of tea. We hope to go back before we leave. Definitely reserve a full day to explore the area at a leisurely pace!
