You Can Circumnavigate Taiwan In a Long Weekend
And Do Tons of Fun Stuff Along the Way
Living in Hong Kong, it seems like everybody around us had been to Taiwan. So we decided, with a long weekend in October, to finally cross the straits and see what all the buzz was about!
Day 1: Trains, Planes, and Automobiles
We arrived at the Taoyuan airport (Taiwan’s main airport near Taipei) around 4 PM. Getting through security was a breeze, although getting through the physical infrastructure of the airport was a bit of a squeeze:
The metro picks up directly at the airport, so we took the train into Taipei.
Trip Tip 1: There are two trains from the airport into Taipei: a commuter train and an express train. Be careful which one you get on. The express train takes under 40 minutes, while the commuter train takes much longer. But either way, the thing to understand is that the Taoyuan airport is a substantial distance away from, well, anything. Plan for that in your trip timing.
The train into Taipei dumps you out at Taipei Main Station.
Trip Tip 2: Taipei Main Station is HUGE. It is multiple train stations linked together: high speed rail, normal rail, and the MRT all in one place. It is multiple levels with multiple subterranean mall complexes connected. It’s extremely easy to get lost.
Trip Tip 3: Taipei Main Station is surrounded by very neat parts of Taipei. You are right in the thick of it! Explore with whatever time you have!
We decided to immediately go hunting for something to see. On Google Maps we saw something labelled “night market.” We like night markets, so we vaguely meandered our way through Taipei to the night market. And it was great. Taipei was delightful: fun streets lined with shops and stalls, narrow alleys, and just a fun feeling. We remarked a lot on how Taipei feels in many ways like Hanoi to us: just with 20 extra years of economic growth!
And eventually, we got to the night market. Night markets are our SCENE. People talk a lot about Hong Kong’s street food, but it’s a very different vibe than a classic Southeast Asian night market. Taipei was everything we wanted out of an Asian street food scene.
Trip Tip 4: Go to Ningxia Night Market! We got tons of delicious eatables for super cheap. Roasted spicy corn! Sweet and sour chicken! Fruit juices! Stickmeat! It scratched the street food itch!
The night market is just about a 20 minute walk from the train station, and we were scheduled for a 9:30 train out of Taipei. That’s right! We only scheduled ourselves about 3–4 hours in Taipei. We live in a big city, and decided we wanted to maximize our time out in more rural parts of Taiwan. So we bought a fast train (Puyuma) from Taipei to the east coast.
Let’s talk transportation. Our plan was to ROADTRIP around Taiwan. We were itchin’ for the open road.
But it turns out, that was not to be.
Trip Tip 5: If you want to drive in Taiwan, you MUST HAVE an international driving license. This is apparently a real requirement. And to get an international drivers license…. you have to get it in your home country. And have it mailed to you in Hong Kong. Which takes 4–6 weeks.
So instead, at the last minute, we booked train tickets!
Trip Tip 6: Luckily, booking train tickets in Taiwan is super easy and cheap! Just go to the Taiwan Railway Administration’s nice English-language website and book tickets! Note that just because a train is listed on the scheduling section does NOT mean there are tickets available. And once you book a ticket, BE SURE TO PRINT AND DOWNLOAD THE CONFIRMATION PAGE. They do NOT send you any emails with the ticket info. Carrying a paper copy with you is also not a bad idea. There’s also an app you can download which stores ticket info but, again, if you book online, you need to save the online confirmation info to claim your ticket on the app. However, while the trains are a good way to travel, we were a bit disappointed that they did not have tables at our seats to play games while we traveled. Bring a book!
And so we took a late-night train from Taipei Main Station to Xincheng station in eastern Taiwan! And yes, folks, it’s only about a 2.5 hour train ride on the quick train from Taipei aaaaalllll the way to the volcanic gorges and black pebble beaches of Hualien County, Taiwan!
We got into Xincheng late. We’d booked a nice hotel, but hadn’t given them details about our arrival. The hotel was just 5 or 10 minutes walk from the train station, so we figured, hey, we’ll just walk!
We were the only people to get off the train at the Xincheng station, and the station itself was basically empty. So we got off, used the bathroom in the station, then walked out through the parking lot. As we were leaving, a man ran up to us with a sign, and asked, “Are you Mr. Lyman Stone?” We answered yes, that was us, and he ushered us into a car. He was from the hotel; they’d deduced what train we would be coming in on, and sent him to meet us.
