Cycling in Taiwan·Day 8, Ruisui→Taroko (90.6km)
Today it’s still stage 9. In fact, until last night, I had planned to ride County Road 193. I thought there were fewer cars and the scenery would be better. However, after riding on rainy nights for two consecutive days, I was no longer interested in the scenery. I just wanted to ensure that I arrived safely.
Especially after checking the weather, I found that it was cloudy all the way today, with a 40% chance of rain. In this case, there is no need to challenge the county road. So I decided to mainly take Provincial Highway 9 today. After arriving in Hualien, I would go to County Road 193 to see Qixingtan, and then return to Provincial Highway 9 to go to Taroko.
Having learned yesterday’s lesson, I didn’t dare to make any mistakes today and set off at half-light at 6:30.
When passing by Ruisui City Center, I found that their breakfast shop was still not open, so I planned to ride to Guangfu and have breakfast there. The road between Ruisui and Guangfu was smooth and windless, but I felt a little uncomfortable in my stomach and had throbbing pains.
It took me about 50 minutes to ride to Guangfu. I saw a 711 before entering Guangfu, but I thought there should be Taiwanese-style breakfast in Guangfu Township, so I gave up on the 711 and moved on. Unexpectedly, Guangfu Township was so small. It only took me a few minutes to pass through the city, and I didn’t see a breakfast shop or another 711. I had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue riding.
There is a small slope after leaving Guangfu Township, which is a bit steep but not long. I was cold, hungry, and my stomach still ached, so I had to stop by the roadside and grab a few nougat candies to eat. After eating two nougat, I felt better and continued on my way.
I rode for another hour to Fenglin Town. There was another 711 before entering Fenglin Township. This time I rushed in without hesitation and bought a bunch of oden + tea eggs. After having breakfast, I felt great and continued on my way.
When I was approaching Hualien, I followed the directions of Route 1 around the island and turned right onto Route 11C, and encountered a Taiwanese dog again on this country road. This time it was a domestic dog, but it was also very arrogant, so I had to stop. When it saw me stop, it retreated 2 meters, but still barked at me. I turned around and left, and it caught up with me. I had no choice but to stop again until a big truck passed by. I took advantage of the opportunity when the puppy was frightened by the rumble of the truck and ran away quickly.
In Hualien, I quickly followed the No. 1 Ring Road to the Liangtan Bicycle Path, which starts at Liyutan and ends at Qixingtan, about ten miles long. 11C does not pass through Liyutan, so I followed 11C to County Road 193, and then joined the bicycle path near Nanbin Park. At first, I went to the wrong place and went to a very desolate beach. A group of wild dogs swaggered past me and went to the grass by the sea to look for food. Later, I went to the nearby Around I finally found the Liangtan bike path after a long detour. This bike path connects the Beibin Park, Meilun Binhai Park, Jiangkou Ryosaburo Memorial Park, Hualien Port Scenic Bridge and other scenic spots along the way. I once again made the mistake of taking selfies, which wasted a lot of time.
After crossing the Hualien Port Landscape Bridge, we entered a very desolate road. Although there were still signs for Line 1 and bicycle lanes, it felt like we had entered a deserted industrial area. There were wild dogs lazily sunbathing on the roadside. When they saw me passing by, they immediately screamed fiercely. This time I was already angry and had tolerated you all the way, but you still kept pushing. I walked directly towards them and shouted "Shut up". They immediately retreated to the middle of the road. At this time, a truck came and they sandwiched it. Tails ran away. I suddenly felt that truck drivers are the cutest people in Taiwan.
The signs for Line 1 here were also intermittent, causing me to get lost two or three times. It was already 1 noon when I finally found Qixingtan. I don’t know if it’s because of the decrease in tourists from mainland China, but Qixingtan is so deserted now that it makes people cry. On a Saturday afternoon, there were only a few people on the beach, a dozen vendors.
The current Qixingtan is not a pool, but a bay. The original Qixingtan was located on the east side of today's Hualien Airport. It was a long lake that resembled the Big Dipper, hence the name Qixingtan. During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese authorities filled it up to build Hualien Airport, and nearby residents were moved to Crescent Bay. Since they considered themselves Qixingtan people, they named the new place where they moved to Qixingtan, which is where Qixingtan is now. It is a crescent-shaped bay.
