We started our day off with a cooking class!! I have been looking forward to this excursion throughout the whole trip and it definitely met my expectations! We made Zongzi, a traditional food that is a part of the dragon boat fesitival. The unique story behind it is linked to Qu Yuan, the famous poet that committed suicide by jumping into the Miluo river. It is said that people threw Zongzi into the river to keep the fish from eating his body and as a way to honor him. Due to the significance of this food and the fact that we got to go see the Dragon Boat Festival, it was really cool to be able to cook and eat Zongzi. We also got to make our own boba milk tea!
After the cooking class, we had the rest of the afternoon free and we took advantage of it! We first ventured to Jiantian to hike what we thought was Elephant Mountain (It was not). We went based on directions I found on Tik Tok, and ended up hiking up a mountain that usually only locals go to. We were able to see a beautiful view of the city from the top of the mountain so that made the 10000 stair steps we climbed worth it.
Afterwards, we decided to go back to Beitou to see if thermal valley was open. We got to see a sulfur Hot Spring and went to the Beitou hot springs museum, which was a unique experience to say the least. We then got Ramen and headed back to the hotel hoping to get a good night of rest before visiting Dharma Drum Mountain the next day.
