The plan was to go to the Lin Mansion (林家花圆) in the morning then meet up at the ZhongXiao DunHua (忠孝敦化) Station for our friend to go to the Hello Kitty Cafe. However, late sleepers as we were, we ended up leaving the hotel at 12am OTL
Looking for the Lin Garden was a mess. It was lucky that I googlemap-ed it the night before. There was quite a number of twist and turns until we saw the mansion.
We spotted the Singapore Soya Beancurd~!
From the outside, the place already looks huge. (They didnt call it the "Mansion" for nothing)
This tour inside the mansion is actually free. The Lin Family donated their historical villa to the Taiwanese Government and thus this became an attraction.
Timings for the Private sector of the Villa
There is one part of the villa that still belongs to the Lin Family. So, there is a tour inside of the private sector only once every 30mins. The workers for the Lin Family kept track of the time and the tour guides will honor their agreement to only bring us around for 30mins.
The front gate
We reached the place just in time. They still have some tickets left for the next Private Sector tour so I guess we were super lucky. While it was ok for most of us, some of the guys are bad in Chinese. So most of the time, they don't really understood what the tour guide was talking about.
Tour Guide
The outside of the Private sector
We learnt a lot about the Chinese architectural and how every cravings had a meaning to bring prosperity to the owner. The cravings on the roof meant something, doors of the building meant something. Even the steps to for the house meant something. My friend stated that she would die learning all those things if she were to come from the olden times. LOL
Since it was the private sector, we were only allowed to take pictures outside of the house. The tour guide did as many explanations to the building structures and the history of the Lin Family as she could with the time limit.
Once outside, we were touring with another tour guide who would bring us all around the Lin Mansion.The tour guide started off with a lot of Taiwan history that put us all into stun-mode. He didn't know we weren't local students and we also didn't correct him. So there were many times when he asked "So you should have learnt this before right?", we looked at each other.
I wanted to bring my mum along so she can explain the history to me next time :P
The place to enjoy musical performance.
The left side is the performance area, separated by a small pond.
They build it this way so that the water would carry the music to the other side and make it better to listen.
The Lin Villa's Guest house
With 2 stories high, there are 2 guest rooms
The stage performance for the guests.
Located in front of the guest house.
A pathway under the bridge (yeh, they got a bridge inside the house)
The pathway was so cooling that it feels like they've installed air-con inside XD
If I remember correctly, this was the living room, or the place where they discuss things.
There are 3 doors to enter, each opened in order of the guest's importance.
For example, if the guest is of a lower rank, they will only open the first door and the guest have to walk the side path around the place to reach the living room.
If the guest was of high importance (Eg. the Emperor), all 3 doors would be opened and the guest could just walk straight through all the doors.
So yeh, we were of high importance. LOL
The tour around the Villa took quite long and we had rush down to meet with our friend to visit the Hello Kitty Cafe.
The menu~
The place is super pink and very...Kitty. lol
The cakes on display (first floor)
We were led to the 2nd floor where there is a big booth for 8 people to sit in. Each customer were to spend a minimum of NT300 per visit. It wasn't so hard, the food inside the menu all looked so tasty! >.<
Each meal set comes with a drink, bread, soup, salad, appetizer, main course and dessert. A lot of things considering the price. I shared a meal with Shiyi, and we each ordered an additional dessert.
Chuyi's...I forgot what this is :P
Our Salad and soup~
The bread, adorable isnt it?!
Our choice of appetizer: Beef roll
Our main course: Salmon cream spaghetti
I only ordered the Creme Bulee (Middle one)
This is SweeYee's order.
Shiyi's Tiramisu
The dessert from the set meal: HK Mango Jelly
I dont know where to start, so I went for the middle.
Yeh, Imma Sadist.
Group photo at our booth XD
After that, we separated from SweeYee to go XiMenDing (西门町). The girls and guys separated again and they manage to find the toilet cafe ;A; I wanna go the next time...
The price range is around bugis street's. Brought a wedge from here XD
Notes:
- There are English speaking Tour guides for Lin Mansion (林家花圆) but you will have to book with them.
- Lin Mansion (林家花圆): Alight at FuZhong MRT (府中)
- Hello Kitty cafe: Nearest--> Alight at ZhongXiao FuXing (忠孝复兴), walk towards the east metro mall and exit from Exit 13. Walk out and facing the HanGong Building (汉工大楼)- the building's sign is not really obvious so you'll have to look for it , cross the traffic light and you should be able to see the Hello Kitty signboard.
- XiMenDing (西门町): Alight at XiMen MRT (西门), there would be signs to show you where to go
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