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!

(And yes that is absolutely a place)

Day two in Hualien, and we decided we needed to get out as there was relatively little to do here, so after a nice leisurely start to the day, including a coffee at the massively offensive Black Bobby coffee shop (although it was the only coffee shop we could find anywhere near the station, so it had to do!), we bought our bus tickets in the station.

After a slightly nervous wait for the bus, eventually it arrived and despite arriving at the bus station 30 mins before the bus, we nearly missed it! The toad-like bus driver got off after pulling in to chew some betel nut and have a cigarette, and then when he got back on, with us waiting on the pavement, there was no announcement, the doors just closed and he started to pull away; at this point I sprinted and knocked on the door. We were fortunately allowed on (the next bus wasn’t for an hour) and for a while, were the only ones on the 1139 bus. We would be getting off at Rongshu (means banyan tree) 1 hour later, and found ourselves in rural surroundings, near the river and the mountains. There was a handy little map that showed us our options, so we set off!

We wandered through the town of Rongshu for what seemed like forever in the burning sun, but finally approached the river. First we went through the old cave, I was rather glad my phone has a torch on it as it was very dark. It is the main entrance to the trail up to the waterfalls, and it is much closer to our bus stop than the other trail, which is the other side of the river in a village called Tongmen.

We proceeded to hike up the trail, although it was a bit sketchy at points near the end of the mountain side, and I will admit I was very nervous when I noticed some ambulance workers I’m fluorescent jackets also hiking up ahead of us, in search of someone. Nevertheless we safely made it to the top of the waterfall, and what a view! Mountains all around us, the peaks hidden by cloud, crystal clear spring water that was so enticing…

So of course we got in! It was pretty damn cold but really awesome to be wild sort of swimming. Also weirdly freeing to be getting changed at the top of a waterfall with no one around to see you (me and my friend took turns changing) although it turned out there was an entire local family at the bottom of the waterfall… Ah they couldn’t see anything haha!

The rain started to fall once more so we made a move and continued over towards Tongmen village, crossing the bridge over the river. Bit of a ‘Spirited Away’ moment when after coming back through the tunnel, I turned around and there was no evidence of what I’d left behind, just a car standing by a cave…

Finally we stopped off for a quick ice lolly (a giant mini milk!) before getting the bus back to Hualien. We went for Thai food as there was more torrential rain when we got back. The curry was great, but this ‘Northern mixed salad’ wasn’t great. As for what was in it… Answers on a postcard please!

 

 

*huanying is Chinese for “welcome”

So we set off nice and early in the morning from the lovely Banana Hostel in Taipei to go to Hualien by train. Train ride was smooth, timely and easy, although we were disappointed to see that our reserved seats were not on the same side as the sea/most spectacular views. We also couldn’t even just look at them over the people who were lucky enough to get them, as they all decided to have the curtains closed on the train. Still we got to see the mountains so it was better than being inside a tube without any windows at all.

We made it to Hualien… And were taken aback by how provincial it is. Compared to everywhere else I’ve been in Taiwan, the train station itself was surprisingly small and unimpressive, and with a lot of engineering works taking place directly in front of the station, made it harder to get our bearings.

The hostel was about 20 mins walk away so we went there to drop off our bags and then went to find a coffee somewhere. The only place we could find on the map was a Starbucks which was a good 45 min walk from the hostel – we were very dedicated to finding it! We sat there sheltering from the blazing sun in a familiar environment in a wholly unfamiliar location, before going to an 85C store so I could buy a cake. We then went to find some local foods, such as guabao (Taiwanese steamed bun sandwich with pork belly as a filling) which Jo enjoyed, and some mochi which were so good!

Appetite satiated, we decided to wander down to the harbour front.Walking down the road, it felt very much like south east Asia: a bit undeveloped, a bit dilapidated, and the constant worry about being bitten by bugs! On the harbour side, a friendly woman cycled over and told me there were some rare Pokemon appearing on Pokemon GO (which had only been released the day before) and kindly let me piggyback off her wifi so I could catch some too! After that, we just sat by the shore and watched the sea.

