Barely a toe over the line in a Taipei Metro station. Metro riders are very orderly.
Right before we left San Francisco for Taipei someone asked me “How do you spend your days when you’re traveling? What do you do with your time?” It’s a good question, and not an easy one to answer since our days are so different depending on where we are. When we’re bike touring the answer is easy- we spend the days cycling and eating. If we’re house and pet sitting the day is structured around what the animals need from us and what we can explore in our free time. When we’ve pitched up in a new place though, or even a place we’ve been before, it’s harder to answer that question. So I decided to keep track of what we did on our second and third days in Taipei.
In a downtown metro station at about 10:20.
Day Two (after our first nights sleep, day one was 6:30 am arrival day). We slept until 6:30 or so, had coffee and tea in our room and went down for breakfast at 7am. After breakfast we hung about our room doing a little travel planning and catching up on emails and texts until 10.
Walking to our museum destination and admiring the neatly parked rows of scooters.In the basement of an office tower is one of those quirky specialist museums. Yes, as billed – miniatures. Tin toys. Amazingly detailed miniature houses. I won’t call them dollhouses. Each diorama or vignette had a creator credited, and often a small backstory.This pre-war typical Japanese street was just infused with nostalgia and sadness for what was destroyed and will never be again.Astonishing miniature Hall Of Mirrors, Versailles. You can see my reflection at the end of the hall.
Definitely worth a visit if you’re in Taipei for a few days, we spent about 90 minutes there and headed off for a restorative caffeinated beverage at a coffee shop we spotted on our way to the museum.
Mr. Brown Coffee Nanjing Store, billed as Your Urban Living Room. That’s hot chocolate for me.And coffee for Rich. We ordered on the ground floor and then went to the 3rd floor hang out space. The second floor was the work zone.
We read the home news (yikes!) and chatted and messed around on our phones for about an hour. Then headed out to find an adapter at a big electronics mall.
Goodbye Mr. Brown. Very chic you are. Rich said his Americano was excellent.Wandered into an event space beer hall at the Taiwan Brewery on our way to the electronics mall. Stopped to take a picture.There was a pop up shoe and clothing event on the ground floor. Very popular.And eleven floors of all kinds of electronics and electrical lifestyle products. Rich thought it was pretty awesome.Surrounded by small streets of electronic and gaming stores.
I checked my google map and found that a shushi place I had marked on my map at some point was nearby. It’s now almost 2pm and definitely time for lunch.
Conveyor belt sushi! One of my favorites. The Taiwanese aren’t too rigid about eating times, but many small restaurants do close between 2:30p and 5ish.While Rich is figuring everything out, trying the app based order system and identifying dishes, I’m scooping plates off the conveyor and chowing down! With unlimited pickled ginger.The little train delivers your app based orders. Good sushi and very reasonably priced. We had a good feast for about $20.
Back to the hotel by metro and we showered and chilled until evening when we headed out with two things to accomplish: find Rich’s favorite shirt at the Wufenpu Shopping District, and eat pork buns at Renhoe Night Market. If successful it will be the third time he has bought this shirt in Taipei. The market is a ten by ten grid of small streets all filled with shops selling clothing, shoes, and handbags. Rich is looking for one specific shop that for two years in a row had a shirt that he loves for Asia travel. The first one, purchased in 2023, was destroyed by sweat and sunblock and retired in Sri Lanka. The second was purchased in 2024 and is in France. It failed to make the trip back to the US for this onward hot trip to Indonesia. Rich had a good idea of where the shop is (and yes, this time we dropped a pin on Google maps), but it takes some searching, and the shops do change a lot.
On the way from the metro to Wufenpu Shopping District we stopped at some Lunar New Year lights.Ok, which way? And mind the scooters! 5:45 pm.This way?Found the shop! They had the shirt in his size, but not in white. So he got it in blue. And by 6:30 we were at the Rahoe night market to get some black pepper buns. That $65 Taiwanese dollars is just under 2.00 American dollars right now.Pulling the buns out of the oven. Find a place to stand and try not to burn your mouth on the piping hot pork.Just before 7:00 it was on to dessert, vanilla ice cream in a pineapple bun, with a fresh watermelon juice in between.No pineapple in the pineapple bun. The crosshatch top and crumble topping give it the name. It’s a sweet delicious bun.One last stop at our favorite Taipei bar, the Tipsy Dragon. The first time we came here they had a bar cat. Didn’t see them this time.We got wrapped up in China versus Chinese Taipei badminton match! Really fun to watch – super fast speeds. One drink each then home on the metro.
Day three was another fairly early wake up, about 6:45 am. Pretty good after dealing with a frustrating and hilarious early morning hotel experience. Our room had a tv in the bathroom , so you could watch TV from the tub, and it inexplicably went on with full volume at about 1:30am. It took us a while to figure out how to turn it off, but we did and went back to sleep. But 45 minutes later went off again! We called the front desk and a staff member came up to our room with a remote control and did something. The tv thankfully stayed off the rest of our time at the hotel. But, it wasn’t the most restful night.
