- Hualien seems to be prepared for a lot more tourists; large number of hotels, transportation rentals, empty-ish night market... I made inquiries. Because of the current administration's less-than-warm position with China, Chinese tourists have mostly stopped coming. Businesses are hurting.
- Hualien beaches are only second (to Cote d'Azur) place, in my experience, where the sea is still blue on a cloudy day. Yet they have the most misused waterfront, cement factory and recycling center!
- We happened upon the home of the biggest Buddhist charitable foundation in the world, Tzu Chi,. Much of their disaster relief supply is produced from recycled plastic bottles; only made possible because of free volunteer labor; i.e. recycling plastic is labor intensive.
Our first day in Hualien we took a couple of strolls around town. Here's the library.
Sharp looking McDonald's building.
Night Market.
And had a tasty vegetarian dineer.
On our first full day we used the free bikes at our homestay to cycle east 6 or 7 kms to the parking lot of the Zoucang Trail, parked the bikes and walked up the trail for some good views back to Hualien....Sun-Ling is now handling city traffic like a local.
A quick stop to get a pic of this temple with the menacing clouds behind.
Up we go.
Views back to Hualien and the Pacific Ocean beyond.
Part of the local band of Macaques hang out by the parking lot. Most are up the mountain and are wary of humans.
Spotted some brightly colored birds on the way to the waterfall.
And here's our combined biking and hiking GPS track.
On the way back to town we stopped at the Tzu Chi Foundation University for a quick tour by a dedicated volunteer from California. Striking group of buildings.
And dinner at what became our fav Tofu Vegetarian Restaurant in Hualien.
Day Two it's off to Liyu Lake, about 17kms away, for a hike up to 601 m.a.s.l., and back. We ride on the official Liyu Lake Bike Way which is mostly on bike paths and bike lanes.
The first section is through many cultivated fields.
We think this is a field of "bitter melon".
Liyu Lake is at ~150 m.a.s.l. and the climb on the bike is gentle.
We park the bikes at the base of the so-called "Bird Watching Trail" and head up. We quickly reach a pavilion and decide to have lunch and a coffee for me.
It's almost all steps, some very slippery, up to the observation deck at 601 meters.
But the reward is a view up and down the the East Coast Rift Valley.
And no breaks on the downhill till we reach the lake and a peaceful pavilion decked out in new red lanterns for the upcoming Chinese New Year.
The highlight of the ride back was cruising along this somewhat raging irrigation ditch for about 4 or 5 kms. Wow!
Link here.
Got back to town just at the start of rush hour; no problems. 44 kms of cycling and walking.
Here is the GPS track for Day Two to Liyu Lake.
Day Three we rode over to the coast and headed South, then back North, all the while following the Coastal Bike Way....The first few kms were on an older bike way - not as nice as the newer ones.
The start of the Coastal Bike Way.
This section is through a public park.
We turn around at the mouth of the East Rift Valley.
View up the valley.
7-Eleven, the cyclist's friend.
Heading north we eventually ride around Hualien's very large harbour and port facilities.
Link here.
And then around a former landfill (we think) and a huge factory....
....before heading down some "bike stairs" to Chihsingtan Beach
Chihsingtan Beach is at the end of the airport runway.
There are some vendors, cyclists, cold war era pillboxes, fishermen tending their nets, and couples gazing out to sea.
And we take a direct route home along the airport runway(s). Here's the GPS track of our route.
2 comments:
Wonderful that you both were able to explore the beautiful scenery on free bikes from the homestay.
@Liz, I really enjoyed bicycling - lots of new things and scenes to look at, compared to bicycling around at home :(
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