The heavens opened so we trudged our way back, optimistically waiting by a bus stop for a while before giving up and heading back towards town. We found the Dongdamen night market and wandered around for a bit, lots of squid on sale – I went for an aboriginal zongzi, which is sticky rice with a filling wrapped in a leaf; this one had three fillings, pork, mushroom, and something grey and grainy… Two out of three isn’t too bad! I wanted to try a bamboo filled out but unfortunately the stall we tried had run out 😟 As it was still raining we didn’t want to wander too far afield!

At the night market we did find this horrific advert though..!

We then went into a bar called Salt Lick for a quick drink and then another bar called All Star for a few more, before staggering home, ready for bed.

 

See what I did there?! Jiufen was the first place in Taiwan I’ve visited that has felt absolutely swamped with local and mainland tourists. Everyone seemed to be visiting with organised tours on big coaches whereas I decided to get the public bus. Quite straightforward, headed to the Adventist Hospital and waited around 20 mins. Bus goes to Jiufen Old Street, it was air conditioned and we could use the public transportation cards which made things nice and easy!

The bus journey was about one hour, including a change of driver at a bus depot somewhere in the arse end of Ruifeng, aka the land that public transport innovations forgot. Once the driver had started it up again, the bus wound its way up through the hills, the clouds disguising the peaks of the mountains, making you feel like you are climbing into oblivion, into another world. Finally the bus dodged the tourists and dropped us off in Jiufen. We made it!

The old street was lined both sides with lots of vendors and hundreds and hundreds of tourists, as well as the occasional scooter driver who decided to drive directly through what I could only presume was a pedestrianised zone…? Main foods on offer were sweetened sausage on skewers, fish balls in soup (seriously SO MANY FISH BALLS like everywhere sold them and after eating them accidentally in Taipei believing them to be tofu balls when I ordered them, I’m no longer the biggest fan), but one stall did sell something so delicious: vanilla icecream in a salty crepe, sprinkled with crushed peanuts and optional coriander – amazing!

After that brief nourishment, we went walking around the town away from the touristy old street, braving the occasional downpours and otherwise extreme heat bearing down on us (around 32C) and getting to see some beautiful sights scattered throughout this town hidden in the clouds.

We then decided to follow the road down and out of Hualien to find the temple we had previously seen from the road on our approach to Jiufen, nestled in the forests in the mountains. Eventually we reached it and it was absolutely massive! Loud drumming was coming from somewhere although as the building was so big, could be coming from anywhere.

 

We had exhausted all the main sites in Jiufen and so braved the queues for the buses and headed back on the bus into Taipei, where we went for some excellent beef noodles immediately after arriving.

I also discovered that the previous evening, I had been eaten alive by mosquitoes – one bite had swollen to around 9cm across with a wonderful white circle surrounding it! Thank God for antihistamine cream!

Another fun day in Taipei seeing even more of the sights, eating the food and drinking so many cold drinks! Icecream from Cold Stone Creamery as a sort of lunch (most decadent sort of lunch!), and more dumplings with a friend for dinner. Brilliant!

In terms of sights, I got to go to look around Huashan Creative Park’s buildings in more details, and then went over to see the Sun Yat-Sen memorial I’m actual daylight. Even got to see the changing of the guard; I know the Buckingham Palace guards stand to attention but good grief, this was intense! The two soldiers had their hands clenched and you couldn’t even see them breathe, they were so strict in their discipline. When the changing of the guards actually happened, a flock of tourists were pushing their way to get the best videos, while a couple of children were going berserk in the background. The more things change etc…!

After that we found ourselves making our way over to Longshan Temple which is the oldest one in Taipei, founded by immigrants from Fujian province in mainland China in the 1700s. It’s huge and I had absolutely no idea of what was going on, but there were so many people inside praying and checking their fortune, it was quite amazing how such an old building is still being so fervently and loudly used!

 

Finally went to Taipei 101, which I’ve seen since first arriving in Taipei but not actually gone near, and it is an impressive building with a swanky shopping mall on the lower floors. Went up in the lift which apparently goes at speeds of 1000 metres per minute, taking us from floor 5 to floor 89 in about 40 secs, with something in the lift to stabilise the atmospheric pressure to stop your ears popping as much, and came out on the 89th floor! It was strangely serene up there, very different to the Empire State Building as the queue was well managed and quick, and people weren’t desperately pushing at each other to get the best views. And we’d picked a good day, as the views were super!