There’s the shirt. Over a yummy savory breakfast at the hotel.We decided to hike the mountain trail across from our hotel. We felt in need of some good step climbing. We headed out about 8:30 am.You will notice that photos of me are taken as I’m trying to keep up. Usually of my front. And his are of his quickly retreating back as I hurry to catch up. Bonus kitty at a temple. On guard.We think this branded signage is new. Taipei Grand Trail. 92 kilometers along Taipei’s scenic peaks. This section was quite popular on this Friday morning with other retired folks. We were glad it wasn’t a weekend.Lots of viewing platforms.And little signs to hold up as you took photos. It says The Usual Place.Another sign and two happy hikers.Near a graveyard, a place to sit. It’s being consumed by the tropical foliage. Some view.Yup, it’s a Grand View.Another sign.And a lovely woman feeding the feral cats.I had to get involved. Caused a bit of a cat fight though.Heading down to catch a bus back. Cross the river.Noodle lunch at Captain Wang’s Sauce Sauce Noodles again. So good!
We got back to our hotel after walking about 7 miles. After afternoon coffee and tea in our room we hit the hotel gym. The rest of the day encapsulated why we know it’s time to start looking for a place to be able to return to. A place with our stuff. With a kitchen where we can cook good healthy food. And where we can get enough exercise and do the kind of work outs we want to do. After the gym we showered and hung out, and then started the search for dinner. In my previous working life if you had told me “you will eat out every night. You won’t have to grocery shop or cook.” I would have been thrilled! But it does get to be a chore. And it is a struggle to eat healthy when you’re eating out so much. That evening after a bit of a struggle, we ended up at a lovely little family run Hong Kong style restaurant close to our hotel. No photos since we were both a bit burned out and wanted to just eat and go back to the hotel. It was good to have a check in with each other and confirm we are on the same page about finding a home base.
Early next morning at the metro station to get to the airport.Very thrilled to see that our Eva air flight is Hello Kitty branded.Look at that plane! So cute.Hello Kitty snacks.And a cheers with Hello Kitty cups.
Happy to be off the 13 hour flight from SF and in Taipei.
Wednesday February 12, 5:30 am. We left San Francisco on Monday February 10th near midnight. Look at those happy but tired faces. We love Taiwan, and this is our third trip here. Transitions are tough and stressful and leaving San Francisco, sneaking in one more catch up visit with friends, putting stuff back in storage and making notes about where things are, is tiring. We were both looking forward to, and dreading, the long plane ride.
How lucky are we to have so many friends to catch up. A walk and dinner with Anne and Vic, and the Golden Gate Bridge view from Tunnel Tops park.I have to be quick to snap a screenshot of the city mascot in CityMapper, still the best transit app we use. I love this little dude holding his Boba Tea and a lantern to send into the sky.Less than 3 hours left of the 13+ hour flight, flying over Japan in the early hours of the morning.On the express train from the airport to Taipei Main station – Rich using the magnetic wireless cell phone charger on the train. Such a fun convenience.Heading to our hotel on the rush hour metro escalators. Metro is trying to get folks to stand on both sides of the steps, instead of standing right and walking left, to increase capacity at rush hour. Yes, the escalators carry more people when everyone stands.Dropped our bags at the hotel (check in is at 2pm) and walked out for breakfast at a nearby cafe. Rich looking slightly dazed.Mine is a peanut butter, ham, and cheese on a croissant. A tasty combo. My expression doesn’t make it look so tasty, but it was.Rain was threatening so we borrowed umbrellas from the hotel and walked around a bit waiting for rush hour on the metro to ease off before heading to the Taipei Zoo. This is in the Shilin District of Taipei.The lanes have numbers and names, and are too small for cars, but scooters and bikes abound.
Day one was all about staying awake! And what’s a great way to stay awake? Head to Asia’s largest (or one of the largest, depending on who you ask) zoo. Taipei Zoo.
Uh oh. Looking a bit sleepy on the MRT.The Shiba Inu is the safety and politeness poster mascot dog.Public transport for the win again, Metro right to the zoo.This Lunar year is the year of the snake, so snakes on the zoo tickets. Save them for the mythical scrape book.The map. Do not be fooled into trying to walk the grey line, that’s the train route.A good cross section of animals.
Zoos can be problematic. They promote conservation and awareness, but a sad depressing zoo is just awful. Thankfully the Taipei Zoo is quite good. It moved to its current site in 1986 and has 90 hectares (222 acres) open to the public with more land available for expansion. We walked our poor jet lagged feet off – almost 9 miles total on day one, probably 5 of those at the zoo. The tropical vegetation is really lovely, the animal habitats are good sized, and boy do you get your walking in as the zoo is huge.
A fun focus on poo! You can climb into the big yellow poo to experience life as a maggot. We passed. A capybara in front of the Pangolin Dome. The dome has multiple species all out in the open to experience and was quite well done. My favorite were the Cotton-top tamarins wandering the enclosure.A bee eater posing for the camera.A common marmoset saying “hey.”. If you do go to a zoo, go early in the day when the animals are most active and about to be fed.One of the two pandas at the Taipei Zoo, snoozing with an appreciative audience.And the second one (I think) wandering their outdoor environment.
After the zoo and a quick snack of Onigiri from the 7-11 we headed to our neighborhood and had a noodle lunch before checking in to our hotel and having a much welcomed shower. There are showers at the airport, near baggage claim carousel number six (in T2) but we decided against using them since there is one for men and one for women and the men’s was occupied. We changed into a few new clothes when we dropped our bags at the hotel that morning.
