Part 93: Hualien.....

We made the decision to head south out of the city to visit Hualien for a few days which was around 200 km from Taipei. So this was a good opportunity to experience the high speed trains everyone was raving about. Everything here was all about convenience, so once you get the hang of the language barrier it's easy to get around pretty much anywhere you want, and very cheap too.

Soon as we got to the train station in Taipei and purchased our tickets, it was only a short wait before we took our super comfortable seats on the train that really do put our services back home to shame - standard economy class was easily as good, if not better than first class in the UK.
This was the most comfortable and scenic 3 hour train trip I've ever had in my life. Sitting back in my lazyboy chair just watching the landscapes change the further south we headed, from coastlines, then more inland to see rocky mountains and huge plunging gorges was awesome, then amongst the mountains laid giant iron industrial factories seemingly in the middle of nowhere in-between the valleys with almost impossible access. Maybe this was one of the reasons why Taipei didn't have the pollution problems like many of its neighbouring Asian capitals with these huge factories well away from any built up areas.

When we arrived in Hualien around 4 hours later, the train station was right in the center, and luckily there was a small tourist information office just outside, although the staff didn't speak much English it was great fun trying to communicate with the two smiling girls there who just about managed to recommend us a place to stay for a few nights. It's not what I would call a particularly modern town here and there wasn't a single tourist in view yet, which is always a good thing.
Hualien is located on Taiwan's east coast, facing the Pacific Ocean and is famous for a huge national park called Taroko gorge, and it's many aboriginal tribes that make up nearly a third of its population.
We walked through the center towards the hostel passing several street vendors on the way before eventually succumbing to the fried chicken on a stick stall.

The 'sleeping boot' hostel was a 30 minute walk from the station and when we got there the host greeted us in with a welcoming cup of tea, which is always a good thing after a long journey. He also helped us plan our trip to the gorge for the following day that involved no guides or tour companies, and wrote down a list of even more must try local foods.
After freshening up, me and the guys went to wander around the town which on closer exploration was a lot bigger than either of us actually thought.
We walked to watch a Taiwanese aboriginal tribal dance on an outdoor stage. which was an interesting theatrical choreography, but in all honesty it seemed a little unauthentic to me. I quite enjoyed the dancing and colourful traditional outfits, but the modern music spoiled the performance. Still it was worth the walk to witness it first hand.
I was really interested to learn more about the history and read that there are 12 different aboriginal tribes who live in Taiwan and each have their different traditions, cultures, life styles and languages and it is believed they have been living here as long as 8000 years!

Me and the guys then made a quick getaway soon as they started looking for participants to join in the dancing. Especially with us being the only 3 foreigners there, I'm pretty certain we would have been chosen to share the stage with them. Perhaps I would have done had the music they were dancing to not been commercial pop RnB! Anyway we slipped away through the crowds back towards the center.

Once you pass the many food stalls it really does becomes too hard to resist sampling more food. Especially when we discovered a particular joint which had huge lines of people queuing up. So we decided to join the line and see what all the fuss was about. Trust me this was well worth the wait once we tasted the steamed seafood buns - they were delicious!!
It was getting late now and a lot of the places looked like they were closing down for the night so we took a slow walk back to the hostel to chat with some of the other guests who were all Asian before finally retiring for the night.

Early the next morning we walked to the bus station for the local shuttle to the foot of Taroko gorge - Taiwan's answer to the grand canyon. There were ready made packages for this excursion, but other than the convenience of having someone else do the thinking for you they were way to expensive.
The bus took us around Hualien first to pick up and drop off other passengers before heading north out of the town towards the gorge.

Taroko is easily Taiwan's most famous spot, and on approaching the climbing road there, it's not difficult to see why, with steep mountainous slopes dropping off into deep, crystal clear ravines, it truly was a site to behold.
At first we were kind of dropped off in the middle of nowhere with the bus driver pointing upwards before turning around and driving off in the opposite direction. It was slightly misty at this early hour with a lot of the mountains peaks hidden from view, but we got the idea, he was referring to a log cabin in the distance over a bridge and up a steep road so we walked there to ask for more information.
There was yet another shuttle bus that we took higher up the gorge bringing into full view the wonder of nature. Stopping off at certain points of interest and near a ridiculously high suspension bridge overlooking a valley. It was pretty epic. We got back on the bus which took us to the last possible point by road - now the rest was a hike on foot. The wonderful view made me feel so small in comparison since everything all around was created by mother nature.

We then hiked the trail upwards and through a pitch black long dripping wet tunnel through to the other side where the neat path lead us around the edge of the valley. there were no barriers preventing you from tumbling down the sheer drops but this just made it more exciting and dramatic. After the trail we reached a set of caves with plaques explaining how these wonders of nature were actually formed over thousands of years. Then were treated to view of a double water fall over a huge marble rock face. The deeper we hiked into this magnificent gorge the more spectacular the scenery became. Add a smattering of traditional Chinese temples, more waterfalls, and hikes through the valleys, and it’s no wonder why the park should be near the top of any ones bucket list.
We needed a bit of time to take everything in such was the sheer size of the gorge so we found a perfectly fitting spot close to some water falls to relax in the afternoon sun before retracing our footsteps back towards the final drop off point.
I was exhausted, if not slightly overwhelmed by all that we saw today and would definitely recommend anyone to visit this incredible national park.
All that was left to do was find the correct bus to take us back to the center of Hualien and to bid a fond farewell to this natural wonder.

The next day my legs were really feeling the aches from all of the steep hiking so perhaps it was for the best we took it slightly easy especially when we had a long journey back to Taipei later that evening. Not sure if we could have timed it any better for as soon as we left Hualien the torrential rain started hammering down. We ate, explored and hiked our way around this sleepy town, thoroughly enjoying every moment. Next stop, Taipei...