we really made it today! we joined the hiking tour[01-10] to mt. maolan at 04:50, to get a nice view on the sun moon lake. so called because the east side of the lake resembles the sun while the west side resembles the moon. unfortunately the weather was not so good, so instead of a beautiful sunset we got pretty heavy rain. but still the view was amazing and worth getting up that early. after getting back to the hostel and having our breakfast, we went back to bed again and fell asleep until afternoon. but then we started our sightseeing trip around the soon moon lake and got one of the many ferries[12-15] that brought us to the cinglong hiking trail[16-27] that brought us to the xuanzang temple[28-39]. next stop was the xi-en pagoda[42-63]. inside there were steps going up all the nine (a very powerful number for the chinese) floors[52-62] of the pagoda. from the top you had a wonderful view over the area. after that we got back to the pier at the lake, walked the streets enjoying the small market there, when we realized it's time for us to hurry to the last ferry, which leaves at 17:00 o'clock. so back on the other side of the lake we enjoyed the ita thao night market and had some excellent food[71-72] - some deep fried stuff. also we bought some mochi[74-75]. nomnom... this night we unfortunately had to spend the night in a different hostel. we will miss the friendly owner of the one we had spent the first night in, "laurel villa". if you ever go to sun moon lake, be sure to book a room there. track: day 08