Rich’s beef noodle soup. Not visible to the naked eye – all the garlic!My cold braised noodles at 王艇長酢醬麵, which Google translates as Captain Wang’s Sauce Sauce Noodles. Address: No. 18, Qiangang St, Shilin District, Taipei City, Taiwan 111Post shower and coffee and tea, still awake and out to the Shilin Night Market.Happy Lunar New Year.The Lunar New Year fire crackers helped wake us up! They are meant to scare away evil spirits and monsters. So much smoke. The small streets of the night market have some charming small restaurants in addition to street food stands. Noobtent – a camping themed bar. Yes, there are camp chairs and tents inside for you to enjoy. So cute. I love these themed places. No, we didn’t go in, a cocktail was not going to keep us awake.Dinner was a cold noodle and spicy miso sauce dish. Delicious. We walked back to our hotel, awake enough to enjoy the New Year’s decorations.Such an atmospheric neighborhood.
Mission accomplished, we stayed awake until 9 pm and slept quite well. More Taipei to come!
We love cities. Love visiting them, love exploring and speculating. Adore watching the citizens go about their days and testing out the public transit, biking, and walking. And the food choices! So many choices in the Taiwanese cities we visited. But sometimes you just burn out.
The bad air quality definitely contributed to our burn out.
We’d gone back and forth about visiting Sun Moon Lake, and while in Tainan we decided on yes. It would be nice, we thought, to have a break from cities before returning to Taipei, and hopefully the air quality would be better in the mountains. Yes, we’ve lived through much worse air quality for longer in San Francisco during California wildfires, maybe that’s why we’re a bit sensitive to it. It was interesting to hear locals blame bad air quality on pollution blowing over from China, but from what we read a lot is home grown, due to industry, diesel trucks, cars and motorcycles (which I assume includes scooters), and other usual suspects. So, off to the mountains it was. And, our first trip on Taiwan’s very impressive High Speed Rail.
That’s a happy face.
That photo of Rich in front of the HSR train reminds me to tell you the story of his shirt. Probably only we remember his first version of that shirt, it was purchased last January 2023. He bought it in Taipei at the clothing market, a warren of small streets and clothing stalls, wore it in Thailand, India, and Sri Lanka, and finally threw it out our last day in Sri Lanka. Sunblock and sweat had done it in. He missed it. One year later, he found the same stall in the clothing market (more amazing than you can imagine), and bought the exact same shirt!
Tainan to Taitung. In The Shirt. Train lunch! One chicken and one pork. Bought in the station for about $3.00 each.
Honestly, you just have time to eat your lunch on this trip. The train leaves Tainan at 11:48 and arrives Taichung at 12:30. our only complaint with Taiwan High Speed Rail is it’s too quick a ride! Oh what a problem to have, huh California? So, bus to train, the HSR station is a bit out of town, reachable by rail but the bus was easier for us, and train to Taichung, and then a hour and 15 minute bus ride to Sun Moon Lake.
With our rental bikes, ready for the next day’s sunrise bike ride.
Our hotel, The Laurel Villa, offered a sunrise bike ride, led by one of the family members who owned and operated the hotel. You go pick up a bike from one of the many rental places after 4:00 pm, park it in front of the hotel, and at 6:05 am the next day you ride with Wei, who was born and raised in town, left for university, and came back. He knows his lake.
The lake before the sun peeks over the mountains. Oh, a rare non selfie. Our lovely guide took the photo for us. As the sun comes up the moisture in the air makes it hazy.
For anyone who does go to Sun Moon Lake, the number one recommendation we have is to get up early and go for a bike ride. Later in the day there are many many many people out on bikes. Many of those many bikes are e-bikes, throttle bikes actually, which don’t require pedaling. Folks are calm and patient, and all the scooter riding gives them good bike skills, but we always prefer no crowds.
Across a picturesque bridge.
Sun Moon Lake’s present size was created with a hydroelectric project built by the Japanese in the 1930s, which joined two smaller lakes together, making the lakes resemble a sun, and a crescent moon. Or, two dragons fighting over a pearl – an island in the lake. The path around most of the lake (joins the road for a few stretches) is beautifully constructed, and the sun and moon motifs along the way show a dedication to the theme.
Had a lovely chat with a couple from Taipei who also got out early. The sun coming over the mountains.
Our choice to go up to the mountains was rewarded with clear air and nice weather. After our dawn bike ride we returned the bikes, had breakfast in the hotel, a rest, and headed out to hike up to the weather station for a view of the lake from above.
A picture of view on the way up.A picture of the picture taker.
I’m so impressed with the care put into pathways and seating areas around the lake. There are tea growing fields around the lake and the tea leaf motif is picked up in some of the seating areas. It’s a steep climb so the benches are very welcome.
A tea leaf motif and my GORP (good old raisins and peanuts – translation for those of you who didn’t backpack in the 70s). Assembled from 7-11 purchased products.A fun tea sign on the main street of Shuishe, where our hotel was located.Our last day was a bit cloudy, but our morning walk before catching the bus back to Taichung was still lovely.
