Should You Skip Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm (1.0 and 2.0 branch)?

Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm (張美阿嬤農場) is a small but extremely popular leisure farm in Yilan county. I’ve been to the “farm” twice – once on my own and once with my kids.

I can’t deny that my kids had a fun day at the attraction, interacting with exotic animals (mostly from South America and Australia), making traditional Taiwanese foods, and harvesting vegetables – all part of the Zhang Mei Ama’s 1.0 DIY package (Klook / KKday).

However, I also have to point out that this animal attraction isn’t ethical (most aren’t, after all). These non-native animals reside in small enclosures and are forced to interact with humans all day.

What’s more, in early 2025, Zhang Mei Ama’s closed without warning, opened a second branch (Zhang Mei Ama’s 2.0) nearby, and didn’t share any info about the public about what was going on. The whole transition was a mess, and most visitors since then have been saying that neither one is as good as the original. They also force people to write 5-star reviews.

I first wrote the below review of our experience at the original Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm before this happened. I’ve since edited it to add these points. While I now feel you should skip this attraction, I’m still leaving my original review as it is, for those who still want the information to help them decide.

You may also want to read about my kids’ favorite places in Taiwan, the best DIY activities in Taipei and other places to see capybaras in Taiwan.

2025 Update: Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm 1.0 vs. 2.0

Much to everyone’s confusion, Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm (here) suddenly closed for a while in March 2025. Then a new location called Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm 2.0 (張美阿嬤農場2.0) opened here about 1 km from the original one, and the original one reopened again as “Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm 1.0”.

While this was going on, they didn’t released any information to the public about what was happening, which angered many visitors. There were zero posts on their social media or website and no information available on site. Amazingly, their crappy website didn’t have any information about the move until weeks later, and now they claim 2.0 is not related to them, which I don’t believe.

Now that the dust has settled, it seems like:

• Some of the animals from Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm 1.0 were moved to 2.0, so 1.0 has fewer animals now. It’s not clear whether this is a loan or permanent.
• Both 1.0 and 2.0 are open now, but both of them have some ongoing renovations.
• Besides having fewer animals now, Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm 1.0 is still pretty much the same as before (as I’ll describe in this article), with some cute animals, DIY activities, and the vegetable harvesting experience. Due to the renovations, part of it is closed, so it’s very small for the time being – and it was already quite small before.
• Zhang Mei Ama’s 2.0 is a newer facility but has no DIY activities. It’s main feature is the Sloth Restaurant (Shu Lan Restaurant or 樹懶餐廳, here), which, despite the name, has no sloths in it. So far, the restaurant reviews are not great. There are also a few animals (including capybaras, pelicans, parrots kangaroos, and Valais blacknose sheep, but no deer) outside. More of them are in individual pens rather than wandering around randomly like at 1.0.
• Because of confusion between the two locations, some GoogleMaps reviewers have been posting their reviews and photos of the wrong one.
• At 1.0, they used to ask people to write a review on GoogleMaps to get free food to feed the animals. At 2.0, they’re forcing people to write a 5-star review to get the food – some are even reporting they click the 5 stars for you and then check what you write before you post it!

The Klook link has has tickets for Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm 1.0 and 2.0, so make sure you understand the differences and go to the right one.

Choose 1.0 for meeting more animals and doing DIY activities, but heads up that it’s quite small now due to the ongoing renovations. Choose 2.0 if you want to dine at a restaurant and meet a few animals after.

In my opinion, Zhang Mei Ama’s was already too popular and crowded before all this happened (not to mention questionable treatment of animals). And now, with their sudden changes, lack of communication to the public, and forcing people to write 5-star reviews, I’d personally skip Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm. At the end of the article, I’ll provide several alternatives (or you can just skip these kinds of animal experiences altogether…)

The article below is based on our visit to the original location, Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm 1.0, before all these changes happened.

Welcome to Zhang Mei Ama’s!

Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm is not unique in Taiwan – there are dozens of other very similar ones in Yilan (which I call the “family friendly county”) and across Taiwan.

Somehow, though, this one had jumped out as the most popular one for visiting tourists. At any given time, even weekdays, you may find busloads of tourists here, while the other ones tend to only be really busy on weekends, when most locals go.

