Day 7 Sat Aug 26
ON WaGeliGong Dulan Surf and GH. A great hostel with lots of travelers. CA$20 About 27 km north of Taitung.
TAIWAN – EAST (Hualien, Taitung, Nantou)
Day 8 Sat Aug 26
I continued my drive circumnavigating Taiwan up the east coast. I left at 06:45 for a long day hoping to get to New Taipei.
TAITUNG
International Landmark (Seaside Park)
Water Running Upward. This is the best of these optical illusions (I’ve seen two others). It is an 18″ wide irrigation channel set in concrete that starts right at the road (which is ascending, the main part of the illusion) and continues next to it. It really does look like it running uphill, which of course is impossible.
Sanxiantai Arch Bridge. A wonderful long bridge with eight piers and convex arched bridge sections connecting the mainland with a small island with three pinnacles called the Immortals. A great place to walk for an hour.
Nanreshi. Drive about 500 m up a very narrow road to this huge rock with penis statues – one large one set in an alcove and 10 beautifully carved ones in marble and stone set on small columns. All in Mandarin, including the name in Google Maps.
Liyu Lake. Above Hualien to the SW, this large lake has a park, and walkways, and the most common activity, renting small put-put boats with an animal on the bow and a very weak motor to go around the lake.
HUALIEN (pop 99,458). The Spaniards built mines for gold in Hualien in 1622. Permanent settlements began in 1851, when 2,200 Han Chinese farmers from Taipei arrived. The city was expanded circa 1912 by the Japanese. Hualien City has 9,000 aboriginal people, making it the city with the largest aboriginal population in Taiwan – the Amis, Atayal, Truku and Bunun.
I was in Hualien the first time I was in Taiwan. I saw a temple and continued on to Toroka Gorge.
Hualien Railway Culture Park Hall. In an old small train station, has very uninteresting exhibits (an old room used for storage, a ruined file room, etc. and in the main hall, a model railway and some clerk’s desks. Free
Hualien County Stone Sculptural Museum. Set around a grassy field are about 30 sculptures in marble and black stone, some interesting many not. Free
Qilaibi Lighthouse. A small white square LH with a black cap on the roof. I could find no access.
Qixington Beach. Shaped like the Big Dipper, so it is called Qixingtan. Back in 1936, Japanese government filled the lake in order to build the Hualien airport, and now there are only four ponds left. Japanese government forced the residents who lived at the original Qixingtan to move to “Crescent Bay”. Located in a half moon-like shape gulf, the beach is famous for its beautiful natural landscape. It attracts thousands of tourists every year to visit the beach.
It is very long (several kms?) but is a stone beach with no sand and a relatively steep entry. I saw no one swimming, no beach umbrellas and a few walking.
YILAN
Wufengchi Waterfalls, Yilan. Beautiful 3-level waterfall near Yilan with a complicated route to get there and not on Google maps. Follow五峰旗瀑布 (wufengqi waterfall), when you don’t see any more road on Google Maps, follow the road signs to Wufengqi. I didn’t go here but include it for information.
Toucheng Old Street. I’m not sure I saw this as there is on obvious “old street” like the others in Taiwan. In a neighborhood that is quite ordinary is a one metre wide lane about 40 m long with metal bookcases full of books and several metal “plaques” with a lot of Chinese writing. 116 km from Hualien
GO TO TAIWAN NORTHWEST