Outskirts of Taichung (2): Carton King
After Rainbow Village, we arrived at Carton King, the second stop of our Taichung outskirts tour. We first came across Carton King’s smaller branch at Cingjing Farm, near to the Swiss Garden. I didn’t know what it was about until hubby enlightened me. Most exhibits are made from cardboard, including the tables and chairs of its restaurant and cafe.
We decided to skip it at Cingjing because the concept sounded cheesy and we were unfazed by such novelty. Which was ironic, thinking how much time we spent there in the end.
Our itinerary was: Rainbow Village, Carton King, Lavender Cottage, Flower Market, Gao Mei Shi Di, and Fengjia Night Market.
We had also planned to strike Carton King off the standard “Taichung outskirts itinerary”. However, we went ahead because it was on the way to Lavender Village and the tour price remained unchanged. No loss, anyway.
Wait a minute…
There’s an entrance fee of NT$200 (~S$9)! We chose to go to a place we didn’t fancy and now we had to pay for it.
Thankfully, every visitor gets a 100% rebate in terms of cash voucher. Vouchers that can only be used in Carton King’s retail shops and dining places. We did spend all our vouchers and even top up a bit more.
Other than the usual souvenir shop, there are restaurants, cafe, shops selling local food products and even a shop that specialises in honey products. The honey shop was quite out of place though.
You can follow a tour path instead of walking around haphazardly. Follow the route and get to the different stations to chop a card given to you at entrance. We completed the card and each got a free mini gift in exchange. The gifts are still collecting dust at our place. But free is best. :)
Tonnes of photo spots for you to choose from. You get to pose with exhibits of varying sizes and different themes, such as animals, cartoon characters or landmarks of the world. The exhibits are mainly made from either cardboard or metal rods.
We also managed to catch a limited time exhibition about calligraphy. See the interactive art we had with 爱 (love) in the photo above.
Another interesting thing to look out for is their workshop. Located in one of the gift shops, you get to see the staff work on the cardboards for some sculpture or product.
We didn’t expect to spend a long time at Carton King. Neither did our driver. He called hubby while we were inside and told us to hurry as we were running out of time. He had to give us a time limit for our next two stops in case we took too long and miss the sunset at our last stop, Gao Mei Wetlands.
Come to think of it, there’s nothing much around Carton King. Where did all the time disappear to?
In any case, let’s gallop off to our next stop – Lavender Village!
Where else are you going in the outskirts of Taichung? Leave a comment below. I love to hear from you!