Spend the summer vacation exploring Nantou’s Puli and Yuchi with your kids, engaging in a wide variety of DIY activities. It’s a great way to learn while creating something with your own hands—something you can hold in your palm and feel proud of.
Puli is a wonderland of ever-changing parent-child DIY experiences, where you can make everything from paper crafts and flower petal jams to honey cakes and mushrooms. Typically, enthusiastic farm owners first give a tour of the premises, teaching children about local flora and fauna before guiding them in kneading, mixing, and stirring by hand. After about an hour, your warm, handmade creation is complete, leaving both adults and children thoroughly entertained.
■ Explore an Ecological Farm and Experience the Buzz of Bees
If describing a politician’s frenzy as “a dance of demons” implies chaos, then walking through a tunnel buzzing with millions of bees feels like: a roar of hardworking bees—truly impressive.
Lai Chao-Hsien, owner of the Acer Bee Eco-Farm, has grown up with bees and is a well-known bee expert. “This year, thank goodness the weather has been decent, and the longan flower honey has finally returned to its proper yield,” he reveals. He adds that one beehive can produce over 100 jin (50 kg) of honey, double last year’s output.
The farm is currently baking pure, natural honey cakes made by visitors—the aroma is intoxicating. Lai Chao-Hsien asks everyone to wait a bit before experiencing the million-bee tunnel. Of course, before entering, you must put on a protective face shield. The bees are well-behaved; as long as you walk calmly through the tunnel, the busy worker bees couldn’t care less about you and definitely won’t sting. After hearing Lai explain the life cycle of bees, one child joked, “I want to be diligent too, so my mom won’t worry about me.”
■ Visit Paper Dragon for Hands-On Creative Fun
People often say Japanese paper is incredibly beautiful—but that’s only because they’ve never visited the “Paper Dragon Handicraft Museum.” Formerly known as the “Puli Paper Mill,” it produces 1,300 types of paper, marketing them to 63 countries overseas. Among them, “gold-plated Japanese washi paper” is mainly sold in Japan—meaning some of the exorbitantly priced washi paper in Japan might actually be made in Taiwan.
The first floor of the exhibition area features a paper tube wall, while the second floor showcases the “Wall of a Thousand Papers,” displaying 488 of the most popular types of paper exported worldwide—a favorite photo spot for visitors. Additionally, the park has developed super-cute “egg roll dolls.” Using the same material kit, you can create various animal or floral shapes—it’s a lot of fun. Paper Dragon staff have even made doll versions of themselves, and the striking resemblance to the real people always draws laughter.
■ Puli Winery: DIY Rose Petal Jam
Making rose petal jam is a favorite activity for stylish moms. Take it home to spread on toast for the kids—sweet, fragrant, and uniquely delicious.
The rose petal jam produced at Nantou’s Puli Winery is made from organic, fresh petals of the locally grown edible Yamagata rose. This rose variety is also known as the “girl next door of the rose world.” It’s not particularly striking in appearance, but its subtle lychee-like fragrance and non-astringent quality make it ideal for culinary use.
The DIY process for rose petal jam is simple: mix in sugar and lemon juice, stir for about an hour, let it cool, then bottle it. With no additives whatsoever, it’s a very healthy jam that can be used as a spread for toast or cookies, or paired with black tea to brew a fragrant floral tea.
■ Fengnian Ecological Farm: Mushroom Picking & Grilling
Fengnian Ecological Farm is primarily a mushroom and lingzhi producer and a major supplier of mushroom spawn. A visit here offers a hands-on experience that demystifies the mushroom growth process. The farm offers many DIY activities, including mushroom picking, mushroom space bag production, and fresh grilled mushrooms—each one an eye-opening experience.