If you have a spare day between business meetings or family reunions, enjoy a one-day private tour exploring the city of Hsinchu and the Hakka Heartland.

Pickup from your hotel in Hsinchu or Taipei or Hsinchu railway stations. Includes lunch, mineral water and insurance.

Itinerary:

• Hsinchu City is synonymous with high-tech industry. Few non-Taiwanese know that the nearby interior is both a bastion of Hakka culture and awash with pretty little towns and endearing country scenes. 
• For this tour we’ll take you out of the city and into the foothills where tea and fruit are grown, and where tradition still plays a major role in people’s lives.
  
• Beipu, founded in 1835 by armed Hakka settlers, is a place where the past can still be seen and touched. A good bit of 19th-century character remains, including  shops that sell camphor oil, a key commodity in the Taiwan of yesteryear, and restaurants that serve frog meat and offal. Lunch will include more mainstream Hakka delicacies – but if you’re an adventurous gourmand let us know and we’ll order accordingly! 
• In the past, many Hakka dishes were regarded as oily and salty; in line with the modern preference for healthy fare, innovative chefs have updated the cuisine, while retaining its characteristic pork and pickle flavours. While in Beipu you can also try your hand at making leicha, a nourishing blend of tea leaves, seeds, nuts and grains.
  
• Inland Hsinchu is where Taiwan’s oriental beauty tea is grown. In the afternoon, we’ll tour the Fuxing Tea Demonstration Centre in Emei. There we’ll try local green, oolong and oriental beauty teas, and take a look at the pre-World War II tea-processing equipment that’s preserved inside. 
• Before transferring back to your hotel or the transport hub of your choice we may be able to fit in a brief stop at the region’s most important religious site: Baozhong Temple commemorates Hakka volunteers who died defending their communities during rebellions in the 18th and 19th centuries.