Trip Tip 7: Taiwan is *nice* China. What we mean is that the people in Taiwan are just incredibly nice. We encountered constant friendliness and hospitality everywhere we turned, and a sincere concern for helpfulness. Everywhere we went we were met with smiles and care. Everywhere we go we feel like we encounter lots of fundamentally decent people, but Taiwan seems to have a real emphasis on a sense of friendliness and nice-ness, especially to tourists. This means that Taiwan is just incredibly pleasant to travel around: even if you’re confused and in a hurry, people are helpful and friendly and make you feel fine about everything.
So we got in the car and were driven to our hotel. And guys, it was nice. We’d splurged on our hotel because we wanted a comfy stay for our 2 nights on the east coast, and because it’s our last trip before Baby Suzie is born. So we made sure to get some nice accommodations. We grabbed some complimentary cookies and beverages before heading upstairs to crash.
Day 2: Rock and Ocean
We woke up early and packed our backpacks for a day in the outdoors. Then we headed downstairs for our 7 AM breakfast. And holy cow guys this was not a light continental breakfast, it was a feast, and quite a fancy one at that.
Then we talked to the receptionist and bought day-passes for the bus in Taroko Gorge, our destination. It turns out, the bus through the gorge had a pickup point AT our hotel!
Trip Tip 8: Liiko Hotel was a great place to stay. It’s pricey, but it’s extremely close to the Xincheng Taroko Station, and is less than 10 minutes from the gates of Taroko National Park. The breakfast is delicious, the staff very helpful, and the location unbeatable. If you have the budget for it, it makes the experience very nice. There are cheaper places to stay around it as well, but none looked as nice.
Trip Tip 9: Taiwan’s east coast is NOT loaded with cool AirBnBs. The combination of earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and landslides means that buildings in the east are basically concrete bunkers. The few really hip looking AirBnBs we did find are very inaccessible. Point is, it doesn’t seem to us like eastern Taiwan is loaded with fun, cute places to stay. This was a bit disappointing to us. We’ve heard that there is a Taiwan-specific AirBnB as well with more options, but it is only available in Mandarin.
So we boarded the bus and headed into the gorge!
Let’s talk about Taroko Gorge. Many people had recommended it to us, telling us that it was a beautiful place we absolutely could not miss. We googled it, it looked pretty, train tickets were easy and cheap, and so we said, heck, why not, let’s do it? And it was indeed awesome: however, with some more advance planning, you could do it even better than we did. We’ll explain how below.
We road the bus all the way up the valley to its last stop at the town of Tiansxiang, and no I don’t know how to pronounce that. Our plan was to start at the “top” of the valley early, and work our way down, stopping at different hikes along the way. Our first hike was to be the Baiyang trail back to the “water curtain cave.”
To get to the trail, you have to just walk up the road a ways. It looks like this once you round the corner from Tiansxiang:
Once you’re into that tunnel-ish thing, the trail goes left. Yes, left. Into the cliff. Because the trail is literally this:
Our camera is picking up a lot of light that our eyes were missing. That is to say, the tunnel is DARK.
Anyways, we appreciated walking through the tunnel, as it spared us having to hike up and over the mountain! You come out into a picturesque valley with bright blue mountain water:
The hike is very easy and level, with lots of caves and tunnels and pretty views of the valley.
And then you get to Baiyang Waterfall:
Also, it’s worth noting that Chinese signage is pretty entertaining. Readers of our previous blogs know that we have a deep appreciation for signage.
So after amusing signage and a lovely waterfall and roaring river, we went on to our REAL destination: the water curtain cave! The pictures we had seen were pretty cool looking… and did not disappoint. Basically, there’s a cave that has a powerful spring dumping tons of water through its roof. But here, let us show you:
It’s a cave… with torrents of water dumping through it. It’s pretty cool.
The thing is, Taroko Gorge is a raging river full of crystal-blue springwater exploding out of marble cliffs at high pressure… and there’s nowhere you can get in and play in it! Which is super disappointing. But at the Water Curtain Cave, you can play in the water. The Chinese tourists all put on ponchos, stay on the dry-ish sides, and avoid getting wet. We plunged in.
And here’s video!
