[Family Travel]Play in the Wild Stream at Yangmingshan Mountain – Fuyuan Garden Educational Leisure Farm

“Fuyuan Garden Educational Leisure Farm” is located on Jing Mountain Road in Yangmingshan. It feels like getting there from the back mountain would be closer. It’s near Le Montmartre Café, right across from No. 19 Café, and has its own parking lot. I had previously noticed this leisure farm when I came to No. 19 Café. At that time, I was very curious about it because it looked quite vintage from the outside, and I wondered what kind of facilities were inside.

Then last year, I had the chance to visit the farm and found that there was a really nice water play area. Plus, VIVI told me their clay pot roasted chicken was delicious, which further motivated me to definitely come back.

So this trip was meant to bring Shuangyuan here to play in the water. Unexpectedly, the stream water was quite cold that day, and the current was fairly strong. Gongshao said we couldn’t go in the water, so we ended up just having lunch at “Fuyuan Garden Educational Leisure Farm” and walking around to look at things. Because, to be honest, “Fuyuan Garden Educational Leisure Farm” mainly caters to school group outings and offers activities such as eco-guided tours, DIY workshops, barbecues, water play, and more.

If individual visitors come and don’t plan to do any water activities, since the environment inside the park is very natural with not many extra facilities, you might just walk around and look at the plants. Up there, there are a lot of small black flies. Although the park provides mosquito repellent, it’s homemade with herbs by the management and isn’t very effective, so it’s better to bring your own. Since I didn’t bring any, I bought another bottle of small black fly repellent at the counter for $190, but it didn’t last long, and my sister and I kept reapplying it but still got bitten and swollen.

Outside “Fuyuan Garden Educational Leisure Farm,” there is a park map that you can check before entering.

The ticket price is $160 for adults and $110 for children aged 2–12, both including parking fees and entry insurance. You can also skip the entrance fee by ordering food at the ticket counter. Other DIY activities are charged separately.

Because the meal includes freshly grilled barrel-roasted chicken, two dishes and one soup, four bowls of rice, dessert, herbal tea, and herbal cookies.

Additionally, a friend ordered the Wellness Meal for $370 (including the park entry ticket), while all the kids’ tickets were purchased separately. Generally, most leisure farms allow part of the entry fee to be used as credit for food, but that’s not the case here. Both the set meals and the wellness meals include the entry ticket, so the per-person price seems a bit higher.

After ordering at the ticket counter, you need to deliver the order to the restaurant yourself. The wellness meal can be ordered just before eating, but the barrel-roasted chicken set meal must be ordered in advance because it takes one and a half hours to grill. So we sent someone down to place the order early.

The path down at the beginning is lined with some herbs and plants, and the trees have signs indicating their names. There is an ecological guided tour at 1:30 p.m. every day to introduce these plants and look for insects.

The frog platform is where the kitchen is, and that’s where you need to deliver the meal orders.

Diagonally opposite the frog platform is the barrel-roasted chicken area. Although there is staff watching over the roasting process, this area has no guardrails, so you must keep a close eye on your kids.

Right across from the barrel-roasted chicken area is the earthen oven zone, which is semi-open and not very large. You still need to be careful if others are using it.

The dining areas here are all outdoor spaces. If the DIY classrooms are not in use, you can also eat there. But most people choose to dine outdoors because the air is fresher—(although there are more mosquitoes).

I’ve been to quite a few leisure farms, and I feel the maintenance here could be improved. Aside from the aging buildings, the overgrown weeds could also be better managed. The environment could be well-maintained without harming the ecology, and it could also reduce mosquito breeding...

The Jing Creek next to the frog platform has been leveled, and the flat stone platforms are perfect for families to play. But this is not the barbecue area—the barbecue zone is separately designated, and you can’t bring your own barbecue gear; you have to order it from the farm.

The creek water this day was fairly fast, with the depth reaching about adult knee level. The dads felt the weather was too cold and didn’t think it was suitable for the kids to play in the water.

This is a photo I took when I came here last October. Back then, the water was shallow, slow-moving, and crystal clear.

I don’t know why Miss Scratchy was feeling a bit down that day.

The sandbox was still a bit damp, so we didn’t let the kids play in it.

We didn’t attend the 1:30 p.m. ecological guided tour because we were just about to eat.

And we skipped the self-paid DIY activities after 2 p.m.…

Finally, after an hour and a half, we got our “barrel-roasted chicken set meal.” Overall, I thought the set was pretty good, but the content wasn’t very suitable for younger people. It included freshly grilled barrel-roasted chicken, two dishes and one soup, four bowls of rice, sweet tea, shredded radish pastry, herbal tea, and herbal cookies.

The main meal of two dishes and one soup was really a bit too little. It would be better if they adjusted it to three dishes and one soup + handmade cookies or even four dishes and one soup, because the shredded radish pastry, herbal cookies, and herbal tea seemed a bit superfluous. Also, my husband is over 180 cm tall and quite burly—the portion of rice was simply not enough. When we went back to the ticket counter to ask for more rice, they could only give us one more bowl... (Gongshao complained about this for a long time XD).

Let’s talk about the highlights of this trip.

The “herbal tea” that no one really enjoyed—this pot of herbal tea was really too strong, very intense and hard to accept. And there was already a drink included with the meal, so having another whole pot of herbal tea in the meal was just too much. However, the herbal cookies were pretty tasty.

A-Mi ordered the “Wellness Meal – Sesame Oil Chicken.” She said the sesame oil chicken soup was average, not much alcohol flavor, the chicken wasn’t very flavorful, but the noodles were good.

The roast chicken meal for 86... Although prices are still pretty high these days, they only gave us two pieces of broccoli that were chopped super fine — that was pretty odd. Also, the portion of rice was just way too small, and they wouldn’t let us have any more. That single bowl’s worth is probably what a three-year-old would eat while sitting in their high chair or something. Everyone agreed that the drink that came with the meal was just way too sweet — almost unbearable.

After the meal, not knowing where else we could go to have fun, we decided to walk across the suspension bridge to see the rabbits. This suspension bridge is really tiny — only one person can cross at a time. The kids were scared but also wanted to give it a try as a challenge. And on the other side, there were the bunnies they loved so much.

It was quite a surprise that the rabbits here are so beautiful and lively. As soon as we got close, they came right up to play with us. We didn’t have any food on us at all, yet the rabbits were still super friendly.

At first, Ah Zhong was the one who bravely went to pet the rabbits, then the older sister and the younger sister also started touching them.

Walking to the very back of the park, you’ll find an area that’s completely different from the front — it’s very well maintained, and there’s a grove of maple trees planted there.

At the end of the small path, there’s a villa. Since this place doesn’t operate as a homestay, it seems like it must be the owner’s private residence.

This week, a few of the maple trees have started turning red, though the biggest one is still green. Past the villa, there’s an open area with a big fish pond, which also has two deep-looking pools. There were plenty of stream fish swimming around.

In addition to the water play area near the frog platform earlier, there’s also a small platform here by the villa where you can play in the water.

The suspension bridge, as seen from the parking lot.

Address: No. 18, Lane 131, Jingshan Road, Shilin District, Taipei City 111
Phone: 02-2862-2145
Business hours: Tuesday–Sunday 09:00–17:00, closed on Mondays
http://www.2ftv.com.tw/index.php

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