Written by Max Fischer (Carleton College), Student Correspondent for CET Taiwan, Fall 2025
After 7 weeks of studying Mandarin and a tiring week of midterms, a relaxing weekend is absolutely warranted. Thus, CET treats us to a relaxing weekend! This semester, we had the opportunity to visit Xitou, a natural site located in the mountains of central Taiwan and owned by the school where we regularly attend classes (臺大). Since we had a busy weekend ahead of us, we loaded up the buses and set out at 8:30am Friday morning, since we had the day off from class.
Arriving in Xitou, we were immediately struck by two primary things. First, the scenery was incredible. Our site was nestled in the mountains, and we were totally surrounded by nature. The location was a lovely change of pace from the everyday bustling life of Taipei; in Xitou, it felt like we could hear real silence again. Ultimately, I have always believed being in nature is a great way to relax and recharge. Secondly, as we settled into our cabins we encountered a troop of monkeys exploring the nature area. People flocked to get a look at them, and they were even comfortable with people getting quite close to them.
The rest of the day was pretty quiet, as everyone continued to relax, settle in, and explore the nature area. Later, everyone gathered for a huge dinner of vegetables, clam soup, pork, chicken, fish, and much more. Although I felt as if I was going to fall asleep from all the food, everyone on CET gathered once again and competed in a series of team-building competitions, which were a lot of fun!
Saturday was another very relaxing day, since we had Monday off of class, we were able to spend a ton of time exploring Xitou. On Saturday morning I hiked around more of the surrounding area. Later in the day, I went down the mountain some ways to see Monster Village, a small village designed in a Japanese architectural style and based on Japanese mythology. Monster Village was a vibrant place to spend the afternoon. It was filled with shops with unique souvenirs and great places to go for food. I really enjoyed the wild boar.
In my view, the highlight of the trip came on Sunday. While we packed our bags and began to head back north, we still had one more stop: Sun Moon Lake! Sun Moon Lake is a site that I had heard a lot about before I came to Taiwan. Online, I heard all about how big of a must-see it is. Having now seen it in person, I must agree. We arrived at Sun Moon Lake at around 10am, and had several hours to explore the wide range of scenery. Me and some friends took a ferry to the far end of the lake and began hiking to the pagoda at the top of the mountain.
After the hike, we were dying to grab a bite to eat, so we headed to Ita Thao Market for some braised pork rice before heading back to the drop off point.
Our weekend in Xitou was a super relaxing change of pace from the usual hustle and bustle of Taipei, and it was a great opportunity to meet new people on the program. Xitou is not somewhere that I likely would have travelled to had I not had the opportunity to explore it on this trip, but I am super glad that I did! CET Staff did a fantastic job organizing the entire trip, and it was a great use of a weekend in Taiwan.