Trip Tip 10: The Baiyang trail is a lot of fun. You get to play in the water, walk through spooky caves, and see some nice views. It’s also way less crowded than other trails, and a little more nature-ey. It’s a change of pace from the rest of the walks around Taroko Gorge, and the only easy opportunity to get out and play in the water. 10/10 would recommend.
From there we headed back to Tiansxiang and grabbed a fairly mediocre lunch of dumplings. It was nothing to write home about. Then we hopped on the bus and headed down the valley to our next destination: the Tunnel of the Nine Turns.
Online, the Tunnel of the Nine Turns didn’t look that impressive. And the truth is, our pictures won’t fully do it justice. It is an incredible place; canyon walls too vast and close together to enable easy capture in a photograph.
As you walk along the road cut into the side of the valley, you’re hit in the face by a brisk breeze. The warm air rises off the ocean and is funneled into the valley, and then into this narrow gorge, where it picks up speed and becomes a strong wind. With the rush and roar of the river below, and the whistling of the wind in the marble cliffs, the Tunnel of the Nine Turns is a pretty dramatic place. It wasn’t too crowded while we were there, although it’s a big, wide trail, so even with crowds it wouldn’t be too bad.
Trip Tip 11: The Tunnel of the Nine Turns is very cool. It’s a quite short walk, under an hour to the end and back, and is one of the most dramatic scenes in Taroko Gorge. Don’t miss it! Note that the “Gorge effect” winds are indeed quite stiff; hold on to your hat. Also, they carry pollen: Lyman had a significant allergic reaction near the end from some kind of pollen the wind was blowing in our eyes. Note as well that the trail is NOT a loop: you hike to the end, then turn around and hike back.
After the Tunnel of the Nine Turns, we once again got on the bus and continued down the valley to our next stop: the Swallow Grotto Trail.
The Swallow Grotto Trail is one of the most famous trails in Taroko Gorge…and also one of the most crowded. We started our venture early in the day, so skipped the worst crowds at Baiyang and Nine Turns. But by the time we got to Swallow Grotto, the tour groups had arrived. Hordes and hordes of plastic-helmeted tour groups filled the path, such that the Swallow Grotto Trail was not the peaceful and almost contemplative experience that we got at Baiyang and Nine Turns! But still, at Swallow Grotto, we did get to see the swallows diving and bobbing to gobble up bugs carried into the narrow valley by Gorge effect winds. And we got to see the strikingly beautiful cliffs of the lower Taroko gorge.
Swallow Grotto was beautiful.
However, the small pictures on the bottom left and bottom right illustrate two disappointments we had at Swallow Grotto, and throughout Taroko Gorge. Taroko is famous for its high suspension bridges: but we only got to walk on one small one (at Baiyang). The one near Swallow Grotto requires a permit to access, as it is the trail head for a longer trail. There’s another high bridge further up the valley (Cilu Bridge maybe?) you can access easily, but we missed it.
Beyond this, as we’ve mentioned, Taroko Gorge does not make it easy to get out and play in the water. This is understandable in the main valley, where the water is extremely fast and carries tons of nasty gray sediment which would be very dangerous to swim in. But there are numerous calm pools of water on many of the tributaries. The bottom-left picture above shows a narrow waterfall which would have been perfect for one of Lyman’s greatest joys in life: stopping waterfalls by blocking them with his body. It’s a strange hobby, but everybody’s got their eccentric joys in life, and Lyman’s is using his body as a dam. Alas, all the most dam-able waterfalls were inaccessible, much to our disappointment!
Further up the valley than we went, there is a defunct hot spring, Wenshan, where you can sneak down to the water. But the water there looks pretty gray as well, not the bright blue we wanted. We learned, belatedly, that there is a nearby place called Golden Grotto where you can hike up the river and swim… but that would have been a bit dicey for us given that Ruth was 6 months pregnant. And we probably would have needed a guide.
After the Swallow Grotto Trail, we figured that we had basically done Taroko Gorge. We saw the cliffs, felt the wind, played in the caves, and oohed and ahed at the clear blue water. So we headed to the visitor’s center to call a cab to take us to one last destination.
