Tour Of TaiwanNortheast To Hualien

From Kenting, we drove up the east coast to Doulan Forest, home to the Ami indigenous people. They put on a show for the tourists, but otherwise live just like everyone else. The forest has scenery, sights, and plenty of hiking trails, but we were never going to stay long. Our main stop that day was Taroko Gorge, four hours up the coast. Doulan was a rest stop before the longest leg of our road trip.

The good thing about driving the east coast of Taiwan, as opposed to the west coast, was virtually no traffic. The bad news was that the main route was a narrow road rather than a freeway, and rarely hugged the coast. Even when the road was close to the ocean, there were usually bushes and trees between the road and water. I think they worried more about typhoons than the view when they built the roads. The scenery most of the way was trees and fields, but at least they were green. The east coast gets more rain than the west coast and is mostly undeveloped. Instead of driving from city to city, we drove past farms and rice paddies, with the occasional village along the way.

The four hour drive took me about three. We were mostly on a two lane road, but with no traffic and long stretches without any cross streets, scooters or pedestrians, it was almost like a miniature freeway.

What I liked about the east coast was the combination of nature and civilization. Even though that entire side of the country is undeveloped and green, there are ample gas stations and rest stops. There were small parking lots at every government-approved scenic area. Just past the border between Taitung County and Hualien County, the Tropic of Cancer cuts through the country and there is a large marker for people to take internet pictures. We never saw any people on any of the beaches along the way, but they were mostly rocky coasts, and it was the rainy season. It never rained during this leg of the drive, but it looked like it could have at any moment.

The road changed in Hualien County. Instead of driving between fields, we were finally between mountain cliffs and the ocean. But that was never going to last. About 30 kilometers into our coastal drive, we had to start heading up into the mountains. After a few twists and turns, we went back toward the coast again, but then we were driving through Hualien City, which is small, but more developed than the country drive we had for the previous two hours. From Hualien City, it was a quick drive to the entrance to Taroko National Park. Once in the park, the real driving began.

The main road through Taroko Gorge is narrow, winding and more than a little steep in places. It was a great test of my new car, which handled beautifully. The tunnels were especially interesting. The headlights and dashboard lights are all automatic, though I can set them to operate manually. The tunnels were the first time I really got to see the automation in action. Every time we entered a tunnel, everything switched on as it was supposed to, and immediately switched off as soon as we exited. The technology is not all that impressive, but I liked how quickly everything happened, even when we repeatedly went in and out of smaller tunnels. Since we were on the side of a cliff, some of the tunnels had an open wall. None of the different lighting levels confused the car for a second. Had I been manually operating the headlights, I would have kept them off through all but the longest tunnels.

Taroko Gorge is “the Grand Canyon of Taiwan”, though it is mostly green rather than mostly brown, it was created by earthquakes as well as rivers, and it is less than one fifth the size. One of the great things about Taroko Gorge is that you can drive from just above sea level to almost 3,000 meters. No mules required. There are a million hiking trails and plenty of relatively safe places to ride a bicycle, but I liked driving through the park. I'm sure my new car greatly influenced that. If we were driving a beat up 1998 Suzuki Kei, the steeper roads would have been a nightmare.

Hotel options are limited inside the park. Most people stay in Hualien City. There is a big, fancy resort in the park, but we did not make any reservations and we did not want to spend ridiculous amounts of money for accommodation on this trip. Road trips are for Motel 6, not the Ritz. The Taiwan equivalent of Motel 6 is some random B&B. Our room's theme was fruits and berries, for some reason.

We mostly spent the night at Taroko Gorge because we wanted enough stops on the trip to keep it from getting tedious. But Taroko Gorge is the kind of place where you can easily spend a few days. Driving up and down the winding road is fun, but there are also too many trails, rivers, and bridges for one day. I will have to come back sooner or later. Maybe not during the rainy season.