I always can't move when I see the sea view. I wish I could sit on the beach forever. But I am relatively indifferent to Qixingtan. The sand on the beach here is not fine and there are many stones. There is a layer of yellow foam floating on the sea water. If it weren't for the Qixingtan landmark next to it, I would have felt that I was in the wrong place. I sat down on the beach and nibbled two pieces of nougat. I really had no interest in staying too long, so I set off directly to Taroko.
After leaving Qixingtan, I continued walking along County Road 193. Not far from Qixingtan Scenic Area, there was a cemetery. There were many wild dogs eating sacrifices nearby. It was really scary. 193 ended quickly and I returned to stage 9. Taroko is less than 20 kilometers away from Qixingtan. I arrived at Taroko at around 3 o'clock.
The B&B I booked in Taroko is right at the gate of Taroko. It is the closest B&B to the gate of Taroko. Brother Ashin, the owner of the B&B, sent me a message in the afternoon telling me that he and Sister Biying were going to the hospital to visit a patient and that his niece would be waiting for me at the B&B. I dropped off my luggage at the B&B and went straight to Taroko to go hiking.
There are 26 trails in Taroko that are fully or partially developed. But due to time constraints, I could only go to the Shakadang Trail, which is relatively close to the park gate and has good scenery. This trail is only open to the five houses 1.5 kilometers from the entrance. The subsequent sections were damaged by disasters and are still under repair.
I walked along the sidewalk towards Taroko. After passing Liwu River, I turned left and arrived at the parking lot of Taroko. 100 meters west of the parking lot is the Shakadang Tunnel. I entered along the left side of the tunnel, entered at the first vent, and reached the Xiaozuili Trail. Follow this trail to the end to reach the Shakadang Trail. Choose this route to avoid breathing car exhaust inside the tunnel.
There is a place on the Xiaozuili Trail where you need to climb stairs about two stories high. It is too painful to climb stairs after a day of riding. I stopped halfway to rest and take some photos. At this time, a tour group came over, and someone among them could be heard chatting: "It's better to travel alone. If you want to stop and take pictures, just stop."
I originally wanted to wait until the entire group had left before moving on to avoid the crowd, but there were too many people in their group and there were many people taking pictures. It seemed that I would not be able to leave for a while, so I got in between among their ranks. The handsome Taiwanese tour guide Lin quickly spotted me and came over to greet me warmly. When he learned that I was from Hunan, he loudly said to his group guests: There is a young lady from Hunan here who is traveling alone. Let’s give him a little applause! So the whole group applauded me, which made me dumbfounded.
We continued chatting, and when he asked me how I got to Taroko during my free trip, I was so excited that I finally found a chance to brag, so I pretended to be humble and said: I rode a bicycle. Handsome guy Lin couldn't believe it and told his group members loudly, so the whole group applauded warmly again, and several people added my WeChat account.
We soon reached the end of the Xiaozuili Trail and came to the Shakadang Trail. But most of the Beijing tour group didn't want to leave. Only 3 or 4 boys decided to continue. Handsome guy Lin Qian urged them to get back to the bus before 5 o'clock. So the boys moved forward at full speed and soon disappeared. I continued walking slowly, taking photos as I walked, until I reached five houses, about 1.5 kilometers. The trail after the fifth house has collapsed and can no longer be walked. I walked to the stream at the end of the trail and took selfies for a while, and started walking back around 5 o'clock - two consecutive days of riding on rainy nights made me fear the dark, and I planned to leave Taroko before dark.
As I walked back, I met another tour group. I was relieved and walked slowly among them, feeling safe among them. Halfway through, I suddenly realized that they would all be leaving on tour buses, and I would still need to walk for a while back to the B&B. Thinking of this, he immediately overtook everyone and accelerated back. In the end, I jogged all the way back to the B&B. It was about 5:45 when I returned, and it was already dark.
Taroko guide
The word "Taroko" or "Daroko" was originally one of the three tribal names of the Seediq tribe (originally classified as the Atayal tribe), namely the Taroko tribe (Truku), The Toda tribe and the Tgdaya tribe later recognized Truku Truwan as the common residence and ancestral home of the three tribes. The tribesmen living in Hualien called themselves "Taroko Tribe" (Seejiq Truku). Its original pronunciation was "Truku", which was later changed to "Taroko" during the Japanese occupation, both of which have the same pronunciation.
