Wandering Fel

Taiwanese Aboriginal Dance Performance at Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village

I never realise that there are so many ancient tribes in Taiwan. My Chinese teacher told us, the students, that there are twelve aboriginal tribes in Taiwan. The Amis, Atayal, Bunun, Kavalan, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiyat, Thao, Truku, Tsou and Yami. If I am not wrong, the tribe domiciles at Wulai is the Atayal tribe because they are the famous mountain tribe. If you visit Wulai, you can try dressing up as the Atayal tribe and they will help you to take picture. You will notice that the Atayal tribe has facial tattoo on their face. Those with facial tattoo means they have gone through the coming-of-age rituals. However, you cannot watch the tribal dance performance in Wulai because the area is not big enough to stage a dance performance.

If you would like to watch the Formosan dance performance, you can watch it at Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village in Nantou. There is a daily dance performance held at Naruwan theatre. Thank goodness we managed to make it on time for the performance.

The dance performance is so lively and full of shouting. And all the tribal men looks so strong and ready to go to war (who knows we can see eye candies here). Okay, this part is probably about the war songs. Hahaha.

Tribal dance performance at Naruwan Theatre Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village

Second half of the show focuses more on the music performance. I notice that the traditional costume of the Taiwanese tribes looks so interesting. There are so much color play and yet they still look stylish. Okay I should start listening to their song and stop focusing so much on their fashion.

Taiwanese Aboriginal Musical Performance

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At the last bit of the show, all the performers gather together and start doing something interesting...

Oh wow, how did that happen??? Bravo! By the way, "Naruwan" here means "Welcome" in the tribal language.

Naruwan Taiwanese Aboriginal Culture Village Dance Show

Show times for the Taiwanese Aboriginal Dance Performance:

Weekdays: 13:30 and 15:00

Holidays: 10:30, 13:30, and 15:00

Interesting Attractions at Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village, Nantou

Once you have alighted from the cable car from Sun Moon Lake, you will arrive at a theme park called Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village. The last time I went here, I explored the area which is kinda similar to a Japanese themed park. It's because the whole park is decorated in One Piece style. You can read my adventure with the Straw hat crew here. So today, we are going to the more "cultural" part of Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village. Okay, let's see what kind of interesting attractions at Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village in Nantou.

For a start, I personally found that blowpipe archery is quite interesting. Since I have watched some contestants in a US variety show called the Amazing Race trying to do it, I am eager to try it too. It looks kinda difficult to do in telly though. Let's see how hard it can be.

Blowpipe archery of Formosa Aboriginal Culture Village Nantou

It was very hard to do! My goodness. To make it more difficult, the target is like so far away. Blowpipe archery is a good sport to practice your lungs power. Really. You need to pay NTD100 per round. You will get 15 arrows and 10 darts respectively for each round.

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Once you have done your good share of blowpipe archery, you can do a more relaxing activity like sightseeing. There are a lot of traditional houses which are where the Taiwanese tribes live. These houses are for display only.

Even though it is only for display, visitors can come into the house and take a look of what's inside the house. It is quite realistic. You can move from one tribal area to another tribal area to understand the history of the people, their customs, culture and values.

You can also do some souvenir shopping because there are gift shops in each tribe area.

The Pine Garden, a two-storey house on a hill in Hualien

The Pine Garden is located at the north-eastern corner of Hualien city. It is located on a hill overlooking Hualien city and the estuary of Meilun River. There are a dozen aged pine trees outside the Pine Garden. The Pine Garden was actually a Japanese military structure. It is preserved by the Taiwanese so that it lasts until now. Despite being constructed by the Japanese, the building looks like a building from Europe, being built with bricks, wood, concrete and steel. Leaves has grown all around the house due to times. Nowadays it looks like a natural green house in Hualien.

At level one of the Pine Garden, you can find some shops selling handicrafts and art pieces made from wood. Most of the souvenirs sold in this store are the wooden keychains. These keychains are handmade. The surface of the keychains are so smooth.

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There are also handphone and bag accessories available for sales. Actually nowadays we cannot really hang anything to our smartphone, can we? Makes me wish those high school days where I keep asking my dad to buy me an accessories to hang to my phone. Some of those even has beeping lights. I suppose you can still hang the accessories to your bags. These cute angels will make a cute addition to your bags.

Hanging cute angels accessories at Pine Garden Hualien

If you are a stamp collector, don't forget to add your collection by stamping Pine Garden's stamp inside your album. The stamp looks pretty nice.

The entrance fee to Pine Garden costs 50NTD. It opens everyday from 9AM to 18PM except for the second and fourth Tuesday each month. The Pine Garden is located within walking distance from our hotel in Hualien, Classic City Resort Hualien. However, if you stay somewhere further, you can take a cab to the Pine Garden. Its address can be found below:

The Pine Garden (松園別館)

No. 26, Shuiyuan St., Hualien City, Hualien County 970