A Traveller’s Slow Trip to Guoxing, Nantou

Nuomi Bridge Leisure Agricultural Area is on Provincial Highway 21 to Guoxing Township, Nantou County, where used to be a popular attraction.
“When the domestic tourism was popular here, the tour buses passing by were numerous and we had good business!”

When the cursory sightseeing faded away, Nuomi Bridge Leisure Agricultural Area shifted to in-depth tourism which takes tourists to experience the features of local industries by the Beikang River. Among those, coffee, citronella, and rice cultivated with cold spring are the produce best represents local features. The cultivation of coffee and the quality of making process won acclaims, and the techniques processing citronella bring people to the old days to understand the ancestors’ wisdom. And the rice cultivated with cold spring is the young farmers’ achievement.

Guoxing Township in Nantou County is one of the most important coffee production region in Taiwan, with the highest yield per unit. Baishengcun Village Leisure Farm in Nuomi Bridge Leisure Agricultural Area plays a key role and is a great place for coffee lovers to visit.

If you love coffee, ask your good friends to come along and reserve a spot for DIY roasting coffee bean at Baishengcun Village.
The roasting degree of coffee beans influence the flavor of a cup of coffee. Some prefer the fruity flavor from light roasts and some love the strong flavor of dark roasts, each has its own followers. You may have tasted coffee of different roast levels, but you may not know the roasting process. Through personal experience, you will learn to tell the raw beans, quality of coffee beans, the theorem of roasting coffee and finally bring home 100 grams of coffee beans roasted by yourself.
If you can’t wait to taste it back at home, make your own coffee right away. The barista will introduce the skills of making coffee. So you make a cup of fine coffee of your own and when you get home, you can also make coffee with the beans roasted by yourself.

Baishengcun Leisure Farm is especially the right place for coffee lovers who are after more professional knowledge. In addition to a vast coffee trees cultivated on the farm, there are all kinds of coffee bean processing machines. You will see everything from fermentation, hulling, selection, color sorting, to polishing. The professional owner, Mr. Su answers your questions. Because the machines needed for coffee processing are available here, many professional farmers and farmers’ associations come visit and learn. Individual tourists can also visit in a group to learn something about coffee. If you find one day trip too short, you can also spend a night here!

The rice from Xinfeng Farm is more precious because the rice yield in Guoxing Township is 30% less than those in the plains on the west coast. Local water tastes sweeter and are cooler which is its advantage and makes each bead of Taiken 9 fuller and tastier. People who have tasted Xinfeng Rice become repeat customers and the rice with limited production often sold out in the blink of an eye.
In order to promote the rice food and develop agri tours, Mr. Guofeng HUANG designed DIY rice packing activity so that tourists can feel the rice falling down from the machine. This activity is especially for children of school age; therefore, many teachers take it as the extracurricular activity and bring kids to learn the “life journey of rice”.

Another DIY activity is popping rice which enjoys great popularity. The pop rice here tastes unique- the chewy advantage of the rice enhances its flavor which in turn stands out the good quality of the rice. Tourists can also try to make their own snacks and enjoy the fun.

It may seem easy making the pop rice, but there are plenty of details to attend to, for instance, it got to be quick stirring the syrup with the popped rice. If you were too slow and exerted your force wrongly, the result may be a big ball of pop rice when the syrup got hardened. It requires force and techniques to slice the pop rice. If force is not sufficient and slow at mixing, the slices of pop rice would be in different size and shape.

The knack to make tasty pop rice is to pay attention to the popping pressure, the proportion of the syrup and the temperature, and Mr. HUANG kept testing till he found the best formula and he shares these data during the process.
Huang’s story was published in a famous finance magazine in Taiwan. As one of the youths returning home, he adopts organic farming method to grow rice and builds his own brand name- Cool Spring Rice.

In the old days, many citronella were grown in this area. Harvesting, carrying citronella and distilling citronella for its oil are the local residents’ memory. With the economic development, citronella gradually disappeared because farmers replaced citronella with other cash crops, such as the betel nut trees.

One distillation tool from the old days is still in use in Nuomi Bridge Leisure Agricultural Area. Akun Citronella keeps the history of citronella of Guoxing Township only. The natural citronella oil products are from people’s life wisdom.
This distillation boiler makes use of everything: the dried citronella to the boiler for distillation and then it becomes the fuel after its oil is extracted. The side product of distillation is the citronella dew which flows into a pond where tourists can bath their feet.

The female owner designed an interesting and practical DIY activity: a citronella soap with leaf veins and a loofah&citronella soap. The soap base is ready so tourists just need to follow the instructions to make it. These 2 soaps are useful. When going traveling, you don’t need a bunch of cleaning products. One loofah&citronella soap will do all the tricks.

The distilled citronella oil is chemical free and you can find it on the famous platform of organic brands in Taiwan. If you come to Nuomi Bridge Leisure Agricultural Area, seize the chance to use the natural citronella!

Nuomi Bridge Leisure and Agricultural Area is on the way to Huisun Forest Area and Atayal Resort. This place is good for a light trip of 2 days at least. Tourists can go to the tourist attractions in the agricultural area, reserve a couple of DIY activities and taste a cup of Guoxing coffee.

Dining, accommodation and tour businesses within the leisure area are already integrated. Take “Mei in the House Resort” for example, they serve meals and accommodation, one day tour or DIY activities are also available. Just ask the staff and they can arrange activities on your behalf. Even if you plan nothing, you can still find a handful of activities to join.

The must-go attraction in this agricultural area is the Nuomi Bridge, a monument with a classic structure that connects the two places across the Beigang River. It is a vital route in the early days. Though not the main road anymore, it is still here with the residents.

A Toog tree over 300 years is on the hill by the highway. If you go to the tree, you may be interested to find the secret of the cave: looking from the right perspective, you will see the shape of Taiwan. Visitors usually take a photo of it because it’s lovely!

Add: No.87-9 Guoxing Rd., Beigang Village, Guoxing Township, Nantou County
Tel: 049-2461001
Website: http://www.baishengcun.com.tw/

Add: No.50, Beiyuan Rd., Beigang Village, Guoxing Township, Nantou County
Tel: 049-2462528
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Sinfeng50/

Add: No.62-2, Changbei Rd., Beigang Village, Guoxing Township, Nantou County
Tel: 049-2461777