Trip Tip 12: Taroko Gorge was beautiful. It is a unique place, and the Water Curtain Cave especially was a fun experience. We would highly recommend a day trip through Taroko as we had: you’ll see beautiful things, and enjoy a relaxing day out in nature. Doing it on the public bus is easy and cheap, but you could also rent a car. However, we did feel our visit was slightly lacking. Getting out on one of the high suspension bridges, doing one of the hikes higher up along the valley rim, or getting out into a tourquoise blue swimming hole would have made the visit far more memorable. So if you have a chance to go to Taroko, make sure to book yourself one or all of those experiences. The walks along the bus route are all very easy hikes, and some are handicap accessible. For more serious hiking, you need to make reservations and get a permit.
We wanted to get down to the water. So, with the help of an incredibly friendly park ranger, we called a cab to take us to Chongde Beach, just outside the park.
The beaches in eastern Taiwan are mostly black pebble beaches. Many have extremely strong currents and swimming is restricted. At Chongde, you can rent sea kayaks, although we did not. Instead, we just stood by the blue seas and listened to them make music across the basalt and marble pebbles.
We were there as evening was approaching, and clouds had begun to form around the mountains. And while we could vaguely see, in the far distance, the famous slopes of the Qingshui Cliffs, one of Taiwan’s most famous natural wonders… it was way too far to really see them.
Luckily, now that we were outside the park, it was legal to fly our drone! So Lyman pulled it out, and grabbed this video:
It was lovely sitting by the water for a bit, enjoying the views.
Trip Tip 13: You might not swim at an eastern Taiwan beach due to the currents. And you might not sunbathe due to the clouds and rocks. But they are nonetheless a striking and serene experience. Definitely worth going for an hour or two; and we’ve heard some places are good for swimming, and great for surfing.
We headed back to our hotel, got cleaned up from the day, then went and got a nice dinner at a restaurant right beside our hotel.
And then we hit the hay. In one day, we did three of Taroko’s most famous hikes, and enjoyed a famous seaside vista. It was a good day!
Day 3: Of Trains and Tea
Our choice to visit eastern Taiwan was not random, and not only motivated by Taroko Gorge. There were two other big factors as well. First, we are “completionists” in our travel habits. We like to see lots of different places. And so we kind of liked the idea of doing the entire circuit around Taiwan. But secondly, and more importantly, we recently tasted a Taiwanese tea in Hong Kong called “honey black tea” which we loved. So we wanted to go to where it was grown in Taiwan and buy some. It’s grown primarily in Eastern Taiwan, with cultivation centered on a town called Ruisui.
We woke up early, ate our breakfast, and then met the cab that the hotel had arranged for us for the day. This was a bit pricier than we had hoped, but we were on a tight schedule and taking trains would not have worked. And so, like that, we were off, headed south.
We’d found a place called Wuhe Tourist Tea Plantation which, well, was clearly aimed at tourists. But more importantly, it had gajillions of good reviews on Google, and seemed to be associated with the government research project that gave rise to the tea in question.
So let’s talk about Honey Black Tea. You’ll see it all over Taiwan at bubble tea shops when you go; it’s one of Taiwan’s most well-known teas and, along with Sun Moon Lake Ruby Red, one of Taiwan’s only internationally well-regarded highly oxidized teas (i.e. red/black, rather than green, white, oolong, yellow, etc).
Honey Black Tea came about as an accident. In the 1970s, a farmer in eastern Taiwan was trying to get one last picking of tea leaves in the summer, when he ran into a problem. A bunch of bugs had eaten a lot of his tea leaves. But, not to be deterred, the farmer harvested anyways, and prepared the leaves as tea. He figured, at worst, he’d sell them at a discount as low-end product somewhere.
But much to his surprise, the leaves had changed in a remarkable way. When brewed, they had a unique sweetness to them, like honey. Through a few more years of trial and error, it became clear that when tea leaves in the early summer were eaten by a specific kind of bug, it caused a chemical change in the leaves, locking in a unique sweetness. Since then, the tea farms in the region have mostly gone fully organic and pesticide free in an effort to cultivate a good environment for the bugs.
The honey flavor is hit-or-miss. Some years it’s strong, and in some it’s weak. Sometimes it doesn’t come out until the tea has aged for a year or two. It’s still very much a work-in-progress for the farmers to figure out how to reliably hit the remarkable honey-tasting flavor palette that won honey black tea the 1st place prize at the 2006 World Tea Competition.
Anyways. We went to the farm and sat down and tried some tea.
