The main attraction of Hualien, and indeed the main reason this town gets any tourists at all, is because of an accident of geography, only 1 hour’s drive from Hualien. Taroko Gorge is one of the main draws of both Taiwanese and foreign tourists to this area of Taiwan, due to its spectacular landscapes, dramatic cliffs, and waterfalls. It has some of the highest mountains in Taiwan, requiring special authorisation from the Taiwanese authorities to climb, as well as a large number of trails to explore.

Hualien transportation as previously discussed isn’t the most advanced, so for this popular tourist destination within the mountains, there is 1 coach per hour, with about 30 seats. Another trek to the bus station, another awkward moment pondering whether this was the correct bus or not, but having learnt from the bus ride to Mugumuyu, this time we were on it and were first on the bus, with more tourists gradually joining us. The bus also went past Qixingtan, the beach resort which we were strongly advised not to go to as there was no beach and also a military airbase next door meaning you would be continually deafened by planes doing manoeuvres… And we could hear them from the bus!

Taroko Gorge is a relatively undeveloped tourist attraction; the area was badly damaged by a typhoon in 2009 and also a landslide in 2005 so is still undergoing reconstruction. Several roads have half collapsed and it is a bit frightening being in a large coach driving along narrow mountainside roads when the ground next to your bus has collapsed away…! But for a tourist area, it is remarkably serene. It’s the sort of place you just wouldn’t be able to find back home or in China.

We walked the Baiyang Waterfall trail up through the gorge, through the tunnels, and the landscape was stunning! The trail ended abruptly after a cave, which had pouring water through it from where an engineer accidentally broke into an underground river, meaning that if you go in this cave, you get soaked! I watched children go in… But unsurprisingly decided against doing it myself.

We then hiked up in search of the elusive and shut Wenshan Hot Springs. They have been shut since the landslide in 2003 so there are no signs leading there, so we walked up the mountain in search. We found an old abandoned police station, an old bus stop (for past tourists) and an old abandoned public toilet facility. There were also two metal archways providing access to old stone pathways half overgrown, clearly abandoned for a long time. We tried to make our way down to the river from here, but could not find a way down. I have no idea what this path was for or where it lead, or even where the springs are! Any ideas? Will try again one day!

We did however get to see several rare Formosan macaques!

We made our way back down to the bus to get down to the other end of the national park to do the next trail, when the skies opened and the roads began to flood. We decided at that point not to do another trail on flooded mountain paths…! No regrets here.

Last night in Hualien so we grabbed some street food from a little stall, sitting on stools on the pavement, where I had some danzai mian (Taiwanese noodle speciality) before drinking more beer and heading back to the hostel. Tomorrow, back to Taipei to get the flight to Shanghai!