FYI: “Ama” means grandmother in Taiwanese.

Zhang Mei Ama’s is not really a farm. In my country, we would call this a “petting zoo”. It’s just an animal enclosure with gravel floor, and it’s quite small (only 400 m²).

There’s no mention on the official site about whether it is run by a real farm or not. The animals are clearly there just for the tourists, but the vegetable harvesting experience takes place on a real farm just down the street from it.

Like so many similar “farms” in Taiwan, they’ve gone with a Japanese theme, so there are a few torii (red gates) and Japanese decorations.

It’s also possible to rent kinomos on site (read about other places to rent kimonos or qipaos in Taiwan).

Besides the animal area and veggie harvesting, the center also includes a few food stalls and some rooms where kids can do DIY baking activities.

Overall, expect to spend 30 minutes to 1 hour here if only visiting the animals, or 2 to 2.5 hours for the full DIY package.

How to Buy Tickets to the Farm

It’s possible to just show up and buy tickets at the door. Entrance for seeing the animals only is TWD 200 for age 5+ (including adults), 50 for kids age 2-4, and free under 2. The DIY package is TWD 350 for 5+, 50 for 2-4, and free under 2.

Tickets on Klook are the same price, but I found we got in faster because we had them.

Another benefit of Klook is that you can gain Klook cash with your bookings and take advantage of promo codes to get discounts.

The Klook page has the option for regular entrance or DIY package. The DIY package is called “Admission Ticket + Cooking Class + Dessert”.

This means you get to meet the animals as long as you want, do a cooking class, get a free dessert, and (not even mentioned in the title) you also get to do a vegetable harvesting experience.

On KKday, the page for the new Zhang Mei Ama 2.0 is here.

Getting to the Farm

There are many ways to get to the farm, depending largely on your budget and other places you’d like to include.

By Tour or Private Car

The easiest way to get to Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm is to book a day tour from Taipei (Klook / KKday).

You could also hire a private driver for the day from Taipei (Klook / Klook /  KKday) or from anywhere in Yilan county (Klook / KKday) and visit several other spots besides Zhang Mei Ama’s.

If you do that, some things you could include are green onion picking and green onion cake making near Zhang Mei Ama’s (Klook), the National Center for Traditional Arts (Klook / KKday), Jiaoxi hot springs (see my guide), or Kavalan Distillery. See my Yilan guide for many more ideas.

At the end of your day, finish at Luodong Night Market (read my guide), the best night market in Yilan.

You could even visit Zhang Mei Ama’s at the end of a day trip to Taipingshan, but you’d have to start your day very early to make it to Zhang Mei Ama’s before closing time. See my Taipingshan guide.

Rent a Car or Scooter

Yilan is one of the easiest places in Taiwan to drive. Take a train from Taipei to Yilan city or Luodong and rent a car (Klook) from there. You’ll need an IDP and credit card under the same name. Here’s my guide to renting a car in Taiwan.

Renting a scooter (Klook) is a little more difficult in Taiwan. You’ll need a Taiwanese scooter license or an IDP and it must have a stamp in the A box (motorcycle endorsement), which means you are licensed to drive motorcycles in your country. I’ve also got a post about renting scooters in Taiwan.

Zhang Mei Ama’s farm is about 30 minutes’ drive from Yilan city or Luodong. Only rent a car if you plan to explore many stops in one day (see my ideas in the last section).

As for a scooter, they are so cheap (cheaper than a taxi!) that you may consider doing this even if Zhang Mei Ama’s is your only stop.

By Public Transportation + Taxi

By public transportation, take a bus (1 hour 15 min, Klook) from Taipei Bus Station or Taipei City Hall Bus Station to Luodong.

You could also get off at Yilan station (one stop before Luodong) and see Jimmy Park, but Luodong is a little closer to Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm, so the taxi ride from Yilan will cost a little more than from Luodong.

The bus is very comfortable and has guaranteed seat. However, buses can take longer (up to 2 hours) at peak traffic times. There’s no toilet on the bus.

A second option is to take a train (1 hr 15 min to 2 hr 45 min) from Taipei Main Station or Songshan Station to Luodong. The fastest one needs to be reserved in advance, while for the slower ones, you can just swipe EasyCard. Learn how to reserve in my guide to booking trains in Taiwan.

