oeshoe's blog: 20101102 Day 13 - Joe's Cycling around Taiwan (Keelung 基隆 to Jiaoxi 礁溪)

Huaguo Hotel provided a decent free breakfast. Because several tour groups had stayed here last night, I had expected an overly crowded dining room in the morning. Fortunately, the hotel had separate dining rooms for lone travelers and tour groups. I was able to finish a typical Taiwanese breakfast at ease.

Keelung is a large seaport. Various commercial vessels are docked near city streets.

National Taiwan Ocean University (臺灣海洋大学). Taiwan is an island surrounded by ocean. This university is the premium teaching and research institution on oceanic science and maritime technology in Taiwan.

Highway 2 runs next to the Pacific and is sandwiched between the rock beach and the mountain. Because shapes of rock formations vary very much, scenes along the shoreline are never the same. I regretted that I was riding on the inland side of the highway and most often couldn’t get a good view of the beautiful seascape.

A bat cave is near this location. During early summer, bats in hundreds of thousands can be seen at sundown. I rode through here at 9 o’clock in the morning in November and didn’t see any flying object.

Highway 2 straddles along this beautiful bay.

A road sign points to Gold Ecological Park, an area with two old mining towns: Jinguashi (金瓜石) and Jiufen (九份). Gold was discovered here in the late nineteenth century and was exhaustively excavated during the time of Japan Occupation. After gold mining was ceased in the early ‘70s, these two towns became almost abandoned and forgotten.

In the late ‘80s, a Taiwanese movie, A City of Sadness (悲情城市) by the famed director Hou Xiao-xian (候孝賢), brought these decaying mining towns back from the brink of irrelevance. The movie glosses over a then tabooed subject, the 2-28 Incident (二二八事件), a bitter event in Taiwan’s history. In 1947, clashes between Nationalist mainlanders and Taiwanese locals resulted in many casualties of mainlanders and Taiwanese; it also caused imprisonment and execution of many elite Taiwanese intellects. The movie resonates with many Taiwanese. After the release of this movie, which was filmed at these two mining towns, the area became a tourist attraction overnight.

An abandoned copper refinery, Thirteen Levels Copper Refinery (金瓜石十三層煉銅廠), can be seen from Highway 2. The structure looks huge, eerie, and is sometimes referred to as Taiwan’s own Pompeii Ruins.

The seawater of the bay in front of the copper refinery is stained with the metal color. The two-tone bay is called the Yin-Yang Sea (陰陽海).

A long and beautiful artificial tunnel (明隧道) is the beginning of the Northeast Coast National Scenic Area (東北角海岸國家風景區).

A small town, Nanya (南雅), along Highway 2 on the coastline has clusters of bizarre rock formations.

Highway 2 on the Northeast Coast winds and bops its way through many turns and undulations. The highway is hardly ever straight or flat. If not for the surprisingly busy traffic, it is actually fun to ride on this highway.

A small fishing village called Bitou (鼻頭漁港).

Heavy traffic with many 16 wheeler trucks. I was very surprised to see many cars on Highway 2.

Longdong Yacht Harbor (龍洞遊艇碼頭). Two concrete whales stand guard at the mouth of the harbor.

An entrance to a seaside resort (龍洞四季灣). A tall white building with the pitched roof, seen in the center of the picture, inside this resort is very striking and can be seen far away from Highway 2.

Another one of many bays along Highway 2.

Another one of many fishing villages along Highway 2.

Highway 2 briefly leaves the coastline and runs in areas further away from the beach before it reaches a town called Fulong (福隆).

Fulong is famous for its sandy beach and bento boxes. Bento boxes are usually sold at platforms inside the train station. Many bento box vendors can also be found in front of the train station. I stopped at the one right adjacent to the train station for lunch.

Sandiao Cape (三貂角) is the easternmost tip of the island of Taiwan. A lighthouse sits atop a steep hill on this cape. The narrow road to the lighthouse passes through a large graveyard with numerous randomly placed tombstones. The scenery on the side of the road isn’t pretty but the vista afar is spectacular. The climb itself was very exhausting yet I felt satisfied and accomplished; because yesterday I visited the northernmost tip - Fuguei Cape (富貴角), and today the easternmost tip - Sandiao Cape (三貂角).

A hiking trail also leads from the beach to the lighthouse.

After Sandiao Cape, flat rock slates are the norm of the beach for a section of the coastline.

Beside flat slates, cuestas are more commonly seen for a good section of the coastline. Multiple large rock layers stack on top of each other and protrude from the surface of the ocean at a slant angle. At the tip of the slope, edges of rock layers are visible. In the pictures below, many people can be seen frolicking on top of these cuestas.

More majestic cuestas can be seen in a small town, Beiguan (北關), not far from this location. But the rain started to come down and I had to bypass the Beiguan beach and missed the sight.

An Islamic mansion is on the side of Highway 2. The owner of this residence is rumored to be a local from this area. He made a fortune by going to Saudi Arabia and opening a chain of successful Chinese restaurants. It is another success story of "local boy makes good".

An unusual building on the side of Highway 2 is the Lanyang Museum (蘭陽博物館). This award-winning architecture mimics shapes of cuestas commonly seen on the beach in this region.

By late afternoon, I reached a hot spring town called Jiaoxi (礁溪). Many hotels line two major thoroughfares of this town. I checked into Sanguang Hotel (三光玈館) that had an outdoor hot spring spa. The hotel manager was very helpful. After riding on muddy roads in the rain, my bike was very dirty. Without asking, the manager led me to a water hose and handed me a dry rag to clean up my bike. He then gave me a box of detergent and a soft brush for my laundry. The rate for a room with an in-room hot tub was NTD $960 (USD $32). It was a swell deal.

Since it was raining, I didn’t go far to explore different restaurants in this town. I found near the hotel a shabu-shabu place, Michelin (米麒麟), which seemed to be busy. It turned out to be a good choice.

The first map shows the full island of Taiwan. My bike ride for the day is from 12 o’clock position to 1 o’clock position. The second map gives a closer view of my ride.