Tour Of TaiwanNorthwest To Yilan

From Taroko Gorge, we headed east to the coast and then north up the winding road into Yilan. More often than not, if I am going somewhere, I want to head out as early as possible. Days go by quickly the more you put into them. Getting an early start is usually the best idea. On this day, we knew we would be spending the night in Taipei. We also knew that was one of the few places on this trip that does not close down early, so it would never really matter if we got in late. We had all day to make a three hour drive. Spending the morning at Taroko Gorge did not set us back at all.

There was little to see between Taroko Gorge and the northern tip of Yilan County besides mountain roads and tunnels. Even when the road was near the ocean, we were either in a tunnel or too high up a cliff to see much of anything.

Our first stop of the day was Su'ao, a tiny fishing village we visited in February. Nothing has changed since then, but we wanted to drive around anyway. The last time, we came by bus and walked around. This time, we had a car. Su'ao is actually a township and not a village, but most of the township is industrial and a navy base. Visitors mostly go to the villages and harbor.

Another difference was that we brought bathing suits. Not specifically for Su'ao, but you never know when you might need one on a road trip, and a car can carry a lot more than a backpack. We went to our usual cold spring. Now that we have been there twice, it is our usual. As usual, the place was completely deserted. We could understand that in February, even though it was certainly hot enough, but this was in August. The place should have been packed. Ordinarily, an empty business is a warning sign, but an even bigger sign might have been all the clouds in the sky. It always looked like it was going to rain on this trip, and it rained a little from time to time, but what we did not know until we got home was that a typhoon was headed toward Taiwan. The locals were undoubtedly aware. Though it passed just north of Taiwan before hitting Wenzhou, this was our first official typhoon since moving here.

From Su'ao, it was a quick drive into Luodong, famous for its night market. We were pretty sure we would be in Taipei by dusk, so the night market was useless to us. Luodong has more than a few parks and cultural centers. None are as big and famous as any of the national parks we saw on this trip, but if you live in the neighborhood, they look like a good place to take a walk or ride a bicycle. Luodong is also at the mouth of the Lanyang River, with several tributaries cutting through, so there are riverside parks and a good deal of water activities around town.

Physically, Luodong is the smallest township in the county, but we liked what we saw enough to spend the night. Taipei would always be there the next day. Alternately, we could have simply driven through Taipei without stopping at all. We have both been there a few times and this trip was about discovering new places. But that would have meant spending the day driving north to Taipei and south along half of the west coast. Taipei was the logical place to spend the night. But not this night.

This is as good a place as any to point out how Taiwan divides itself. Rather than provinces or states, there are counties (縣). Each county has at least one city (市), more than a few townships (鄉 rural or 鎮 urban), and a lot of villages (村 rural or 里 urban), based on population. Larger cities are further divided into districts (區). The largest cities are also special municipalities (直轄市). They used to be cities within counties, but now the entire county is in the city, like San Francisco. The exception being Taipei County, which became New Taipei City while Taipei City stayed as it was, for purely political reasons. On this trip, we spent the night in a 村, two 鎮, and two 市, one of which was also a 直轄市. There will be a test a few posts later.

Since we were spending the night in Luodong, we got to see the famous night market. Having seen several night markets throughout the country, I'm not really sure why this one is so famous. There is nothing particularly wrong with it, and it is larger than you expect from such a small town, but every city and almost every township has a night market. This one had nothing that the others did not. Every county, and almost every city, has a signature food. At the Luodong night market, it was 蔥油煎餅, which is widely available at street stalls all over the country, and probably at most night markets.

We had the Hello Kitty room in a B&B close to the night market. Though Luodong is tiny, it is difficult to park downtown, just like any downtown in Taiwan. With parking at the hotel, we could walk downtown and drive to the scenic spots, where parking was easy.

Something we noticed in Yilan County was that more than a few people drive Maseratis and Porsches. We even saw a McLaren. The houses in Yilan make it look like it might be one of the poorest counties in the country. Maybe the people of Yilan spend their money on cars rather than houses. Then again, maybe someone saw my new car and thought the same thing.