During our December 2016 family visit to Taichung, one of the attractions we visited was Summit Resort in Xinshe.
Summit Resort (新社古堡庄园) is a popular attraction among the locals with its medieval-themed European style buildings. Walking through the resort with its garden, waterfall and castle, one can easily imagine being somewhere in Europe.
Also known as Xinshe Castle, it is a favourite photo-shoot location and it is easy to see why. Within the buildings, they housed several restaurants, souvenir shops and a winery.
Image credit: Summit Resort
We do think the admission charges of NT$250 for adults and NT$150 for kids and seniors are kind of steep. Similar to Mingde Miaoli Lavender Cottage, the admission ticket can be used to offset food and beverage purchases. Here though, they only allow for offset of NT$100 per ticket and tickets cannot be combined for purchases. So in fact, we had to top-up NT$50 or more to get a simple cup of beverage.
We had a walk by the man-made waterfall within the resort.
Our little ones were not keen on enjoying the scenery. Instead, feeding the fishes in the pond suited them better since there was little else they could do. The resort did have a pond full of hungry fishes. Every time food was thrown into the water, they were seen swimming furiously towards the feed. This particular activity entertained them for most of the time while we were there.
Fish feed can be bought from vending machines beside the pond at NT$10 per box. (It’s useful to always have some loose change, especially NT$10 ones in your purse.)
Maple trees are planted within the gardens. Picking them up as we walked was another activity the kids enjoyed.
The retail shops sell an assortment of skin care products, Chinese crafts, toys and miscellaneous souvenirs. Perhaps it’s a good idea to keep the kids out of the shops. The range of toys they sold was quite diverse, and attracted the attention of ours so much, we nearly had to lug home a big box containing a remote control car. Thankfully, we managed to convince them otherwise. *phew*
We spent just over an hour in the Summit Resort. The compound is not expansive so it was quite easy for us to complete the whole place within the time since we were not there to wine and dine. Judging from what we saw on the day of our visit, the place appeared to have reasonably good number of visitors. But unless you are keen to take photos against the resort’s backdrop or enjoy a walk in the European-style setting, I would think it would be only worth the trip if you will be around the vicinity.
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Read more about our trip itinerary and the other places we visited during the trip in Taiwan 2016 – Family Trip Itinerary.
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Useful information
Address: No. 65, Xiezhong St, Xinshe District, Taichung City, Taiwan 426
Opening hours: 9am to 6pm
Website: 新社古堡