From Luodong Station, there are some buses (30 min) which will get you close(ish) to Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm, but you’ll need to walk about 18 minutes after getting off. Use GoogleMaps direction to find these.

It’s easier but more expensive to just hop in a taxi or Uber to the farm. Expect to pay around 400 for the ride. When leaving the farm, visitors report that they are usually able to order an Uber from there.

After Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm consider walking to this green onion picking and green onion cake making farm (Klook), which is 30 minutes away from the farm on foot.

At the Farm: Meeting the Animals

When we arrived at Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm, things were a little chaotic because a couple busloads of tourists had just arrived before us.

Basically we lined up, a staff member went up the line asking who had tickets already (from Klook or KKday), then pointed us to the shorter line.

Because we had the DIY package, we could choose if we wanted to do the cooking class or meet the animals first.

They suggested to do the cooking first, because the food needs some time to cook after you make it. We took their advice and did the cooking first (see next section) then came back to eat it after we saw the animals.

Before entering the animal enclosure, they asked us to wash our hands, then they gave us some long leaves to feed the animals.

Warning: For visitors with young kids, the animals inside can be a little aggressive trying to grab the leaves from you. Watch your kids carefully or just don’t let them hold any leaves. Hold the leaves up high so the animals can’t steal them.

One (adult) visitor even complained in my Facebook group that one of the animals stepped on his foot and hurt him. When I visited, one animal kept biting my pants and I had to ask a staff member to get it away from me.

The animal area has three fenced enclosures. In the first one, animals we saw included sika deer (梅花鹿), alpacas (羊駝), and Valais blacknose sheep (黑鼻羊).

Funny note: Taiwanese jokingly call Valais blacknose sheep 笑笑羊, after the cartoon character Shaun the Sheep, and alpacas 草泥馬 (literally “grass mud horse”), which sounds the same as the Mandarin words “f*** your mother”.

The official Zhang Mei Ama website invites visitors to “come meet Shaun the Sheep, f*** your mother sheep, and Suicune (水君, a Pokemon character, which I guess is supposed to look like Reeve’s Mutjac – see below).

The animals in the first area are the largest and bitey-est, so if they are bothering you, just move on to the next area.

The second enclosure is the smallest and the most chill, with only a few capybaras (水豚) and giant tortoises.

Note that once you go to the second or third enclosures, you aren’t allowed to go back.

The third enclosure is as large as the first one, but with smaller animals. My kids liked this area by far the most.

Animals we saw in the third area included Patagonian mara (兔豚鼠, which look like oversized rabbits with short ears), rare white (albino) kangaroos (袋鼠), and Reeve’s Mutjac (山羌, look like miniature deer).

Note that in this area, you aren’t supposed to step into the sectioned off area to one side, which is for the animals only if they want to some personal space.

This area also had some colorful parrots, which my kids absolutely loved holding and did multiple times. My daughter wanted to try holding each of them.

Last but not least, we saw several more capybaras in the third area, with a little steaming pond for them to swim in (you’ll have to be lucky to see them actually in it) and some fake oranges meant for balancing on their heads.

Why balance oranges on them? Well, because you can! In many cartoons and signs for capybara places, they are pictured with oranges on their head, just it’s just a thing.

I have to say, capybaras are super popular in Taiwan these days, and there are dozens of places in Taiwan where you can see them, even though these oversized rodents are from South America.

They are surprisingly chill animals and like being pet, just like a dog. Of all the animals at Zhang Mei Ama’s, they are the easiest (and probably safest) to actually touch.  

There’s one more animal room which is easy to miss. Once you exit the main animal enclosure, you’ll find this room closer to the food area.

Inside it, we saw some sloths (樹懶), but honestly felt quite sorry for them being stuck indoors like that – even though they did look pretty relaxed…

Make sure to wash your hands before leaving or returning to the cooking room!

Cooking Class and Free Snack

If you get the DIY package (Klook / KKday), it includes a simple cooking class and free snack. You can do the cooking class whenever you want, but it makes sense to do it first, before seeing the animals, then come back after to eat the foods you made.

Which item you cook varies throughout the year. When we went, my kids made sweet potato balls.

