International Interns @ Toucheng Leisure Farm: Farm Tour

Hello~ It's Candy.

Today I will give you a tour around the farm. It has already been over 3 weeks since arriving at Toucheng Farm so I've gotten to know this place better than before.

The farm spans roughly 120 hectares in area and there is a winery if you go up about 2 kilometres. I have yet to visit Cang Jiu Winery but I heard that it has a nice view and the building is more modern compared to the farm. They offer wine tasting and multi-course meals at the winery.

At the entrance to the farm, there is the parking lot, fish pond, and a service centre.

Many tour buses and cars are usually parked at the farm during weekends.

The pond in front of the service centre.
There's a bamboo raft with paddles that you can use to float on the water.

The entrance to the service centre and restaurant.

This is where the staff have morning meetings at 8am every day.

The restaurant serves delicious buffet-style meals 3 times a day.

They have a special section for vegetarian food!

This black tea is the bomb. Make sure to try some if you visit the farm. It's AMAZING.

This is the farm's convenience store (inside the restaurant area).
They have snacks, drinks, and souvenirs to purchase.
I would recommend going sometime between after breakfast and before dinner as the shop is not open until very late.

During the first week of my stay, I didn't explore much of the farm as I spent most of my time indoors. After becoming more familiar with the environment, I realized how much of the farm I did not visit yet.. so I went on a guided tour with the guests; it's fun playing tourist for a day.

This is our tour guide. He was really friendly despite the language barrier.

The tour guide was knowledgeable about the farm but unfortunately, I couldn't catch much of the Chinese; "我聽不懂" (wǒ tīng bù dǒng). If you don't speak any Chinese, don't fret though because there are several people that can speak English at the farm. I'd recommend learning some basic Mandarin before coming if you'd like to be more immersed in the culture. Never thought I'd say this, but my parents were right about having regrets that I stopped learning Chinese when I was younger. It's hard to learn a new language, but definitely useful, so don't give up and keep studying!

During the tour, Wang Jin (黃金) a.k.a. 'Golden' the farm dog followed us the entire way. I was told that Wang Jin usually follows the most popular tour guide of the day as there are multiple tour groups. If you don't see her near the front of the building in the morning, she's probably going around the entire farm with the guests.

This is the path leading up to the DIY centre. There's an open basketball court.

The DIY Centre is a 1400 sq. metre outdoor facility where guest can make their own fruit vinegar, printed t-shirts, sky lanterns, and other hands-on activities.

Rose-apples (a.k.a. wax apples or syzygium samarangense) are everywhere on the farm!

The next stop was the Tea House -- they hold outdoor cooking lessons here.

In the domesticated animal area, there are water buffalos, goats, chicken, and ducks. The animals are friendly and like to be fed.

BAHHHHH~ there are tree leaves around the pen that you can feed to the goats.

Next stop, we visited the rice cultivation experimental area. Here you can find rice paddy field, a mud hut, and a tasting area. The seedlings are planted in sections at different dates so that visitors can view the development stages of the rice plant.