[Taichung Attraction Review]- Xinshe Castle & Mushroom Farm

During our visit to Taichung, one of the attractions that we visited was the Xinshe Castle, a European-style castle. From the Lavender Cottage, the journey took about 20 minutes by car and according to our driver, the Xinshe Castle is quite a popular tourist attraction.

The entrance tickets to Xinshe Castle cost $250 TWD and it comes with a $100 TWD Voucher which could be used for shopping and food/drinks.

The exterior façade of Xinshe Castle looks rather grand and its compounds are huge!

There are tons of man-made water features and the place offers ample photo opportunities.

However, we spent less than 20 minutes at Xinshe Castle and we felt rather cheated because the attraction just wasn’t worth the money. In fact, when we were there in June this year, mosquitoes were aplenty and we aren’t sure if it was due to the season/weather. However, what we do know is that the mosquito bites that we received were stinging pain!

Trying my very best to force a smile for the camera because the mosquitoes were getting on my nerves.

If you have Xinshe Castle in your travel itinerary, we highly suggest that you bring along some insect repellent and apply them to your body to keep those pesky mosquitoes away. Otherwise, you might want to leave Xinshe Castle out of your travel itinerary.

Another attraction that we visited was the local mushroom farm and it was quite a last minute decision because during the car ride, we noticed that there were quite a number of mushroom farms around the vicinity. We also found out from our driver that the place was well-known for its fresh mushrooms.

When we arrived at one of the local mushroom farms, the place wasn’t as pretty as any attraction would appear to be but it was quite a worthwhile learning experience as we saw how the mushrooms were being grown and harvested by hand.

The place was rather dark and humid and the conditions were suitable for the mushrooms to grow. Apart from mushrooms, lingzhi are being cultivated as well.

Fresh mushrooms ready for harvesting.

The mushroom farm also have some food products for sale and you can sample some of them before making the decision to buy them. Some of the products include fried vegetable chips, dried mushrooms, and other fresh produce.

Overall, we personally feel that Xinshe Castle was a waste of time and money and its only a place good for visiting only once. As for the mushroom farms, you might just want to drop by a while to take a look and learn something new.