Hualien & Taroko

This will be a brief report of a short weekend trip to the East Coast of Taiwan that Noora and I undertook for a change of scenery from Taipei. The destination was Hualien, the biggest town on the Eastern coast, and nearby Taroko Gorge, noted to be the Number one natural attraction of the island. The original plan was to go on Saturday morning and return on Sunday evening. However, as we were trying to book the train tickets (booking can be done on the internet, and the tickets paid for and collected at any post office - extremely convenient), there were no free seats on any of the 10 trains running from Taipei to Hualien between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Saturday. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, with the amount of traveling that goes on here on the weekend. No problem though, we simply postponed the trip by one day, leaving on Sunday, coming back on Monday.

The East coast of the island is quite different from the rest of Taiwan. Because of the mountains spanning over the whole island in the North-South direction, the East coast has historically always been very isolated. Apparently, some places were until mid-20th century only accessible by boat. Historically, the area has been inhabited by the indigenous (aboriginal) people. Since then, great efforts were made to build several roads and a railway, which lead to faster development. Nevertheless, the population density is still much smaller than in the West. Maybe also partially due to the frequent earthquakes and exposure to typhoons coming from the ocean. Check out the pic of downtown Hualien below - Starbucks and Playboy are proofs that globalization has caught up with this place already.



If you ask me though, this thing below is million times better than Starbucks. A juice stand. They are everywhere in Taiwan, offering the chance to order one of a myrriad choices of delicious juices prepared from fresh fruits for no more than 50 NTD.



Most of the East coast is formed by a very narrow plateau, crammed between the Pacific Ocean and the mountains, which soar right up to altitudes of over 3000 meters. We rented bicycles and rode to this beach about 10 kms North of Hualien. While this picture looks quite idyllic, not all of the area is: the main industry on the East coast is mining for marble. The marble comes from the surrounding mountains and is processed in one of many factories down on the coast - these are nowhere as scenic. Actually, the bike trail from Hualien to this beach leads mostly through a industrial wasteland - factories, sea port with piles of stone waiting to be loaded on the ships, barbed wire fences - together with the fact that on the day we visited, it was a Sunday (hence no people working), it was cloudy, strong wind was blowing from the ocean, carrying around the dust from the factories, the only living things around were stray dogs and several cows.



The beach itself was a bit more lively, with children fooling around in the waves and friendly shopkeepers selling BBQ squid and stinky tofu off of their portable food stand (in a back of a mini truck).



On Monday, we were off to the Taroko Gorge, perhaps the most famous natural tourist attraction in Taiwan. It is a long, very narrow and very deep canyon, with cliffs on both sides soaring up 1000 meters or more. I don't have any pictures that can express the magnitude of the canyon. It is quite amazing and definitely worth a visit.

Unfortunately, many people share my opinion that it is indeed worth a visit. That's why even on Monday, dozens of tour buses travel up and down the gorge, as well as cars and scooters (the buses are by far the worst though, as they are too big for the narrow roads and there's so many of them). I don't even want to imagine what this place looks like on a weekend.



Throughout the canyon, there are also the temples, pagodas and statues, so typical for Taiwan. Not too many though, so they don't spoil the natural beauties. We took a bus from Hualien to a tiny village deep in the canyon, then walked back through the canyon to the entrance. It was a pleasant 19 kms trip and a great way to see it all - they only drawback was that we had to walk on the road (there's no other trail) and occasionaly dodge the aforementioned buses.



When we were almost at the end, a car full of elderly Taiwanese people stopped (all by themselves) and offered to give us a ride back into the city. We gladly accepted, then had to convince them that we really don't want to go with them all the way to Taidong, another city about 100 kms South of Hualien on the East coast. Perhaps next time. The staff at the train station promptly swapped our train tickets from the 7 p.m. train to a 4:40 p.m. train, and then it was back to the normal Taipei life again.