After a pleasant chat with the salesladies, and a sampling of ultimately 4 or 5 different teas, and some appropriate admiration of their very fanciful and ever-so-Taiwanese packing, we ended up buying a considerable quantity of tea.
But we’d also wanted to actually see the tea being grown. So we asked where it came from, and they told us, well, one of our small fields is just across the street!
So we walked over to take a look.
And while we were over there we figured, hey, why not take some videos?
Guys, having a drone is SUPER FUN.
Finally, having finished playing in the tea and flying our high-end futuristic surveillance robot, and as the day was getting QUITE warm, we headed back to the car for our driver to take us on to the next town down the valley, Yuli, where we would catch a train.
Trip Tip 14: When in Taiwan, you must drink tea. Copious quantities of tea. At every opportunity, sit down and sample the tea someone puts in front of you. And maybe buy some to take home. Taiwan is a world-famous tea-growing region with numerous distinct regions, varietals, and styles. Take the time to do some research before you go to figure out if there are some you’d like to try specifically. We were most interested in the two famous black/red tea varieties: Sun Moon Lake Ruby Red, and Honey Black. But many people will go to Taiwan for their high mountain oolong teas, which we’ll discuss below. The point is, you should carve out time for tea tourism while in Taiwan. It is very fun, quite relaxing, and gives you some nice things to bring home to keep re-experiencing your trip, or give to others. And while you’re at it, if you don’t already know how to pour Chinese tea, try to learn! There are classes in Taipei, probably elsewhere too, or you can just observe and ask questions at teashops as you visit.
Our driver eventually, after some wrong turns, got us to the train station at Yuli. For those following along, the map at left shows our journey to that point.
There, we promptly went hunting for food. But, as we were a bit tight on time, we ended up in a 711.
Reading about Taiwan, we’d heard many people talk about 711. But being Americans, our reaction was, “Uh, what? 711? We’re not going to 711. We want authentic Taiwan.”
Folks, 711 is authentic Taiwan. 711 in Taiwan is awesome! And they have incredibly cheap, delicious warm-up meals. The spaghetti is the best spaghetti we’ve had in Asia probably. So we got spaghetti and snacks at 711, then walked back to the train station… but along the way passed a Chinese donut and fried bread stand and so bought some Chinese donuts, which were very tasty and rather mild, just as you would expect from a food culture that doesn’t like super sweet things.
Trip Tip 15: Eat at 711. It’s cheap and good and you can’t really say you’ve done Taiwan unless you’ve reveled in the amazingness that is Taiwan 711s.
So then we waited for our train. We got on, stowed our bags… and watched the pastoral countryside of the southeastern rift valley gradually broaden out into the coastal plains of Taitung.
It was a really gorgeous train ride. We read, looked at pictures we’d taken, and just enjoyed hanging out on a relaxing journey. And patted ourselves on the back that our trip was going to take us all the way around the island. After a while, we came to a section where the train cut through mountain tunnels, or high up on seaside cliffs. We saw everything from cities to farms, to mountains and beaches. AND by the time we got off to transfer trains at Kaohsiung, we’d gone more than halfway around the island since landing in Taiwan!
At Kaohsiung, we grabbed a quick delicious dinner (from 711, of course) and then waited for the train. As we were waiting, we kissed… and then noticed a police officer looking at us. He started to approach, and we started to sweat: many cultures have different rules and norms about PDA; had we just committed some misdemeanor? We didn’t know! It’s not our fault! We’re idiot Americans!
When the police officer got to us, he asked us where we were going, where we’d come from, where we were from originally. We were a bit nervous. And then when we said we were Americans, he broke into a smile and said, “Oh, wonderful! I hoped so! I love Americans! Can we take a selfie?”
Taiwan is nice China, folks.
Anyways, we got on our train and headed north from Kaohsiung! Our destination was Chiayi, a mid-sized city in central Taiwan.
We have friends who are missionaries in Chiayi who we planned to meet up with (Tim and Hope). In fact, visiting some fellow Lutheran missionaries in Chiayi was one of our original reasons for deciding to go to Taiwan at all.
Our friends picked us up at the train station, and then, because they have local drivers licenses, we headed to a good nearby dumpling place for dinner.
