Hualien 花蓮

Hualien is a very nice county. It is beautiful in a rugged sense. Bordered by mountain chains which protected the county from the cold winds from up north, thus it's warmer than Taipei while facing the Pacific ocean on the other, it has an interesting climate. On mornings, it can be sunny while in the afternoon, rain. Warm, moist air from the ocean rises after meeting the high mountains, cools, condenses and forms big cumulonimbus clouds and eventually falls as rain. A phenonmenon known as Orographic precipitation.
http://www.hlhg.gov.tw/
http://www.sinica.edu.tw/tit/scenery/1096_Hualien.html
Hualien is the largest county in Taiwan but is also the least populous due to its rugged terrain. It is famous for its high probability of being hit by typhoon and earthquake (60%). Typhoon season is from May till October while earthquake events are very much all year round. So far the damage from typhoon is more severe than earthquake.

A famed group of products of Hualien is marble and all kinds of mineral rocks. Annual production: among 8,960,000 tons of marble are 230,000 tons of dolomite, and 2,300,000 tons of cement. The marble is top quality and the mineral rocks are multi-coloured, pink, green, brown etc. The colour indicates the kind of mineral it contains. For instance, pink is Manganese, Black is Iron etc. All of Taiwan's jade is from Hualien.
With all these mining, the landscape is somewhat barren in certain parts especially along the railway track. If one drives towards Taroko Gorge, one cannot miss seeing the giant cement factory. Disputes had been going on between the Aboriginal people and the Cement factory see http://www.taiwanfirstnations.org/dthreats.html


The jewel of Hualien is of course Taroko Gorge. It was designated a national park in 1986, and it's the second largest in the whole of Taiwan. It is an awesome place, smaller than Grand Canyon but it has its own spectacular mountains, marble canyons and magnificent gorges carved by many rivers and waterfalls. Over 200 workers died constructing the road that leads into the gorge. A shrine has been set up to commemorate these braves. Many parts of the gorge remain a mystery because there's no road. Strangely enough, a five-star Formosa hotel is built right inside the gorge. Was told during one the typhoons last year, the tunnel that leads out of the hotel to the outside world was 3/4 flooded. A helicopter was needed to bring in food etc. Rock falls are constant threats especially at night when the rocks contract after a day's heating. There are now tunnels under the mountain to allow easier access but one loses the opportunity to see the gorge unlike one who travels along the open road carved into the mountain. Well, safety versus beauty, I suppose.

In Chisingtan, so named because the coast was shaped like the roman alphabet 7, overlooks the Pacific Ocean. The pepples here are real nice. They are mostly grey with patches or lines of white or brown.

There are Aboriginal peoples here and one group is the Taroko. Not many of them are left now. This is the fate suffered by many other groups as well, some have become so localised like the Han chinese that they've lost their traditional identity. Taiwan tourism should capitalise on this unique cultural heritage and let the world know more about the Aboriginal peoples. If nothing else, their architectural designs are something to be marvel at. They build their own homes and other buildings and the style is far more unusual than the standard architectural styles seen in local modern Taiwanese housing. Their knowledge about plants, animals, ways to cook them ought to be enjoyed by a wider public as well as preserved for posterity.

One aboriginal restaurant at Liyutan called Tree House serves absolutely fabulous food. The dishes were cooked by the Amis people. We had giant tilapia, the fish was gutted but the scales were left intact, coated generously with salt and baked on hot stones. So when we ate the fish, we just flicked the whole sheet of skin with scales away. Yum! We had other kinds of vegetables which were deep fried in batter, lemon papaya with sesame, chicken soup cooked with niubing, the long underground stem which made the soup sweet.


A new attraction is the ocean park built and designed by Japanese about 4 years ago. The photo above is taken from the park showing the beautiful coast. It's entertaining for kids and those young at heart. The discovery island which is usually missed is actually quite educational. The dolphin shows were the highlight of the park. I'm sure the trainers were in pain each time when they were sent off at high speed and then landed up on the pools' edge. If they were not careful, they could very well hit their heads on the low barrier or the wall of the pool since the dolphins were swimming so fast!