This isn’t a group class with an instructor at the front. It’s more like a large room with many tables, and you can start at any time. There are some staff walking around and they gave us instructions as needed.

This was not a complicated cooking activity. My kids just mixed sweet potato and flour then rolled it into balls. They enjoyed making some of them into fun shapes, like cat heads.

For a more in depth cooking class, I recommend the pineapple cake making in Taipei.

Then, we went out to meet the animals while staff boiled their sweet potato balls.

When we came back, the balls had been cooked. My kids got to put them into small paper cups then add a sweet soup to them.

At this point, the staff also offered us our free snack (included in the DIY package). Each of us got to pick one item from a menu that included green onion cakes, animal shaped egg cakes, and wheel cakes.

Even if you don’t do the DIY package, you can also purchase these items on site.

Harvesting Experience

The DIY package also includes a vegetable harvesting experience at the end, which is weather-dependent (they won’t offer it if it’s pouring rain).

When we finished eating our snacks, the staff in the cooking room showed us where to go. Right at the entrance to the farm, there’s a room where we were instructed to put on tall rain boots and Taiwanese farmers’ hats.

From there, they basically pointed us down the street and we weren’t super clear where to go. We even felt a little embarrassed walking pass a busload of arriving guests in our giant boots and farmer hats. But we just kept walking.

At the end of the street, we turned left, walking for several minutes past the large car parking lot. My kids were convinced we were going the wrong way, and I almost thought so too.

But then we spotted a farmer’s truck in the adjacent field (this spot exactly, but it could change!) and I knew that was it. I suggest you get clear instructions from the staff before heading out!

When we arrived at the truck, the farmer gave us gloves, shears, and instructions for how to choose and pick the vegetables. We got to pick peppers in a variety of colors, but the vegetable you will harvest varies by season.

The boots came in handy, as the field was indeed very muddy. My kids did enjoy this experience (also read about our experience picking strawberries in Miaoli).

Each of us got to pick several peppers, with plastic bags to take them home. My kids’ a-gong (grandfather) in New Taipei City was very happy to receive them and cook them for dinner that night!

Alternatives to Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm

As I mentioned in the article, Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm is by no means unique in Taiwan. There are so many other similar ones, especially in Yilan but also in other parts of the country.

Here’s a list of just a few of the more popular ones.

• In Taipei, there’s a meerkat cafe, snake cafe, and many cat cafes. There’s also a capybara hot pot restaurant and capybara cafe, both in Taipei region.
• In Yilan, Bambi Land (Klook) and Yilan Animal Kingdom (Klook) offer similar experiences to Zhang Mei Ama’s Farm, but with more space for the animals.
• Dancewoods (Klook / KKday) is another one nearby which focuses less on animals and more on the Japanese landscape.
• Xingbao (Klook) is yet another in Yilan that has a few animals plus green onion picking and green onion cake making.
• Still more in Yilan include Xingmeng Forest Theater, Guangxing Farm, Yinong Ranch, and Daozhuang Leisure Farm.
• Shangri-La Leisure Farm (Agoda) and Toucheng Leisure Farm (Booking) are ones where you can spend the night.
• In Taoyuan, Pushin Ranch (Klook / KKday) is a popular leisure farm with animals.
• In Hsinchu, Greenworld Ecological Park (Klook / KKday) is larger and more like a zoo, with more space for most of the animals.
• Also in Hsinchu, Leofoo Village (Klook / KKday) is a theme park with “safari” section and an overnight safari-style hotel. See my Leofoo Village guide.
• In Hualien, Zhang Family Garden (here) has various animals and Japanese-theme with kimono wearing with small restaurant/cafe and indoor cat room.
• In Puli (between Taichung and Sun Moon Lake), readers of this site have highly recommended the brand new Xiang Ri Fei Fei (享日啡啡, literally “Enjoy the Day Coffee Coffee”, here), which has nicer facilities and capybaras.
• High in the mountains of Nantou, Cingjing Farm is leisure farm with beautiful scenery, sheep shearing shows, and horsemanship shows. See my Cingjing Farm guide.
• In Kaohsiung, Senya Village (Klook) focuses heavily on the Japanese theme but only has a few animals.