You can see the current trail opening status on its official website http://www.taroko.gov.tw.
There are three entrances to the Shakadang Trail:
After returning to the B&B, the B&B owners Ashin and Meiying were back and chatting with the new guests in the living room. When he saw me coming back, he greeted me warmly. Among the two new guests, one is a Chinese-German mixed race who has lived in Hong Kong for a long time. He is extremely handsome and speaks Hong Kong with a European accent. The other one is a Taiwanese family of three who went on vacation during the holidays.
Since there are no good restaurants near Taroko, and the only well-known restaurant Jinghua has mixed reviews online, I decided to have a simple meal at the B&B and ordered a beef brisket rice. While everyone was waiting for food in the lobby of the B&B, they started talking about everything.
From the chat, I learned that this handsome mixed-race guy comes to Taroko every year to escape the smog. It is said that it is because the smog has drifted from the mainland to Hong Kong. Every time he comes, he stays at Brother Ashin's place. He goes hiking in Taroko every day and has almost visited all of Taroko. According to him, the Shakadang Trail is nothing at all among the trails in Taroko, it is just close to the gate. If you have time, you should go to places like Changchun Temple and Yanzikou. He also showed one of his hand-drawn maps and gave it to the shy boy in a Taiwanese family.
The owner of the B&B is also a person with a story. In his early years, he often went to the mainland to work on real estate-related projects and helped design houses for wealthy people. It is said that he brought a group of Taiwanese people there, but the whole group fell and they all found a mistress in the mainland. Now that I am older, I open a B&B next to Taroko. I usually chat with my guests and go for a walk in Taroko. I really yearn for this kind of life. I plan to travel more when I am young. When I retire, I will choose a favorite place to open a B&B and hang photos of the places I have visited on the walls.
We chatted endlessly, and somehow we ended up talking about Pinyin. When they found out that I didn’t understand Taiwanese Pinyin, they were very surprised and asked me how I typed “Bobo Touching Buddha”? I proudly showed our b p m f. The Taiwanese children were immediately envious and said that we were taking advantage of learning English this way. I laughed out loud, yes, compared with your pinyin, ours is seamless! At this moment, I forgot the pain of learning English since childhood, and I felt a sense of pride that "our pinyin is so good".
The topic kept turning and turning to cycling. In fact, until now I have not made up my mind whether to ride Suhua. On the one hand, I feel that riding around the island without riding Su Hua is incomplete. On the other hand, I feel that Su Hua is too dangerous and too difficult. Everyone on the road who heard about my cycling plans advised me not to go and not to risk my life.
Some of Brother Ashin's guests also challenged Su Hua. There is a famous cycling couple in Taiwan who even published a book introducing Taiwan’s cycling routes. They have visited Taroko many times and stayed at Brother Ashin’s place every time. It is said that every time they come here, if they see someone riding Su Hua, they will persuade them to stop because Su Hua is too dangerous. At this point, Brother Ashin said to me seriously: "I suggest you stop riding, Su Hua is still dangerous." He also told me several stories about his customers.
The handsome German guy also echoed Brother Ashin's words, saying that there are many cars, narrow roads, and cliffs, so it is really not suitable for riding.
I didn't argue too much about whether I had the ability to ride through Suhua. Instead, I took out the guide I made, which marked the riding distance, climbing height, and even detailed the location and length of each tunnel. After seeing this guide, their attitude changed and they began to provide me with information - at least I showed them that I was not in a hot head, but carefully thought out and planned in detail. Brother Ashin suggested that I go out as soon as it gets light at 6:30. If it’s too early, there will be no street lights, and it’s dangerous to ride the mountain road in the dark. If it’s too late, there will be a lot of cars.
Everyone was chatting very enthusiastically, and before we knew it, it was 9:30 pm. I was still anxious about tomorrow's trip, so I decided to go to bed early and recharge my batteries.
Before I went to bed, I discovered something that made me even more uneasy - due to the high-intensity exercise in recent days, my aunt came to visit early. I finally understood why I hadn't been feeling well since morning. Come on, I have to go out again to buy daily necessities at 7-11. It seems I can only do my best tomorrow.
January 21, cloudy
Riding distance:90.6km (56.30miles)
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