Unlike the dumplings in Tiansxiang, these dumplings were NOT mediocre. Soup dumplings are one of our favorite foods in Asia, and Taiwan is particularly famous for them, so we were VERY glad to get some good, freshly-made soup dumplings.
Trip Tip 16: Eat soup dumplings in Taiwan. The kind you want are called “xiao long tong bao.” Soup dumplings are very cheap and very good.
After dinner, we grabbed some bubble tea (also a must in Taiwan, since Taiwan invented bubble tea).
Trip Tip 17: Drink bubble tea. It’s the thing to do. Remember one of our major travel mottos: Eat everything, go everywhere, talk to everyone!
Finally, having gotten bubble tea and soup dumplings, we piled into the car for a night-time drive up into the mountains. Because our friends had access to a car, we were able to get away from the major bus and train routes, into a very different part of Taiwan.
And what was that different part?
Alishan!
The name itself sounds romantic!
Alishan is one of Taiwan’s most famous scenic areas. Famous for prize-winning high-mountain oolong teas, famous for unbeatable sunrise and sunset vistas, famous for mysterious forests and dramatic mountain peaks. We were PUUUUMPED.
Trip Tip 17: Actually, we were not both pumped. Lyman thought Alishan wouldn’t be worth doing since we did “misty mid-elevation mountains” in Vietnam last fall, and would be doing tea tourism at Wuhe. But Ruth had seen very pretty pictures and, more to the point, Alishan is something that PEOPLE DO when they go to Taiwan. As readers of prior blogs know, on of our travel mottos is “Do the thing the people do in the place.” Don’t think you’re better than other tourists. If everybody goes to Alishan, it probably means Alishan is a pretty cool place. Don’t be above it; just let yourself enjoy a cool thing even if 95 million other people enjoyed it before you. Even more, maybe try to enjoy the fact that you are participating in an experience and a place that has been loved by millions before: you are participating in a kind of constant human chain of enjoyment and satisfaction associated with a place. A super-popular tourist destination is a kind of living institution. So live it! Do the thing the people do in the place! So Ruth prevailed on the Alishan question… and she was right.
We had chosen our AirBnB based on recommendations from a friend who used to live in Taiwan. It’s a small B&B/boutique hostel in a town outside of Alishan National Park; actually considerably far down the mountain from it. Anyways, we rolled up, checked in, parked the car, and then were welcomed into an evening of incredibly fun activities.
First, we learned how to make aiyu jelly. And basically it is: you scrape off some seeds from a plant into pantyhose, immerse it in water, and repeatedly squeeze the pantyhose. It’s a weird feeling and kind of weird to eat food you’ve extruded through pantyhose, but it was super fun.
As we waited for our aiyu jelly to solidify, we did the only reasonable thing to do…a tea tasting. This AirBnB is also a small teashop, as they have their own tea fields nearby.
And all you need to know about that tea-tasting is encapsulated in this picture:
We had an amazing time. Our hosts had extremely limited English, but that did not limit their hospitality. Another couple was staying there at the same time; they were Malaysian Chinese, and spoke English, so helpfully translated for us.
And eventually, after we’d had our fill of tea and pumpkin seeds, we uncovered our aiyu jelly for a delicious evening after-tea dessert:
With some syrup and lemon juice on it, the aiyu jelly was actually incredibly good. We didn’t buy tea here, but we did buy a bunch of the seeds to make the aiyu jelly, and also a big bag of the delicious pumpkin seeds we ate with the tea.
After that, we headed to our room and spent an evening playing board games and catching up with our friends. And then we went to bed around midnight.
Day 4: Mist and Mountains
Our hosts had helpfully informed us that there was an excellent sunrise viewing spot just across the street. So after having gone to bed at midnight, we woke up at 5 AM to catch the sunrise. Alishan sunrises are famous. Our friends had come up before, but had always been clouded out, unable to catch a glimpse of the sunrise, which is a huge bummer if you get up at 4 AM to make it up to the mountains in time.
But we struck gold.
And so naturally we defiled the morning’s peace by flying our electronic heli-wasp way up and out over the valley to take a video:
Trip Tip 18: Nobody wants to get up for sunrise at 5 AM. Doesn’t matter. Get up for sunrise at 5 AM. You won’t regret it.