As we’d timed the visit well, we got to see the view both in daylight and at night. Only 500NTD (around £11) so well priced compared to similar attractions in other major world cities, but was so nice. We even got to go outside onto their viewing platform, without glass (just a metal fence)! The only tacky bit was when trying to leave, as you ended up walking the entire circumference of the tower through tacky coral crystal displays (massive coral crystal tree for £600,000 anyone?!!) but it was weirdly funny as it was so different from the atmosphere during the rest of our time at Taipei 101.

Finished off the evening in a random dodgy dive bar. Beer was only £3.50 which is good for Taipei, but indoor smoking is apparently still very much a thing here; felt so alien, like going back in time to the 1990s! Tomorrow, will be off to Jiufen.

So, Taiwanese romanisation is confusing and for someone who has learnt mainland pinyin, rather confusing! I spent a good 10 minutes the other day trying to decipher what on earth ‘cyuen’ was (spoilers, it was ‘quan’) and so even trying to go to Tamshui was good fun as all the signs and some of the tourist information seemed to use entirely different spellings!

Its easy to get to, just a short 35 minutes on the metro from Taipei Railway Station by taking the red line, and for the last 20 mins or so you get to travel above ground which is always pleasant. It takes you right out to north west of Taipei, by the sea, to an old harbour town.

 

The weather was gorgeous, about 36C in the shade, and so I took a walk along Zhongzheng Road which has most of the older buildings on it. There are temples, street vendors, food, clothes shops, as well as a lot of historical architecture. I also noticed that a lot of places or roads here were named after someone called Mackay, and there was a statue of him and multiple museums dedicated to him. Turns out he was a Canadian missionary in the 1800s who set up medical surgeries, a girls’ school, and a university. He was also impressively beardy!

As it was an old port town, there were also a number of attractions dedicated to Japanese rule or Qing dynasty rule, such as the Japanese governor’s house, a foreigner graveyard of all the foreigners who died in the 1800s – there was a grave of a young sailor in his 20s from Newcastle upon Tyne – he died a long way from home.

I then wandered down to the harbourside, to the old Japanese customs house and port. There was also the former British consulate. The sun was just starting to set which made it less unpleasantly hot and more just magnificent to watch the world go by. Would recommend a visit to Tamshui if you are in Taipei for a few days!

I had one more day in Taichung and was hoping to use it to go on a day trip to Sun Moon Lake… Sadly it was not to be as the weather was so atrocious, the hostel staff advised I wouldn’t see anything really and it wouldn’t be worth travelling such a long way under these conditions. So I needed a new plan, so decided to go to more far flung attractions within the city itself.

I first made my way to Tunghai University in the far west of the city to admire the Tang Dynasty style architecture and in particular to see the Luce memorial chapel, as its architecture is particularly striking. It seemed to take forever to get there but was greeted with more rain, and some students practicing street dancing to ‘Uptown Funk’ – brilliant!

After wandering around campus, I decided to go to the National Museum for Fine Arts which is in south Taichung. I saw there was a bus that directly connected the two locations, perfect! Or it would have been had the bus arrived. It was supposed to come every 15-20 minutes but in fact took nearly an hour to arrive. Don’t trust the number 75! I was thankful that our bus stop was actually sheltered from the rain, as the one across the road had no shelter!

The art museum was quite enjoyable (for those who know me they’ll know just how weird that sounds!) – it was free which always helps, and had exhibitions of photographs of Taiwan from the last 120 years which is well worth seeing to show how the country has changed, and particular to understand more about Taiwan’s indigenous tribes. The exhibition of prints had some beautiful pieces… And the museum was the perfect shelter from the rain!

I then walked down the rest of the greenway past the canal to visit Taichung’s best known and oldest temple, Wanhe Gong, from the 1700s.

A quick bit of uninspiring “Japanese” food then off to bed!

Taichung is cool. Like, really really cool. Not in a trying too hard sort of way, but just self-confident, like it knows that it’s attracting all the cool young people to live here, and it knows it can mix the modern middle-class lifestyle with Taiwanese traditions successfully and completely get away with it!

