Hydrangea farms in Yangmingshan

Today we went up into the mountains surrounding Taipei (the island basically has mountain ranges running all through its spine if you check out the satellite view of it on Google Map and the 23,000 some inhabitants mostly live on the bit of land between the coast and the mountains) to pick some pretty flowers.

Yangmingshan is famous for beautiful fields of white calla lilies which are a dime a dozen here (well, not exactly, but at $3 they might as well be a dime) and recently they've started to open their hydrangea farms to the public as well.

It was a bit misty and drizzly this afternoon, but it was still good to be outside, breathing in the mountain air. And I miss being around flowers all the time... they really do make me happy.

The per stem price for the hydrangeas has doubled since two weeks ago when they aired on the news which means I paid a very steep $9 for my bouquet of 15 hydrangeas. Good thing too or I probably would've brought home a truckload (these would've cost $100+ easy in Canada).

A little bit down the hill there lies an estate called "Grass Mountain Chateau" which used to be President Chiang Kai-Shek's home. There was a fire five years ago but they have now restored it to its original state and it now functions as a cafe/restaurant/art gallery.
The house was built during Japanese occupation era so the style reflects that (beautiful dark wood floors, lots of light through the windows, interior courtyard gardens, etc.). We sat out on the balcony for a little while overlooking the valley, it was quite lovely.

We have come to the realization that we are leaving for our six-week trip in China NEXT Friday and we haven't done ANY planning... Yeah, a little bit scary and pretty unusual for me. I was going to "just wing it" but then we thought, maybe not.

So we started a couple of days ago with the help of my dad who has done his fair share of touring around in China. We're there from June 8th until July 19th, and we want to see probably far too many places. This is the rough list:
- Shanghai, Souzhou, Xihu, and surroundings
- Zhangjiajie (Avatar valley!)
- Guilin, Longshen rice terraces, Li River, Yangshuo
- Yichang, Yantze River Cruise
- Chengdu & the panda reserve, Leshan, Emeishan
- Jiuzhaigou
- Luoyang, Xian (terracotta army)
- Beijing and The Great Wall
- and if we can somehow work it out, Tibet!

We are going to spend most of this weekend booking hotels/flights/tours/etc. So if you have any tips/ideas or know some locals who might be able to give us a good deal, hook us up! :)