When we’d finished with the brilliant hues of sunrise, we hopped in the car and drove down the road a mile or so to where there was a hiking trail that would supposedly give us a view of the “cloud sea,” another vista for which Alishan is famous. The trail was called Eryanping Trail. We got to it just as the clouds were beginning to spill over the ridgeline to our side of the valley. So, not one to let a good picture escape, and thinking it was a short walk to a good vista, Lyman began sprinting up the stairs.
It turned out to be a somewhat longer walk than expected. Still only 20 minutes of walking or so, but much longer than Lyman’s initial pace had anticipated. But anyways, after a nice morning jog (for Lyman) or walk (for the rest of us) through the bamboo and trees, we came out into a beautiful tea field, held up by stone walls that reminded us more of the Andean terraces we saw in Peru than anything else.
And of course, we had to do group photos:
From there, when we were done enjoying the sunrise and the sea of clouds, we headed back to the house for breakfast, prepared by our hosts. We had a hearty breakfast of eggs, tofu, vegetables, and congee, then we packed up and checked out, headed higher into the mountains.
Trip Tip 19: If you go to Alishan, we highly recommend David’s House. We had so much fun, and they really made our trip special. More than just a place to stay, David’s House offers an experience.
As we headed up into the mountains, we made a number of stops. First, we headed to the TRAIL OF TEA in the next town up the road. However, we didn’t really feel like doing much vigorous hiking, so we really just parked the car and wandered around the forest a little bit.
After the tea trail, we were a little bit peckish, so we drove down the road. And… it got absurdly narrow. It was basically a paved bikepath at several points; our car barely squeezed through. Lots of hikers too. But it was gorgeous, winding through the cedars and the bamboo stands!
After a while, we got to the wider, main road, and headed to a coffee shop marked on Google. They had their own roastery, and the region actually grows a considerable quantity of coffee. So of course, we ordered some Alishan oolong tea to drink, some “honey-process coffee,” and some… waffles?
The waffles were a bit of a surprise, but it turns out lots of places in Taiwan sell waffles. They really like waffles. The tea was good and the honey coffee was very good. It doesn’t have honey added to it; they just process it somehow that makes it far less acidic. We don’t normally drink our coffee black, but this coffee was actually very pleasant black. This is a big compliment coming from two Frappuccino (give us all those flavors) lovin’ coffee drinkers.
After our little pitstop, we headed up the main road towards Alishan national park, treated to beautiful mountain views the whole way. And at last, we came to the park. We had to park way up on a side road and pay a small admission fee (about US$10 per person), but overall it was pretty modest, cost-wise. We all went and grabbed a quick lunch at 711 in the park (of course), and then stopped in to taste some obscenely expensive teas at a teashop. We like tea and we like fancy tea but $100 for 150 grams of oolong tea is a bit much. We sampled “the very highest mountain Alishan oolong.”
And folks, it was good. Really good. Better than most oolongs. You could taste a real difference. Not $100 of difference. But maybe, like, $25?
The truth is, we came to Alishan ready to buy some tea. But then the tea in Alishan itself was just so expensive. We should have bought somewhere along the road up… but none of the tea shops we had passed in our drive had looked open. So sadly, we disappointed the vendor.
It was good, though.
Anyways, we were in a bit of a hurry to catch a train.
A train, you say?
Yes, a train! Alishan has a little historic train that runs up the last bit of the mountain in the park. So you take the train up, and then your hike back is all downhill. Which is what we all want anyways if we’re being honest.
And then we walked, winding our way through the ethereal red cedar woods of Alishan.
Alishan feels like what you imagine a magical forest to feel like. It feels like the forest is watching you. It feels like Fangorn forest in Lord of the Rings. And some of the trees look uncannily lifelike, like this “pig tree:”
We just took our time wandering through the trails and enjoying a truly magical place. And posing for lots and lots of pictures.
But finally, the day drew to its end. Tim and Hope needed to get back into Chiayi, and the sunset was approaching. So we got back on the train to take us to the park entrance, and then Tim and Lyman went and fetched the car from up the hill. We piled in and drove back down the mountain, along with a million other tourists from Alishan.
Trip Tip 20: If you go to Alishan? Pffft. WHEN you go to Alishan. Make sure to enjoy the tea, enjoy the trails, catch the sunrise: soak it all up. It’s one of the more beautiful places we’ve been to. We highly recommend it.
