Jingyuan - Airport Café and Recreational Farm 淨園農場及機場咖啡廳

Share

---

Tweet

Jingyuan (aka Jing-Yuan Leisure Farm or Air Coffee) is a unique Taiwanese style holiday destination. It claims to have the only open air restaurant in Taiwan that literally borders an airstrip, so you can sip coffee and watch large commercial airplanes take off and land right next to you. Also there is a zoo with hippos, lions, llamas, and other animals. In addition there is a large playground, mini train, campground, and multiple restaurants on the grounds. 

Background:
Jingyuan originally opened about 20 years ago as a coffee shop next to Kaohsiung International Airport in Xiaogang. Later, more attractions were added to the grounds such as a child's playground, petting zoo, campground, and additional restaurants. 
It is not usually a stop for travelers to the airport; it sits on the opposite side of the airstrip from the airport terminal. It is more of a destination for local Taiwanese people.
On weekends the place is usually packed with people, mostly families with small children. 

Hours:
9:30 AM to 11:00 PM

Price:
250 NT per adult
​150 NT per child

How to get there:
By car/scooter: From central Kaohsiung, take provincial highway 17 south to Caoya MRT station, then turn left on Zhongan Road. You will then need to turn right onto Mingsheng Road Alley 120, and keep going until you reach the parking lot. 
By MRT/bus: Take the MRT to Caoya Station, then take bus 69A 10 minutes to Mingsheng Station. The farm is just a short 2 minute walk away.

Map:
​Please see below.

Our Journey:

​I have been to Jingyuan once on the strong suggestion from a friend. It was fun, and definitely a great place for kids.
One might think of Xiaogang as the dirty stinky polluted industrial wasteland of Kaohsiung. But there are some fun things to do here too. 

Entrance to the park. There is an actual airplane sitting there.

After paying the 250 per person and 50 NT or so for parking, it ended up to be about 700 NT for us to enter the park. 

Right at the entrance are some hippos. It was sad though that the lion was not visible during our trip.

There are also some monkeys on an island in the middle of the pond.

Also there are some coy in the water.

Pink flamingos.

A swan.

What may be the major highlight of this place is watching airplanes from the cafe. There are lots of great seats and views to see airplanes take off and land from very close range. 

Another view of the EVA air flight. I have to admit I was not too focused on taking photos of airplanes. I was too busy chatting with my friend from Xiaogang that I had not seen in a long time. 

Another view of the restaurant on the side of the airport. The restaurant was not cheap, about 300-400 NT per meal, and on holidays you cannot offset this against the ticket price.

More tables down below closer to the airport.

Another EVA air flight over the bushes.

A child feeds a goat at the petting zoo.

Flamingos and parrots.

Sheep that you can pet and feed.

An outdoor camping area and stage.

More places to relax.

You can eat lunch inside these tents.

Child's playground.

Next to the child's playground there is a choo choo train ride.

The train takes a loop around the playground.

And it goes through a tunnel under the slides. 

Side view of the playground.

Last view of the playground from the train.

More kids getting on the train.

It seems like a lot of kids spent the entire day here.

And we spent a lot of time looking at this foreign juggler. 

He was pretty entertaining. 

There were also some jungle themed booths where you can have a whole jungle hut to yourself for a meal.

Just a view of the menu, 200-400 NT per plate.

Share