Qing Jing is a tourist spot in Taiwan located in Ren’Ai Town, Nantou county and is about 3 hours drive from both Taipei and Taoyuan International Airport. I will talk about travelling to Qing Jing in my Qing Jing itinerary post. This post will be focused on accommodation review. A popular family holiday venue, Qing Jing has close to 40 different home stays to choose as your accommodation in Qing Jing. I picked Ming Ging Farm as the recommended 2nd ranked home stay according to Trip Advisor.
Qing Jing is located on the mountain and many home stays are located on uphill areas which can be reached only by very narrow and steep hill roads. I will totally not recommend to drive here yourself as it is a big challenge to firstly find your home stay from the many different small uphill,narrow and steep roads and this is especially tough when it is dark as the mountain is not brightly lit. We had a driver and even he commented it is not easy to drive here. Ming Ging Farm is located on the lower part of Qing Jing but perched on top of the highest hill amongst its area.
The reception is located within the main building and there are 4 buildings in total belonging to Ming Ging Farm. The reception is opened 24 hours and there is always someone available to assist.
The reception is huge with big sofas for bigger groups and is decorated in a cosy and homely manner. Everything is neat and very well maintained and clean.
There is a huge veranda just outside of the main building with a gorgeous view of the surrounding mountains and lakes.
You can also view the sunset here as well as the sea of clouds if you get enough rainwater the day before. You can choose to have your breakfast or coffee out in the veranda but it could get a little chilly in the morning or the night.
We booked our accommodation pretty late so we only had 1 last triple room available and it was located on the B block which was a 2 min uphill walk from the main building. The room was also on the 4th floor and we had to climb 4 storeys everyday. The room is decorated like a Peter Rabbit themed room. As the room is on the top floor of the building, the ceiling was pretty low which can be uncomfortable for really tall people.
The roof was slanted throughout the room and many of the furniture were made quite tiny and small. The owner was very detailed to make sure all corners and sharp areas of the roof was covered with foam to prevent anyone from knocking their heads and getting injured. Personally, I feel that this would have been perfect for small families with children or much younger adults.
The Peter Rabbit theme was well extended into small details in the room like the mirror, tissue box holder, cups, table lamps, wallpaper as well as the amenities holders.
There were many intricate details of the theme being incorporated into the room and I think children would really appreciate this. The triple rooms come with 1 queen sized bed and 1 single bed and there is also a small corner here suitable for toddlers or smaller kids. Due to the low ceiling, the beds are all pretty low with a wooden bed frame and a high density hard foam mattress. If you are expecting the proper spring mattress with divan, you have to book early for one of the other rooms not on the top floor ( we peeped into other rooms and found their beds to be the normal hotel standards) . While the beds are only foam mattresses, it provided a pretty good support like a Tempur mattress but guests who prefer soft mattress should not book this room.
The toilet is very basic with a standing shower and toilet which are not separated therefore the toilet and basin areas will be wet after a shower. The shower heater was a bit hard to adjust between hot and cold water and the entire bathroom is basically quite old school looking.
The one plus point of climbing 4 storeys daily is to have your private balcony where there are outdoor garden tables and chairs for you to relax and enjoy the view.
This is the view you get from the balcony for sunset and you can also view the stars from the balcony.
All meals are served in the home stay’s only restaurant and the restaurant is just next to the reception. As the only restaurant, there are ample seating for all guests.
Breakfast is served with the usual buffet style and is included in the booking. There is a mixture of western items like toasts, salad, fried eggs and sauages. There are also some authentic Taiwanese breakfast items like dumplings, steamed buns, soy milk, fruit vinegar drinks and porridge.
The choices for breakfast was quite wide and the taste was very general. The Chinese options generally taste better although the Western ones were not bad.
What really stood out for me was the traditional Taiwanese porridge for breakfast which had a couple of stir fried items like minced pork and egg plant and bamboo shoot with prawns and other pickled items like peanuts, pickled vegetable and century egg to accompany the plain porridge.
We had the chance to have dinner at the restaurant as well the previous night and the dnner menu was a semi buffet style. Every main course that is ordered comes with the free buffet and there is a minimum spending of TWD 380 per person at the restaurant so it is more worth it to get a main course rather than to eat the buffet alone.
With the chilly temperature, we had the mini steamboat set at TWD 480 ( SGD 22.50) which came in a small pot and portable canister stove. The soup base was vegetable and chicken soup base which was very light.
Every set comes with a selection of pork or beef or vegetarian. The pork set came with thinly sliced shoulder meat with barely any fats. There was also 1 prawn given per set.
The set also comes with vegetable, 1 egg, 1 slice of pupkin, 1 slice of yam, 1 meat ball, 1 fishball, 1 mushroom, 1 fried bean curd , 1 tomato and 1 fried bean curd skin. Soup refills are given unlimited upon requests.
The semi buffet spread included items like fried rice, salads, 2 different kinds of soup, taiwanese sausage. The creamy pumpkin soup was a great surprise as it was one of the best pumpkin soup I have ever tasted. It was very creamy and buttery and sweet but too filling so I could only manage 2 bowls of the same soup. The rest of the items are quite general but I liked the fact I could take the raw vegetables from the salad area and cook them in the steamboat for more vegetables. Do however note that due to limited seating, you have to make a booking for dinner.
Generally, the stay a Ming Ging was a pleasant one with attentive, prompt and very friendly service with the exception of 1 waitress who was pretty rude during dinner but was ok during breakfast. They would always readily provide you with porters to help you with the luggages no matter which building or floor you are staying. For those who found eating at their restaurant expensive can choose to purchase cup noodles from their vendor machines which are reasonably priced. The rooms were all clean and well maintained although I would have choosen another room if I had a choice due to the low furnitures even if the balcony was a plus point. All staff speak English, check out was at 11 am and no extension can be made. Would I stay here again, probably not but not because the stay was bad but because there are too many other home stay with good view to explore.
Rooms start from : SGD 208
Address: No. 43, Rongguang Lane, 546 Renai, Taiwan
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