High Speed Rail back to Taipei – only 50 minutes long, eat your lunch quickly – Rich booked a hotel close to the main station so our airport trip two days later would be easy, and we had a short little Taipei stay of two nights. We hit some of our favorites (it thrills me to have Taipei favorites!), black pepper buns at Rahoe Night Market, boba tea, a drink at The Tipsy Dragon Bar, and a new find from Rich – Beercat. Just what it sounds like.
Rich in front of the Main Station.BeerCat ! A bar with cats. Two cats. And the best logo.One of which of course loved Rich. Is there anything better than a cat on the bar?Delicious coffee and tea, mine was the tea, lemon and winter melon.At the Rahoe night market. I love these little rolling cubes. Put your stuff inside and your kids on top. And I love that the parents didn’t mind me taking a photo. One final beef noodle lunch.And the happy travelers are off to Borneo.
Taking the city bus in Taitung to get to the train station.
Yes, we keep track of our travel modes. As long term travelers we have the luxury of time and room for errors, or spending extra time that other travelers might prefer not to “waste” taking buses instead of taxis. We also like to try to experience life the way locals do, as much as we can. Of course Rich always has a back up plan – if this bus hadn’t shown up in ten more minutes we’d walk over to the taxi stand. But show up it did, and we were off to the train station to go to Kaohsiung, a city of 2.7 million.
Last minute mochi snack purchase at the train station.The business class seating.
Rich, in his quest to really understand Taiwan trains, got us business class seats which weren’t really necessary since standard class is comfortable, but you know, for research sake. He also managed to book us in the single seats on the coastal side of the train, so fantastic views out a window each. Interestingly enough, a mother daughter duo from the bus were also in the business class train car with us.
Tea at the Kaohsiung Museum of History.
Something that is necessary is a plan for what to do when you arrive at your destination before your hotel lets you check in. Check in times in Taiwan are quite strict, usually 3 or 4 pm, so if your train arrives before that, you need to have an idea of where to go after you drop your bags at your hotel. We were glad our hotel in Kaohsiung, Hotel dua, let us check in when we arrived at about 1:30. We think that was due to the fact that we were staying for four nights. But we were ready with our plan. YouBikes to the Museum of History.
Our trusty Easy Card works for any city bus, and all YouBikes everywhere in Taiwan. Awesome!The Easy Cards, purchased in Taipei when we landed, reloadable in any convenience store – and also works in vending machines and some shops.
For us, riding bikes in an urban environment isn’t daunting. And with so many scooters in Kaohsiung we felt in good company. The cycling is certainly not the best in the world, but with the long distances and flat terrain, riding bikes is such a good way to get around. We met up with a fellow traveler, Martin (Hi Martin!), from Sweden, for pizza at a place that seemed not too far away from both our hotels. Ha! We all exclaimed at how much further it was than it first appeared on the map, us bicycling and Martin walking. It’s always so great to meet other travelers and swap stories and travel tips and learn about each other’s lives. Always say hello to fellow travelers, even if it feels awkward at first. I’ve had to get over my uncomfortableness about asking people where they are from, I’ve learned to phrase it “Where are you visiting from?”. That helps avoid awkward moments when you might have assumed incorrectly about a person’s home country. Taiwan doesn’t have that many western tourists so seeing other travelers is not common, which makes it even more fun to find out where folks are from and what their deal is.
Our YouBikes outside a 7-11 on our way to hike Monkey Mountain, also known as Shoushan Mountain. We stopped for snacks.Starting up the many many stairs of Monkey Mountain.After seeing this sign we stopped eat all of our snacks before encountering any ravenous monkeys.The second sign warning not to feed the monkeys. Ok ok, we thought.Wait? We also have to worry about monkeys jumping on our backs? Keep calm. Don’t panic. Don’t try to push the monkey away? Walk away calmly?
We did spend some time pretending to screech and swat monkeys off our backs, and then when we did encounter some Formosan rock macaques we walked by gingerly, saying hey buddy, no food in our packs, it’s all in our bellies now.
I will sit innocently on this bench. Just a cute monkey. I will sit fifteen feet from that monkey watching it like a hawk.
Just as we were thinking the monkey problem was maybe overblown, someone took an empty crisp bag out of their backpack and chaos erupted when one monkey grabbed it and took off and ten other monkeys gave chase! Round and round the seating and view area the monkeys went until they gave up and the ringleader discovered his prize was an empty bag.
Count the disappointed monkeys in this photo. Three. Adorable tiny baby learning to be a menace at mama’s knees.
Monkeys aside, the trail up and around the mountain is very nice, well worth hiking. We were there on a weekday and were surprised at how many folks were hiking. I suspect it would be very crowded on a weekend.
When the trail is not going up or down loads of stairs it winds through old coral reefs pushed up out of the sea eons ago.The views of both the city and the Taiwan Strait/Pacific Ocean, on a clear day would be amazing. However, the air quality was not brilliant the day we hiked.Coming down from the hike you can again spot the dominant mode of transport: scooters. Spot the monkey. Locals put sticks across their scooter seats to prevent Mr. Monkey from making himself comfortable.A nighttime ride to dinner.