It is still most definitely not one of the big two cities here in Taiwan, as its public transport beyond the main highway is a bit infrequent, but once you get out West past the dilapidated but strangely enticing old Japanese central area, you find where the action is at.

I left Tainan from the main train station this morning, and to show me one more time how friendly the people are there, an old lady proudly greeted me in English as we were crossing the road, and even said “pleased to meet you”! Much better than the surly boy yesterday in Anping who said “foreigner” and then just stared at me – I really haven’t missed that! I got the slow express train from Tainan to Taichung, which still only takes 2 hours, and allowed a more leisurely view of the countryside.

There’s a great urban green walking zone called the Calligraphy Greenway, which is this wide pedestrianised stretch of land from north to south, linking the museum of natural science with the museum of fine art, allowing people to walk, mingle, relax, walk their dogs, without having to continually cross the road every 2 mins. Beautiful!

I wandered down into a department store as everyone seemed to be going there… And I may have bought a copy of the new Harry Potter script from a bookshop there (imported from the US) and got a free toy Hedwig as it was launch day here! I then treated myself to an icecream from Cold Stone Creamery – it was either that or a quinoa burger which was the other big food thing they had in this store. Really reminded me of Whole Foods!

I also noticed the massive prevalence of Japanese food here in Taichung – it seems that everywhere I walk here in the West District, I go past another Japanese restaurant. In honour of this, I had Taiwanese style udon noodles before walking over to Fengjia Night Market.

The night market is apparently one of the biggest in the country? It is near Feng Chia university so lots of students were there, but also entire families. It never fails to astound me just how many people are out on the streets eating and drinking so late at night! Stalls sold everything from t-shirts to stinky tofu, from pearl tea to “pick your own shrimp and then we’ll grill it on a skewer” and everything in between!

I personally decided to try to try one stall which had an incredibly long queue, and was for Massage Chicken (An Mo Ji Pai): it was so tender and juicy, and the stall holder was very friendly as well, and warning me about how hot the box would be so to be careful when eating, and that the spice was hot so did I definitely want any? He also complimented me on my crap Chinese 👌🏻 I’ll take it!

 

I spent another day in Tainan and was greeted by the day with an incredibly loud thunderstorm and some typhoon warnings – excellent! Once the rain died down, I decided to make the most of the day that was left by first having a lovely little cake and then going on an excursion to Anping, a district of Tainan in the west of the city, right on the coast and famous for the old Dutch fortress that was the first non-indigenous settlement on Taiwan, which remained until Koxinga defeated the Dutch. I went together with two other girls from my hostel. As well as seeing the sites, of course I got to try the food! I ate a “bingheguai” – ice monster, which is made from shaved ice with fruit syrup, with icecream at the back and a drink below. Delicious!

We then went to visit Anping treehouse, an old colonial building which was abandoned and now has a banyan tree growing inside and within the structure itself – very striking. The rain then heavily came down and with the typhoon warning in mind, we ran to catch get bus back inland, but not before trying the weirdest food I’ve had for a while courtesy of my travelling buddy, from a shop called Teng Xi Jia Icecream, which was a prawn cracker tube filled with vanilla icecream and flying fish roe – it was distinctly seafood-y and honestly just as weird as it sounds! If you want something weird give it a go but I probably wouldn’t choose to have it!

After returning to the youth hostel, I met up with my old friend Sandra, who I originally met in Leeds! She took me and my travelling buddy on a mini gastronomic tour of Tainan – we had niurou tang (beef soup) which is slivers of raw beef in a clear clean beef broth – a gorgeous delicate dish, and the beef cooks beautifully in the piping hot broth. We went to have it at a streetside restaurant called Ayi. She then took us for danzai mian, which is wheat noodles either in a pork and shrimp broth or with a sauce if you are having it dry (as we did), served with prawns, garlic, bean sprouts, an egg, and a pork ball.

We then went to Shennong Street which is one of the best preserved old streets in Tainan – so beautiful. Finally we went to have Taiwanese fried chicken, which is more like popcorn chicken but with different seasoning, more salt and pepper and some chilli as well. We ate it in a 7-11 and I drank a cold Taiwan Beer with it 😬

So so lovely to see Sandra and so generous of her to spend the evening driving us around Tainan! Please come back to the UK and I can take you for good food, ok?