My main objective for making the trip to Hualien was to cycle and for Taroko Gorge of course. The east coast of Taiwan is pretty famous for its cycling routes and so I decided to try it out. Hualien is also made up of people from the many tribes in Taiwan, rather than the city people, so I find the pace of life and the type of people there different from those in Taipei. They are usually more friendly and more willing to stop and help.
Getting to Hualien:
We took the train from Taipei Main Station. Make sure you book it before hand or you'll end up with no seats like we almost did. The train ticket (one way) costs about NTD440 per pax. Trains run about every hour or so.
Accommodation in Hualien:
I love Airbnb since it brings out the culture of the place more, so I opted to stay in a 民宿(min su), or in other words, a local guesthouse. I stayed at Guosheng 1st street, with a lady known as Amrita. You can check out her listing here. She has apparently been in the business ever since Airbnb came to Taiwan! She's also really friendly, extremely clean and will recommend you places to go/visit.
Cycling along the east coast:
I wanted to cycle along this route known as the "Two lakes bikeway", which runs from Qixingtan to Liyu lake along the east coast. However, our host told us that Qixingtan is nicer at sunset and it was really hot in the afternoon, so she recommended us to go to Liyu lake alone instead. We also rented our bicycles based on her recommendation as this shop had good quality bicycles for cheaper prices (we quoted her name for a discount). It's very near the Hualien train station.
Unfortunately, it stated raining along the way and we were drenched by the time we reached Liyu lake. We wanted to cycle along the east coast to head back to the main town but we hit a lot of detours along the way. Though we found the two lakes bikeway, the signs weren't very clear and we ended up going on a different bikeway instead. It's alright for seasoned cyclists like my boyfriend and I, but for my sister and her boyfriend, they struggled quite a bit and got a lift from a nice Vietnamese couple back to the town in the end (Thank God for them!). We clocked a total of 50km that day! I found it really interesting and fun because we got to see farms, mountains, small rivers, and explored local places in Hualien that we otherwise wouldn't have gone. But if you're not comfortable on the bicycle, I wouldn't suggest doing such an ambitious distance. I recommend sticking to just going to Qixingtan and back! Or just cycling around the town or to the beach for awhile. If you're up to it, take on the challenge and go for an adventure! You never know where that might lead you.
 |
| Liyu lake with a lot of rain and fog |
 |
| Liyu lake |
 |
| There are boats there for you to rent! |
 |
| Chancing upon unexpected scenery during our mountain ride! |
 |
| We passed by many farms too (: |
Night markets:
The biggest one in Hualien (and probably the only one worth going to) is the Dongdamen market. It has a lot of games and food but no clothes. So, for the girls, shopping isn't the point in Hualien! The games here are significantly cheaper than the Taipei night markets. If you want to try the BB air rifles, bingo mahjong etc., I highly recommend doing it here as compared to the Taipei night markets.
Taroko Gorge:
There are a few ways to get to (and around) Taroko Gorge.
1. By bus: There is a shuttle bus (1133A) from Hualien train station that takes you to Taroko and stops at multiple stops along the Gorge. You can purchase the one day pass for 200NT and you can get up and go down as many stops as you want. It's cheap so it's a good alternative for those on a tight budget/solo travellers. However, the drawback is that there is a schedule that the bus follows so you need to bear in mind the time that you spend at each location because you wouldn't want to miss the bus.
2. Car hire: If you're travelling in a group, I personally recommend this method because you have better control of your time and where you want to go. Car hires in Taiwan charge by the day. There is a huge range of prices (from 2000NT to 3000NT) depending on car quality. We opted to go with a nice old man for 2000NT because he wasn't pushy, while the rest of the guides were hard-selling and we didn't like their method of doing so. We had to suffer with a squeezy car that was rather warm though. Some of the car hire guides are really good because they used to drive tour buses and then decided to retire and free lance. Our guide was like that! He was really knowledgeable about where to go, how we should best walk through the gorge to maximise the experience in a shorter amount of time. He also has REALLY GOOD photo angles and he'll help us take insta-worthy group photos.
These were the places we covered at Taroko:
- main entrance (just to take a photo with the sign). Our guide insisted.
- Shakadang trail. Walk 1.5km in until you hit the first pitstop and then turn back out. The entire trail is 10km long so you wouldn't want to go all the way unless you intend to hike for the whole day.
- Swallow Grotto. Really pretty pictures here. Highly recommended.
- Cimu bridge. Simple area for phototaking.
- Fei Yue Ting and the bridge. Also another simple area for phototaking.
- Tianxiang. You climb up a flight of stairs to go up to a temple and back down. We mainly stopped here because they sold some food.
- Eternal springs. It's an iconic picture of a temple with some fountain. Just to take pictures.
My 2 recommendations are Shakadang trail and Swallow Grotto! Really enjoyed those parts and we also spent the most time there.
 |
| Iconic blue waters of the Shakadang trail |
 |
| Shakadang trail |
 |
| Swallow's grotto |
 |
| Cimu Bridge |
 |
| Highly recommended for car hire! |
For breakfast, I highly recommend their toast shops. We went to this stall called "Good morning! Beauty Castle" because it was good and also very near our Airbnb. I recommend you trying their egg crepe if you've never had one before. Other types of pastries available are toast, bagel, croissant. All prices range from 40-55NT.
 |
| Egg crepe - a must try! |
Hotpots are SO GOOD in Hualien because they have so many farms and the ingredients are fresh. And they are CHEAP. I highly recommend this shop (max 200NT per person). Each person can order their individual hotpot set, which comes with free flow of drinks, ice cream and rice, as well as a very generous amount of food. You can also order the items ala carte on top of whatever they've given you. There are so many soup bases to choose from you'll be spoiled for choice!
 |
| Individual hotpot for 200NT per person! |
 |
| Presotea in their XL bottle that you can reuse to save the environment and save some bucks |
No comments:
Post a Comment