All this hiking and biking makes for hungry travelers. We joke that we are rarely so happy as when at a good hotel breakfast buffet, and Hotel dua fit that requirement well. Breakfasts in Taiwan are veggie heavy which is wonderful. We’re not strict vegetarians but certainly prefer to eat healthy, and the vegetables and tofu options available at a Taiwanese hotel buffet are fantastic.
That is a good start to the day.Energy to ride along the Love River in Kaohsiung.And to admire the Kaohsiung Music Center.And just enough energy to wait for and board the ferry to Cijin Island, a quick five minute ride.And refuel with a boba tea before checking out another YouBike to explore the small barrier island.We brought our swim suits along, but it was a bit too chilly and windy to swim. So we people and dog watched for a while.
Cijin was first settled as a fishing village and has morphed into to a shipping hub, and a tourist attraction. It’s a pleasant place to ride bikes along the beach, and in warm weather, to swim. The main street is a typical tourist drag of kinda tacky shops and restaurants. We returned to the main city to eat lunch but if you like crab, there are loads of places to chow down on crab.
Cijin Tunnel, complete with fun light display. Spits you out on the windy north end of the island.Strait of Taiwan. Next landmass, China.
Other than Taipei, walking in the larger cities we visited, Kaohsiung and Tainan for example, is not fantastic. There are main streets with nice wide sidewalks but loud traffic, and smaller back streets with loads of scooters, which keeps you looking over your shoulder and ducking into doorways to get out of the way. The traditional shop house streetscape (business shop downstairs and living quarters upstairs) used to mean that you had a connected and sheltered arcade to walk through. In the world of scooters and cars that space is frequently occupied by, yes, cars and scooters.
This arcade is passable, many are even more parked in.The smaller alleyways offer shade but you do need to listen for scooters and make way.Typical mid sized street. Not much space for pedestrians. The arcades are not contiguous at all.
There are many charming things to see as you walk though. And since the weather was mild, not hot and no rain, we did a lot of walking. You can’t let the first impression of cities focusing for cars and scooter access put you off, if you walk and look more closely you can see the life of these of cities playing out at street level.
A beautifully tiled and colored doorway, Tainan.Noodles hanging in the old market streets in Tainan.The noodles have fans blowing on them.Minding the tea shop and waiting for customers.Did I mention how clean everything is? A covered street, this must be welcome relief from the sun and rain. Kaohsiung.Not far from these small streets are wide main boulevards with huge wide sidewalks and long lights to wait at before you cross. Kaohsiung.
Everywhere we went in Taiwan, cities, farmland, trails, we saw almost zero trash. And you also see almost no trash cans. If you purchase food or drink you have three choices: give the empty packaging back to the vender, carry it with you until you see a convenience store and go inside to throw it away, or carry it with you for a long time until you see a public trash can. They do exist but not a lot of them. Taiwan mounted a successful campaign against waste, one which is a model for other countries. In a nutshell, you pay as you throw away, by buying the garbage bags you must use, and producers have more responsibility for the products they create and the waste that generates. Per this article “Taiwan’s household recycling rate in 2017 was over 50%, making it second in the world to Germany.” And yes, the garbage trucks play “Für Elise” or “Maiden’s Prayer” as they ply the streets. After three weeks here both Rich and I are humming along with the trash truck tunes when we hear them.
Ok, enough with city garbage logistics! Lunar New Year is coming. The year of the wooden dragon. Temples have piles of spirit money for people to purchase and burn to honor their ancestors.Outside a temple folks line up to burn the joss paper, or spirit money.The spirit money is to make sure your ancestors are well provided for in the afterlife.A street turned over for a banquet. Happening on a New Year Parade in Tainan.
I don’t want to leave the impression that Taiwan has forsaken pedestrians and bicyclists, the bike share program YouBike is very robust. And there are pedestrian scrambles (where the lights turn red in all directions and pedestrians can cross kitty corner) at busy intersections.
A big bike share pod.Scrambles are marked with hours they are in effect.In Kaohsiung a new light rail loops the city. Folks were sightseeing from it, including us.I’m always happy to see new public transit systems.
However, it’s not as easy to be a bicyclist as say, a scooterist. And outside of a big city like Taipei where you would use a bike as a last kilometer solution after taking the MRT, in Kaohsiung and Tainan a scooter is the clear choice. It gets hot much of the year, we’re here in January for a reason – cool enough for us to walk and bike. So we’re viewing this transportation scape through tourist eyes, and seeing what’s missing for us. Honestly, the scooter life seems to work very well for folks. You go right where you want and easily park. If Taiwan could accelerate the switch to electric scooters it would be amazing. The noise and pollution would be decreased and streets would be much more pleasant and livable.
Heading out to Anping in Tainan. A decent bike path along the Anping Canal.But as in many cities, it’s the intersections where things fall apart. This one took us some long awkward time to get through, if it had been hot it would have been intolerable.
I’m going to write a separate post about our escape from cities to countryside, but first, a few more photos of the fun we had.
There were cats we pet.Many dumplings to eat.Laundry to get done.Boba to drink while waiting for laundry to get done.Laundry success!And finally, a bus to catch to the high speed rail station.The Happy Travelers at Chikan Tower, Tainan.The map! Hearts are where we stayed, the blue dot is us in Taipei when I snapped this photo. Thanks google maps.
After three days of romping around Taipei and getting over our jet lag, we set off from the city on a big clockwise loop of Taiwan.