As we drove down the mountain, the sun was setting behind the clouds. We figured, between clouds, mountains, and limited road pulloffs, we wouldn’t have any chance to get a good sunset picture. But then, just as the sun peeked below the clouds for a moment and the sky turned golden, we saw a little roadside park. We pulled off and, for just a few short minutes, saw the whole valley below us painted with the auburn rays of one of Asia’s most famous sunsets.
Having soaked up the last rays of light, we crossed the street to a nice coffee shop to grab some caffeine for the drive back (woke up at 5 AM, remember?) and then headed down the road to Chiayi. After an emergency bathroom pitstop at a 711 (have we mentioned how great 711 is?), we went to a good pizza place our friends knew of for dinner. Then we headed to a nearby 711 (!!) to print off our high speed rail tickets and…
ERROR.
What?
ERROR.
Uh-oh.
Our high speed rail tickets were refusing to print for some reason. We tried to use the kiosk and tried to talk to the clerk, but among the four of us, only Hope has any Mandarin, and the clerk had very little English.
So we flagged a taxi and rushed to the high speed rail station to resolve the issue in person, now VERY crunched for time. We were nervous that we wouldn’t be able to claim our tickets and would not make it back to Taipei where we planned to stay the night.
But our fears were misplaced. Taiwan is the easiest place to get around. We got to the high speed rail station, gave our information, and they printed us new tickets, no problem. Then we boarded our train, and were whisked away to Taipei in about 100 minutes. In Taipei we hoisted up our bags and walked a few blocks to our modest AirBnB, and then crashed, thoroughly exhausted from a good day. But as exhausted as we were, it was somehow satisfying to know that we had done a full circuit of Taiwan, with numerous good stops, in a single weekend. We slept the sleep of conquerors.
Day 5: Returning Home
We had a flight out of Taoyuan airport at 2 PM. So we got up and out early. Our goal was to go to a well-regarded tea dealership and pick up some Sun Moon Lake Ruby Red, and some high mountain oolong tea. The place was about a 30 minute walk from our AirBnB, in an unassuming neighborhood. Honestly, we thought we’d missed it, until suddenly the full, sweet aroma of enormous quantities of tea leaves stole over us.
We ended up buying the teas we came for, and buying some teaware, which they were selling for good prices as well.
Trip Tip 21: Lin Hua Tai Tea is pretty affordable and has tons of different tea varieties from around Taiwan, and a few imports as well. It’s a no-frills kind of place: an old villa style house packed to the gills with bags and bags and bags of tea, sold at reasonably fair prices. In other words, it’s actually a pretty fun tea-buying experience. It makes you want to act like you’re some exotic tea merchant and be like, “Yes, I’ll buy 37 kilos of the grade 5 high mountain oolong; I had a sample of this season yesterday, I think our customers will be pleased by the nose on this year’s crop.” Or… maybe that’s just us.
After scoring some tea, we grabbed a breakfast at a nearby restaurant, then headed back to our AirBnB. We packed our bags and headed to the train station, where…
We discovered you can’t use credit cards to buy train tickets. Cash only. And we had spent our cash on tea. So Lyman ran around the underground mall looking for somewhere, ANYWHERE that he could change money. Even once he found a place, they wanted to see a passport, which he’d left with Ruth and the bags back near the trains. After an extended period of frustration, Lyman came back… and we realized there was an ATM right beside where we’d been sitting. Whoops.
Anyways, we made the train, took it to the airport, cleared security with little difficulty (well, they took some rocks we’d collected on the beach, which was sad…sorry about your Christmas gift Mom). And then we were in the air, headed back to Hong Kong!
Conclusion
This trip was great. It was short and reasonably affordable, but we got to see and do a huge variety of things. The ease of travel around Taiwan is hard to beat anywhere we’ve ever been, which means we highly recommend Taiwan for anyone hoping to have a very diverse trip in a narrow time frame. And we didn’t even do the nice beaches in the north or the urban tourism around Taipei. Also, due to lack of a local driver’s license, we skipped a lot of the interior mountain regions and other rural areas we would have loved to explore even more. Taiwan clearly still has tons more to offer: good thing, for us, it’s a short flight away!
Outtakes
As you know, we dislike the super-curated vision of life and travel that appears in many travel blogs, where every picture is glamorous and every moment picturesque. As such, below are some pictures showing what the trip was really like:
