There is something rather alluring about Taiwan’s Pacific coast, perhaps because it’s so different from western Taiwan. Despite Taiwan’s relatively small size and dense population, the Pacific coast feels cut off because of the mountains that go down the island’s spine and split the island in two.
For me, it’s always a welcome relief to visit eastern Taiwan but living in Tainan, it’s not easy. Tainan to Taitung, for example, is 103km as the crow flies, but 220km by road and it takes a minimum of 4 hours to get there by train. It has never seemed worth doing Taitung as a weekend trip and a result has remained unvisited by myself.
When I returned from the UK, I had to quickly get my Chinese New Year plans together and Taitung was my priority. I was simply unprepared, as it took time to readjust to life in Taiwan after 3 weeks away. Train tickets went on sale on 9th January, but despite being late to book on the 14th, managed to get seats between Chaozhou to Taitung and on the return, Taitung to Pingtung. Better still, I got one of the last hostel rooms in the Taitung area in Dulan, paying just 1440NT for 3 nights, I paid 1000 a night in Kenting last CNY!
For the first 5 days of my CNY break, I did some hiking and a bit of research about Taitung. The main issue was finding public transport information in English, and Diing Dong bus’ website was a Dreamweaver build so I couldn’t right click, Google Translate any of it. It was quite difficult and time-consuming work. And so to the trip…
DAY ONE – THURSDAY 7TH FEBRUARY
Cramming 3 days of clothes into a 20 litre backpack wasn’t easy but I managed it and left my house at 6:15. From Tainan I headed for Xinzuoying to catch my train to Taitung, I had managed to buy a ticket with a seat for Xinzuoying to Chaozhou, meaning I wouldn’t need to stand up or change trains, but simply change carriages.
It was a smooth journey and I arrived in Taitung around 11:10, my intention was to take the 8101A Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus to Sanxiantai, then play it by ear. Well, that went well for about 10 minutes…
The bus hit traffic as it joined Highway 11 and the 1 hour 25 journey took double that. In a double whammy, the glorious sunshine turned to intense rain. By the time I reached Sanxiantai, I had no chance of making the 3:20 bus back and getting to my hostel would turn out to be tricky.
I had come for coastal scenery, and the rain put a dampener on that! I had to buy an umbrella to protect my backpack but was soon on my way down to the rocky beach. In spite of the rain, Sanxiantai’s most famed spot, the 8 arched bridge was still crowded. It was also waterlogged in places, but I was fortunate to be wearing my hiking boots as most other tourists struggled in flip flops and soft trainers.
The beach
The bridge
The views from the island were OK, and I followed the trail to its end. The boardwalk ended and it turned right on what only be described as a rocky wasteland before going up a steep set of stairs to a lighthouse, and that was it, a dead end. I made my way back to the car-park, looking forward to getting to my accommodation
The island ahead
Lighthouse
Getting out of Sanxiantai proved to be a difficult task. The buses were not going into the car-park, and there was a map showing where they left from, a gentleman said something about the number ‘2’. I followed the road out of the car-park to a T-Junction, and turned right where there was a ‘2’ Highway marker. I misheard/misunderstood, after an hour of waiting a bus finally showed and I was subjected to a torrent of angry abuse in Chinese.
He allowed me on anyway, and 50 metres up the road, there was an actual bus stop! A definite d’oh moment if there ever was one!
I was heading for Dulan, about 38km down the coast. The journey was going well, then the bus hit traffic a few km short of Dulan… I finally got off at 6:30 after 90 minutes on the bus. I checked into Travelbug hostel which is where I would be staying on trip. First impressions were good, and after a few sleepy beers, retired for the evening ahead of ‘day two’ on trip.
DAY TWO – FRIDAY 8TH FEBRUARY
Thursday’s traffic issues had been frustrating having spent about eight and a half hours on a bus or a train and do one tourist spot. Things didn’t get better.
I wanted to head to Baxianwong (Baxian Caves) and I go onto the 8:31 bus bound for Jingpu. The 70km journey was without traffic issues, and the coastal views were good. 1 hour 50 minutes after leaving Dulan, I’d arrived at the caves and couldn’t wait to see one of Taiwan’s pre-historic sites.
I got to the main trail and it was closed due to construction work. There was only one cave worth looking at and that was it. The handful of caves I saw were just opening in the rock face, and not caves as you usually expect. I spent 20 minutes walking around and it was time to get the bus back south down the coast again.
I only had to wait 10 minutes for the next bus, and if you think frustrated, you’d be right. It was beginning to feel like the trip would be one I would want to forget about very quickly but my luck changed a bit.
I didn’t go all the way back to Dulan but stopped off at Donghe Bridge. I’d passed it the previous day and the car-park was full of tour buses but, it was quite the opposite. It was almost completely deserted. There are actually two bridges, one is the modern highway one where you get off the bus and the other is an old bridge. So what’s so attractive about it? The views. It is just a 100 metre or so bridge with a couple of fruit stalls next to the car-park but you are next to the mountains and can see the ocean.
I bought a coconut and enjoyed the peace and quiet as I sipped away at the coconut water. There is an unwritten rule for me in Taiwan, if I see coconut’s being sold, I must buy one! As a further side note, it’s been my go-to drink in recent months, there is always a bottle of coconut water in my fridge!
I walked across the bridge and spotted a trail under it by the side of the river. At the end of the bridge, I turned right and descended to the river and then along the path to the sea. There was a beautiful quiet beach with just a handful of tourists and the river itself was just a trickle, a few feet wide and about few inches deep at the mouth.
I moved on and walked into Donghe, knowing I was at the mercy of the bus times and I didn’t have much money left on my Easycard. With 17 minutes until the bus, I didn’t walk to 7 Eleven and put money on it, instead waited for the bus and that was silly.
The bus was late, then once back in Dulan would have had a quick connection but the next bus south along the coast was delayed… by 35 minutes. I didn’t want to go too far and got off in Jialulan, one of the many coastal scenic spots in the area.
It was busy as you’d expect for mid-afternoon but there wasn’t much to see, there was a good view of the mountains further up the coast and a few art installations. It was worth about 20 minutes of my time.
Jialulan
The singing harp
Another piece of art
By this point, I couldn’t be bothered doing anything else. It was past 3pm and I was pretty bored with sitting on/waiting for buses. I went back to Dulan, enjoyed some food and went out up to the Sugar Factory later in the evening for a few of Highway 11 brewery’s craft beers and a bit of live music. Would it be too much ahead of day three?
DAY THREE – SATURDAY 9TH FEBRUARY
No, it wasn’t too much, although I had had a fair bit to drink and only had about 5-6 hours of proper sleep. My plans for Saturday’s were as normal, hike. I’m tempted to incorporate my usual Hiking with Tom post into this, but I will keep it separate and this version shorter.
Somewhat tired and in a groggy mood, quickly got up, changed into hiking gear and onto the 7:51 bus to Nanjunjie, a short 5-minute ride away. The plan was to hike up Dulanshan, which I was to believe was a 14km walk and not too difficult so I was quite confident it would be an easy day, and I’d be done by lunchtime.
From Nanjunjie, the road up the mountain started and Dulan Mountain Trail was clearly signposted. It was 1 hour and 10 minutes of road walking, up and up and up with the views getting better as further height was gained. You could see right up and down the coast, the sea and Taitung City.
The road ended and I was shocked to find it was another 3.8km to the summit of Dulan mountain. Looking at the information board, I’d gained about 600m and had a further 590m of elevation to gain, but mercifully it looked like the path levelled off after 2.3km.
The first 1km was an easy, steady ascent before things got tricky. The path got steeper, and the ropes at the side of the trail were necessary. I’d been unable to bring my walking poles and even then, they’d have been useless against some of the more slippery sections.
At 1.7km there was a small opening and I realised I was on the ridge between the East Rift Valley, and the East Coast. It was possible to see down into the East Rift Valley but unfortunately, they’d be no more views like it. I trudged onto the 2.3km mark and the aboriginal shrine before my hopes of an easy last 1.5km were soon dashed.
The ridge got narrower and there were numerous up and downhill sections with more rope, a lot of tree roots with some huge rocks to squeeze over/past and a bit of mud too. What I thought was a 25-minute walk from the shrine, took 50. I finally reached the summit after 3 hours and 16 minutes.
On the trail
The view at 1.7km
More information
The information board said there were expansive views from the top which turned out to be wrong but it didn’t detract from what had a tough but fun ascent.
Expansive views huh?
The summit.
I made my way back along the ridge, then down from the shrine to the car-park where the trail started. There was a small matter of the 4.2km down the road, and it was not pleasant. By the bottom, I was begging for the finish and as my excellent luck would have it, minutes from the end, I saw a bus heading north.
I had a 35-minute wait at the side of the road which gave me time to sit and relax my legs/feet after a tougher walk than expected.
I got back to Dulan about 2:40 and the rest of the day was whittled away. I had laundry to do, to plan out my final day and of course to eat and drink plenty as I usually do post-walk.
DAY FOUR – SUNDAY 10TH FEBRUARY
I really could have done with more time in bed, the man in the bunk above wouldn’t stop moving, getting out of bed all night and I was still completely shattered by 8am.
I packed up and left the hostel with a rough idea of what I wanted to do, the first ‘attraction’ was Water Running Upward just south of Dulan. There wasn’t a bus for a little while so I walked instead which took about 15 minutes.
I’d heard about how bad this was, Water Running Upward being where it looks like water flows uphill. Despite how inane this sounds, it is notoriously popular. It was quite literally a small, shallow drain with some water in and due to the surrounding landscape, a total illusion. I moved on, and caught the next bus down to the coast to a somewhere better attraction, Xiaoyehliu.
Back in 2017, I visited Taiwan’s northern coast and went to Yehliu, a geological park with numerous eroded rock formations. So why does it have the same name? The rock is the same (sandstone) and it’s a smaller version of Yehliu, xiao’ meaning small, so Xiaoyehliu is a fitting name.
Thankfully with it being only 9:20am, I’d arrived before the crowds, and the park was naturally split into three separate sections. The middle section was the best one but there was no information to tell you which rock looks like what. On the main boards, it gave a rough idea of where ‘Doufu rock’ or ‘Mushroom rock’ were, but in reality, it wasn’t obvious where they actually were.
I found a bit of peace and quiet in the right hand, third section of the park. I spent about 25 minutes sat, watching the waves crash into the rocks with only a handful of people around, sat doing the same thing.
I took the 11am bus into Taitung City which I had low expectations of. Most people say, skip Taitung City itself given there isn’t a great deal to do there.
I was in a bit of a bind. My train out of town was at 3:36pm and it was now 11:25. I couldn’t venture too far out of the city and I was also low on money. I had a walk around the old railway station area which was largely left intact, with the tracks and platforms remaining with a few art installations to look at. There was quite a bit of information about Taitung, and it felt as if the city was making an effort to modernize.
Taitung is a peculiar place for Taiwan in that, the train station is now 6km north of the city centre but better suited for the railway itself.
As I was walking I saw a sign for Liyushan, a small mountain rising above the city. It didn’t look much but I had a look anyway! The views in all directions from the numerous platforms were superb despite only being 75m above sea level. I spent over an hour on Liyu but part of that was because I had no idea what I was going to do next.
I descended and had intended to hire a bicycle but was now in a bigger bind. I had 2 hour 30 until my train with a bus at 2:30 to the station, and not much more to do in the local area, added to that, I couldn’t find anywhere to hire a bicycle.
It’s fair to say my remaining time in Taitung was wasted, I walked around vaguely going north and east, with the idea of getting some lunch and visiting the Forest Park. Stupidly, I thought the entrance to the Forest Park was further north than what it was, and by this time was stuck halfway between downtown and the train station.
I just carried on walking, getting to the station about an hour before my train. Not the greatest end to the trip that had its fair share of letdowns.
Getting back home to Tainan wasn’t too bad. I got to Pingtung and had to walk down 4 carriages, I had booked a seat from there to Xinzuoying. The train was going to Tainan so why not stay on board? Well, it sat there for 16 minutes, with a faster express leaving in the meantime. I got off at Xinzuoying at 7:15, went upstairs, tapped in my Easycard and boarded the 7:20 back to Tainan instead.
So, Taitung. I’m not sure what to say, I enjoyed myself but I could have planned things better. I could have done more sights but it’s not often I don’t completely pad out a trip and do as much as possible.
Next up, a separate, Hiking with Tom post from Dulanshan.
Tom
Tom's Travels 2019 