Chiayi Stay | Dashan Zizai B&B | A Night in a Century-Old Courtyard House in the Mountains | Longyanlin Tea Factory | Tea-Rolling DIY Experience
📜 Information
- Length of stay: one night (2023-09-08~2023-09-09)
- Room types booked: all room types, including double, quad and six-person rooms
- Address: No. 3, Neighborhood 9, Longyanlin, Meishan Township, Chiayi County 603
- Phone: 05-2571123
📍 Location
Dashan Zizai is located up in Meishan, Chiayi. Driving up the mountain you first pass the Taiping 36 Bends, the Taiping Suspension Bridge and Taiping Old Street before reaching the guesthouse, which sits at over 1,000 meters above sea level — there is basically no way to get here other than by car. Although this area is part of the Alishan range, it isn't really a tourist hotspot, so it feels like a peaceful haven far from the crowds.
🏠 The Guesthouse and Rooms
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| The charming old corridor of the courtyard house |
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| The three middle rooms share one entrance |
Dashan Zizai B&B was converted from a traditional building and retains the character of the original structure. There are five rooms in total, sleeping two, four or six people. The rooms are plain and simple, with no TV and no air conditioning, and the three rooms in the middle also share a small living room.
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| The shared little living room in the middle |
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| The six-person room with a small loft |
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| The quad room |
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| The double room |
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| Another, slightly smaller double room |
All the rooms here are without en-suite facilities; the bathrooms and toilets are outside the rooms. And although there is no air conditioning in the rooms, being high in the mountains, the nights are actually quite cool.
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| The toilets and bathrooms at the end of the corridor |
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| There is also a water dispenser and clothes-drying racks for guests |
There are several toilets and bathrooms shared among guests. No disposable toiletries are provided, but body wash, shampoo and hair dryers are available.
🌱 Longyanlin Tea Factory / DIY Tea-Rolling Experience
Another part of the property is where the Longyanlin Tea Factory normally processes tea — and it's also where the DIY tea-rolling experience takes place. When staying at Dashan Zizai you can add on the DIY tea-rolling experience (NT$300 per person), and in the end you take home two packs of tea you rolled yourself. It's a really fun and interesting experience.
"Rolling" means using machinery or the hands to make the tea leaves tumble and rub against each other, breaking down some of the leaf tissue so that the juices seep out and coat the surface of the leaves. Different pressure, temperature and evenness all have a huge, direct impact on the finished tea.
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| The leaves shortly after rolling begins |
Since the whole rolling process takes at least two hours, the owner brews different teas along the way for everyone to taste, so you can enjoy the factory's delicious teas while taking a break.
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| Everyone's tea leaves after rolling |
Once the rolling is done, the leaves are left to rest and oxidize for a while. Only after dinner, when we returned to the guesthouse in the evening, did the roasting begin.
During roasting, waves of tea fragrance fill the air and the whole factory is scented with tea. Breathing in that aroma in the quiet mountain night is deeply relaxing. Finally everyone bags up their own tea — and your very own pack of tea is complete!
Before bagging there's one more little step: a blind tasting to see whose hand-rolled tea tastes best!
With the same amount of leaves, the same amount of water, temperature and steeping time, you can taste the subtle differences between everyone's tea — some slightly astringent, some light, some with a stronger body — all closely tied to the time, pressure and hand temperature during the afternoon's rolling.
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| There are also a few stray cats wandering around the guesthouse |
🍽️ Breakfast
Breakfast is served in the main building next door. It's a generous, home-made Chinese-style breakfast, and if anyone in your group is vegetarian the owner will also prepare a fully vegetarian breakfast.
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| You can sip tea and chat with the owner here |
🌄 The Surroundings and Scenery
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| Sunrise seen from the guesthouse (a pity there was a bit too much cloud that day) |
Beyond the guesthouse itself, since it sits high in the Meishan mountains, you really should get up to watch the sunrise the next morning if the weather is good — just open your door and you can see the beautiful sunrise right from the open ground of the guesthouse.
The guesthouse is surrounded by tea plantations, and the sight of rolling mountains paired with tea fields can be enjoyed from the property at any time.
There is also a small bamboo forest trail beside it — a lovely place for a morning stroll to enjoy the quiet and the nature around you.
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| A bamboo path with a Japanese feel |
Early the next morning we happened to catch the tea factory sun-withering its leaves: the entire courtyard plaza is put to use, spread with a carpet of bright green fresh tea leaves — a scene city dwellers like us rarely get to see.
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| Cats keeping watch at the guesthouse entrance |
Because the rooms are converted from a historic courtyard house, they aren't exactly new, but they are reasonably clean. Being deep in the mountains, the occasional insect in the room is unavoidable, and the sound insulation is probably the only real drawback — there is essentially none.
That said, Dashan Zizai B&B is perfect for travelers who want to escape the noise of the city for a while and unwind in the mountains. The owner and his wife are warm and friendly, and the hand-rolled tea experience is both fun and educational. I'd definitely recommend spending a night here!
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