The hotel that I highly recommend is Parkview Hotel. The rooms are huge and clean. There's a nice grassland, artifical waterfall which is very well designed and a golf course. The room either faces the mountains or the coast. This photo is taken from our hotel room. As you can see the hotel has a huge garden and golf course.

Hualien can be reached by road, air or rail. I'd recommend the rail since one can see the Pacific ocean along the way. It is only 3 hours or so.
http://202.39.225.132/jsp/Eng/html/attractions/city_introduce.jsp?city_code=10015

Shifen waterfall 十 分瀑布

Shifen is located at Pingxi township, in Taipei county. It's upstream from Jilong river. The whole area is mountainous, many waterfalls and full of what the locals call huxue, 壶穴, kettle pits in the river beds. Huxue are round, shallow pits formed by erosion of the soft rocks by pebbles grinding against the soft rocks by rapid water action. There were coal mining here but have ceased to exist. The areas have been transformed into coal mining museums.

Shifen waterfall is nicknamed the little Niagara of Taiwan. There is some resemblance to the real thing although much more a scaled down version. See my pictures.

One can get to Shifen fairly easily. If you are taking the train, give yourself plenty of time. From Taipei main station -> take Yilan or Hua-Dong line, get off at Ruifang or Houtong station -> transfer to Pingxi line -> Shifen -> 15 min walk to Shifen visitor centre. The train actually passes by the waterfall, if you stand up instead of sitting on the train seats, you can see it quite well. An artificial wall prevents one from seeing it easily so that they can charge entrance fees of 100NT. The entrance fees include insurance and maintenance fees of the environment.

If one is driving, 1) goto shenkeng -> shihding interchange -> take county road 106 -> Pingxi -> shifen or 2) take National expressway 1 -> Badu interchange -> ruiba clearway (County road 102B) -> county road 106 at Ruifang industrial park -> shifen or 3) xizhi 汐止 ->si-ping clearway (county road North 31) -> Pingxi -> Shifen or 4) National Expressway 2 north -> shihding interchange, take National Expressway 5 ->county road 106 -> Pingxi -> Shifen.

By bus, take route 16 to Pingxi at Mamingtan, Muzha, Taipei city -> shnkeng -> shenkeng -> Shiting -> Pingxi -> take train (pingxi line) at Pingxi station to Shifen -> 15 min walk to shifen visitor centre; or take route 15 to shifen -> 10 Min walk to shifen visitor centre.

By MRT take Muzha line -> get off at Muzha station -> transfer to Taipei bus, take route 15 or route 16, see above.

Shin-shin bus: taipei main station -> Muzha, Shiting _> get off at Shungsi-Kou station -> transfer to route 15 or 16 see above.

The visitor centre gives out English as well as Chinese brochures which shows you the map of the area and some information like the area of the whole place, how to get there etc. It also explains the formation of the kettle pits. More can be done at the visitor centre, I feel.

From the visitor centre, walk across the suspension bridge, continue in the direction of the river, is the eyeglass cave. The waterfall here is smaller but no less spectacular. The waterfall forms a veil over a concave cavern.
On a cold, windy day, the sellers will set up stalls barbequeing the pork sausages. The wind carrying the wonderful aroma will wiff upstream as you walk towards little Niagara. By the time you reach eyeglass cave, your salivary glands would have gone on overdrive and you simply must buy one to savour the tasty sausages and overcome the gastronomic cravings.

To continue to little Niagara, one has to walk beside the railway track, avoid the train every half hour interval to get to the entrance of little Niagara. This is not the place to wear stiletto heels. The loose rocks or pebbles to support the railway track can sprain one's ankles easily.

At little Niagara, there's a little coffeeshop where one can sip coffee or tea and admire the view. There's washroom here too. Other than that, a little shrine and nothing else.

If one takes the train right to Qingtong terminal station, there's a railway museum which features some black and white pictures of the local folks. It also shows the location of the old coal mine, the hospital, school etc. On the street path is a number of historical plaques which shows the year the coal mine was established, significant events at Qingtong as one walks along in the direction of the museum. Nothing much here other than short walks to the mines or the surrounding areas.

November is the flowering season of Alpinia ginger so white flowers can be seen dotted here and there. The flowers are very fragrant, people like to keep some cut flowers at home to bring light, sweet, citrus fragrance to their homes.