Rail is in my heart at the Hualien Railway Culture Park
We were excited to head out of Taipei Central to Hualien City, at the north end of the East Rift Valley. Hualien is a city reinventing itself with culture and art, and is now more than a gateway to the immensely popular Taroko Gorge.
A bit too early on the platform at Taipei Central; Cheryl’s trendy TJs bag at my side Ocean view from the TzeChiang Express train. Plenty of room in the standard seats
But first, a few train tips for the wonky planners out there. In addition to local and high speed rail on the west coast, the east is served by modern Tze Chiang limited express trains travelling up to 125mph. They are spotless, spacious, and punctual. And although we tried the business class on one segment, regular cars and seats are plenty roomy. If anything, we found the new trains a bit too clean and sterile, but certainly a pleasant and very low stress way to go.
You can pre-order a train bento on the TRA App for less than $3 and it’s delivered to your seat
Taipei Central’s local platforms are not wide or particularly pleasant and there are not really any services beyond the pay gates, so I’d recommend getting to the platform no more than 10 minutes prior to departure as it’s easy to find the platforms and coach number sign. Hang out or get food in the adjacent shopping mezzanine. At some stations; they don’t let you onto the platforms until 10 minutes prior.
The regular meat bento was pretty good considering, although maybe not up to the hype of its somewhat cult following. Cheryl got the veggie version -:).Happy arrival at Hualien Station.
You can buy tickets on the TRA App or at the stations, but I found the app pretty convenient for booking tickets once you get the hang of it. One person can buy tickets using their passport number for up to 5 people and pay by Credit card or Apple Pay. You then collect your ticket on your mobile and have the other passenger (s) download their ticket on their phone (in the App) as you provide the reservation # and a 3 digit collection code.
Back at the railway parkThe charms of many smaller Taiwanese cities take awhile to reveal themselves in back alleys, converted old buildings and lots of plants.Red lanterns ready to be deployed in Hualien for the month+ long Lunar New Year celebrations.
Note that as soon as you click on a specific train after searching time and destination, a reservation and seats will be made immediately. You have a reservation and specific deadline shown to pay via credit card or Apple Pay (very convenient) or at the station. You can delay paying for tickets for a day or two (it gives you the deadline). This gives you an easy option to change or cancel tickets, but a word of warning, I did this a few too many times as I was learning the system and it locked my passport number for a month! I’m guessing the limit was about 4-5 incomplete/unpaid reservations. I could have called customer service and perhaps begged for tourist mercy, but we got around this by reversing our process and buying the tickets on Cheryl’s TRA app (and her passport number) and then I downloaded second ticket to my phone. You only need one ID to buy tickets via the App.
The hipster guide to Hualien
It also is smart to wait to collect the tickets on the App (or at the station) until you are sure that you want to take that specific train, as this allows you to change a ticket on the App, not just at the station. Apparently locals don’t “collect” tickets until the last minute for this reason.
Funky and green charm in Hualien.Hip coffee shops abound and are generally only open after 11am or even later as the coffee cafe culture is an afternoon thing in Taiwan.
By the way, there are also local trains that you can see on the App timetables but you can’t buy reserved tickets. For those, you just show up and use your IC tap card to enter and exit the station and take any seat on those trains. They are also the easiest option with bikes.
Ready to scan my QR ticket at the turnstiles. Taiwan is really promoting cycle tourism and these helpful signs are everywhere around cities, transfer areas, and stations.
Besides trains, I love to study the geography and geology of the very place we visit. It always shapes the history; culture, and economy. The geography of Taiwan is dominated by a central ridge of mountains, the remnants of the formation of the island from magma rising up between the junction of the Eurasian’s and Philippine tectonic plates. The central range reaches heights of over 3000m (10,000ft) and it does snow sometimes in the higher elevations in winter. So only 30% of the country is flat, and much of that is highly developed.
The coast north of Hualien.
A second smaller coastal mountain range hugs the east coast. These ranges are both actually rising as the Philippine plate continues to push against and under the Eurasian plate. The valley where the plates meet, the East Rift, is one of the only flat areas on the east side of the country. It’s also fertile for growing things year round and attractive for cycling. Most of the industry and population of Taiwan is concentrated on the north (Taipei valley) and west sides, so the east has always been considered a more wild and remote place.
We loaded up on veggies at the Azure Hotel’s amazing vegetarian breakfast buffet for three days and used it as an excuse for street food, night markets and other less healthy options the rest of the day -:).
Ok, so onto our travels. We spent three days in Hualien and used it as a base to visit the famous Taroroko gorge and Taroko National Park for a full day by train, bus, and foot. The geography of the mountains is dramatic and consequently there are a lot of issues with rockfall, slides and road/trail closures. There are very limited bus services up and down the gorge now due to construction around a massive landslide that occurred in October 2023. There is single lane traffic controls and you can wait for up to an hour to get through each way, even if you hire a scooter or taxi for the day.
Ready to go to Taroko Gorge!
But we love buses and challenges, so decided that we would catch the earliest #302 bus from Xincheng Taroko station at 9am (the #310 bus is not currently running into the gorge) and ride it all the way to its end at Tianxiang. You can drive (or bike!) further than that and apparently it is much less visited beyond the reach of the buses.
Oops, our electric bus broke down half way to our destination in the park.
Our short train hop from Hualien arrived Xianming about 8:30 and there were about 30 tourists waiting for the bus, including some other Americans from Utah. After we boarded, the driver made a long speech in Mandarin that didn’t sound encouraging but somewhat surprisingly, our young pale Utah friend spoke Mandarin and translated for us. It turns out he was half Taiwanese! The driver was just preparing everyone for what we already knew, that there would be significant delays at the construction. So the half of us who were still on the bus at the construction were all patient for the 40 minute delay.
So we started walking And enjoying the views Light traffic due to the road closures
We were finally rolling again through the closure and spectacular gorge scenery, when suddenly the electric bus started to stall and sputter. The driver mumbled, stopped, and fixed (rebooted?) the batteries in the back, and we rolled on again slowly. But alas 500m onwards the bus finally died for good. So the remaining dozen or so of us got off and walked on the road. But we soon figured how nice it actually was walking the road, as the normal continuous two way traffic didn’t exist due to the long road closures all day. Roll with it and we’ll see what we see.
Happy travelers rolling with the bends in the road today Plan B, walk the Lushui trail for a few kmsOops; trail closed midway so back to the roadCheryl resigned to wait for the next bus…at least she had some books on her phone…
It was peaceful and beautiful, and we walked to a campground area with bathrooms a few kilometers up the road. We then decided that we’d hike some of the Lushui trail which branched off the road above and then try to catch the next bus as it rolled by in about an hour. Well, the geologic gods had also closed that trail in its middle, so after a pleasant 30 minute out and back, we returned to the campground bus stop and resigned ourselves to wait up to an hour for the next bus. It was too far to walk (15km) and there were dark tunnels with no shoulders. But after about 10 minutes, a nice young Dutch couple in a little white car came by and offered us a ride to the end! Very nice and put our day back on track -:). They also were going to the Bayiang Trail, so we avoided another km+ of road walking.
Made it to Baiyang Trail with time to review the rules of monkey engagement -;)A mysterious start to the trail takes you through a mountain to another side gorge We were lucky that the Baiyang trail had just reopened after its own landslide closures. We could see why.Beauty is everywhere in Taroko.After walking back to Tianxiang, we got some tasty food at one of the small cafes there.This crazy territorial macaque grabbed food from unsuspecting people coming out of the only 7-11 in the national park and was hilariously peeling off the warning signs!
Taroko is a special place and we’re glad we made the effort, but can imagine with normal traffic and tour buses it may be a bit much. We also noticed that cycling is possible, as the lower climb is spread out over 30km or so. You would be rewarded with continuous views but do need to mind the many narrow tunnels.
Exploring the East Rift valley on rental bikes (Giant of course).A surprise stop at an old Japanese temple. There is a strong Japanese cultural legacy on Taiwan due to its 50 years of occupation.
Next up was a short train ride to Yuli, where we spent two nights in a small hotel. This allowed us a full day cycling up to and exploring YuShan National Park. Much less visited than Taroko and the jumping off point for the Walami trail.
Oh how nice to be out of the cities.Destination reached at the pleasant Liyu Lake. A delicious indigenous influenced meal at the Liyutan Tree House near the lake. The preservation of indigenous culture is a priority on the East Coast where it survived longer due to its isolation.Cycling in Hualien was fun since we were really the only foreign tourists about.
We’ve been eating well, but the food customs and timing can sometimes pose a problem. We have loaded up at some our breakfast buffets, which generally have many savory and healthy options. Lunch is a small restaurant/shophouse stand. Street and night markets are always an option but you need to be up for crowds and eating small things standing up at the edge of the road or against a building. We actually prefer food oriented streets to night markets. Oh, and good pizza is popular here, and a trusty traveler break from a lot of (excellent) Taiwanese food.
About our fifth beef noodle try, this one with the works of tripe and knuckle…mmmm!Even the dogs know that scooters are the way to go in Taiwan.This giant fried chicken vat amazed us at the most popular stand at the Yuli Night Market (Fridays Only!) .
Yuli is a bit drab to be honest but the area around it is peaceful to cycle. Many of the Tawainese cities are spread out and walking not always the most pleasant as most locals use scooters to get from point A to B, they don’t consider long walking practical. We found it to be much better to bike from place to place and walk locally, especially when looking for restaurants. Small places on Google are often hard to locate, closed, or don’t seem to exist. But you’ll always find something and just need to stay flexible or pick a well established place with lots of reviews (including recent ones).
The area SW of Yuli is pleasant for cycling and a good way to get to YuShan.Uphill, 5 speeds, AND falling rocks?’Yea! we made it the official park boundary at El 1500 ft.Suspension Bridge Number 1 and my number one travel companion -:).Dizzying but stable.I hiked in to this beautiful waterfall complex and suspension bridge number two while Cheryl enjoyed promised reading time! The dramatic sea near Taitung.
From Yuli, we had another short train ride to Taitung, where we spent another two nights. Taitung has a great museum of Prehistory on its outskirts that was worth a stop on its own. Although Taitung has a bit of an art scene by the old train station, if you are short of days, you might consider a stop at Taitung train station and storing your bags in the train station lockers to visit the museum (10-15 mins by taxi or bus, cafe or picnic on site) and then roll on to your next destination. Of course if you have your own wheels, then the areas north and south have lots of natural beauty and are certainly worth it exploring.
Taitung’s old railway station has been turned into a pleasant cultural area.
And alas that’s one of our limitations without a car or cycle touring here. We do miss a lot of the places in between, but we’ve balanced that by getting out of each region by bus or bike and seeing quite a bit. It really depends on what you like, and we do like cities. And we’re seeing enough, as experiences can be had anywhere.
Bye for now from Taiwan.
So we’re now on the west coast and heading back towards Taipei. The lunar new year buzz has started and we look forward to sharing more about our experiences soon. Happy travels!
In January of 2023 we came to Taiwan on our way to Bangkok. We were only in Taipei, and just for a week, but we loved it. When we were discussing where to start our 2024 travels Taiwan was top of the list. It’s a long flight from San Francisco to Taipei, but non stop. This time we’re here for three weeks and will circling the island via train.
Back at our local MRT stop, Jiantan on the Red Line.
What is it we love about Taipei? It’s a very easy city to visit. Great transit, amazing food options, such helpful locals. It seems to be an overlooked Asian City. Taiwan has close ties to the US, we know folks in SF who have Taiwanese roots, so it’s one of the many places in the world where locals happily tell us about their connections in the US. Since we landed on Election Day there were even more returned Taiwanese since they must come back to Taiwan to vote. No mail in ballots here.
Joplin Fried Dumpling restaurant which Rich wanted to try. Yikes, looks a bit confusing, but fear not.A young man in line in front of us explained that you take a clipboard to fill out your order, and a number from the push button machine.Done and done. At this point a young woman behind us checked to make sure we had gotten a number. People want to make sure you’re all set, which is so appreciated. Google translate helped us through the menu in Chinese.After paying at the register, where the cashier advised us to change our order to one set of pan fried and one set of boiled dumplings, she gestured us towards a table and I went to get our dipping sauces. She left her cash register to come over to explain the different sauces to me. Cheryl demonstrating her chopstick skills with a boiled dumpling.The pan fried dumplings. Crispy bottoms. Delicious.
I could fill an entire blog post with photos of amazing food in Taipei and how incredibly nice and helpful people are, but food isn’t the only thing that brought us back here. We are both big fans of cities, and getting to see and understand what makes a city a good place to live, or a bad place to live, intrigues us. And how a government helps or hinders its citizens. What steps have been taken to make a city more livable? To allow young and old to live safely and happily? What is the temperament of the locals? Do they seem happy or cranky?
Raingo umbrella rental. When you get caught out by rain. Some MRT stations also have courtesy umbrella stands where you can borrow an umbrella for free.This group of children were rain ready in their bright ponchos. Plenty of water fountains and taps. In most playgrounds and parks, of which there are many.The QR code shows you the water quality tests. And to answer your next question, yes! Loads of public toilets too.In the Shilin District the space under the metro tracks is for folks on foot and bikes.In a metro station, you can always find a way to charge your cell phone. A simple outlet, or a battery pack for rent.
We keep saying we want to bike tour in Taiwan, but haven’t gotten it together to get our bikes here. There are places that rent touring bikes, similar to what we did in Korea, but I have a hard time getting a bike that fits correctly and comfortably. Being uncomfortable and eventually in pain on a bike is no fun.
Getting around by bike is popular in Taipei. So we got bike share bikes. UBike.
In order to sign up for a UBike account we used the app, our Taiwan phone numbers which came with our SIM cards, and a transit card – which you tap for not only transit, but the UBikes, and to my delight, vending machines. (Hello Gummy candies.) You link your transit card to the app and that is how you pay for the UBikes; super easy.
A proper city bike with fenders and a basket.Ok, a bit small for Rich, but fine for a few hours of riding.Plenty of bike stations from which to check out and return the bikes.Which makes it easier to get around the city and check out attractions such as the Taipei Expo Park. And the Lin An Tai Historical House and Museum Scooter/bike lanes are everywhere and even take you across major bridges.Riding to New Taipei City. We made it just before it started to dump rain.
So we ride the bike share, we walk a lot, and we use the Metro. That’s our Taipei experience. And yes, we go to night markets and stand in line to buy food, and sometimes eat food from one stall while we’re standing in line to buy food from another stall.
Cold spicy miso noodles at Shilin Night Market.That spicy sauce catches up to you.So it’s off to the Sheng Jian Bao stand.Two kinds of bao, pork and cabbage. Neither are vegetarian, they let you know as you order.Both are delicious. There are downsides to Taipei night markets – one of which is no place to sit and enjoy your food. We were standing in a closed up shop’s front steps. Another downside? Taipei night markets get crowded. They are not for folks who dislike crowds.There are plenty of restaurants to enjoy as well for when you want to sit to eat. This was a burger restaurant with good craft beer.
With our fondness for Taipei definitely confirmed we’re headed out to explore some more of Taiwan. Where? Anywhere we can get to by train. In a clockwise direction. First stop, Hualien City. Just about two hours by train. More from the rest of Taiwan soon.
Ah, trains. Enjoying the view of the coast. The happy travelers.
Less Car, More Life 