Suhua Highway (蘇花公路) has been shut down due to a rockslide caused by Typhoon Megi. My original plan was to bike to Yilan (宜蘭), board a train, and skip the Suhua Highway. But with the heavy rain this morning, I decided to take the train immediately at Jiaoxi (礁溪), instead of going to Yilan. After a simple breakfast at a food stand near the hotel, I headed to Jiaoxi train station.
I didn’t take a picture of the hotel because it had been raining nonstop since I got here last night. Here is a picture of the hotel from Google Maps. The hotel is on the right.
The hot spring spa at the hotel was drained for cleaning in the morning when I took this picture. It looked much nicer when filled with water and the spa jets were turned on last night.
It was a short ride in a heavy downpour from the hotel to Jiaoxi train station. For unknown reasons, bicycles were not allowed to get on board the train at this station. The next station that would take bicycles is Yilan station, which is 10 kilometers away.
While waiting for the rain to subside a bit at Jiaoxi station, I got to talk to three German mountain climbers. They have been on a mountain climbing journey through various peaks in Asia for several days. They just finished three days of mountain climbing in Taiwan. One of them looked to be much older than me so I was really impressed.
The rain was very heavy when I biked to the Yilan train station. Along the way, torn roofs and debris from flood water were visible. Riding in the rain through areas that still showed damages from the last typhoon got me concerned about my trip for today. Will I be able to make it to Yilan in this rain? Is the train service still operational? Will I be able to catch my flight back to LA if I get trapped in this area?
In constant worrying and pedaling for an hour I arrived at Yilan station. During this short ride, the rain and wind were so strong that my Garmin 500 Cycling GPS finally failed its water-proofing function and stopped working. Because of the rain, I didn't take any pictures of the Yilan train station. The picture here is from Google Maps so the ground looks dry.
It turned out that some trains leaving Yilan station allow a cyclist to bring the bicycle onto the train car directly. I was lucky that I only needed to wait for 20 minutes for such a train. My destination for this train ride was Hualian (花蓮), a major city 98.2 kilometers (61 miles) away. The fare for me was NTD $145 (USD $4.84), for the bicycle it was half price at NTD $73 (USD $2.44).
Yilan train station is not bicycle-friendly, nor handicap friendly. In order to get to a platform to board the train, passengers need to go through an underground passageway, which is accessible through a long flight of stairs. There is no elevator, nor escalator. Every cyclist needs to carry the bike down and up the stairs, as I was told by the station staff. My bike is made of an aluminum body and is usually not a big problem to carry it. But with fully loaded pannier bags, the bike gets very heavy. I had to take several breaks before I reached the right platform. The train car was clean and empty.
The train runs parallel to the Pacific Coast and goes through many tunnels. The coastline is visible from the train most of the time. The view out of the train window would have been striking if not for the continuous rainfall.
The tunnel visible on the right of this picture leads to the precarious and stunning scenery of Qingshui Cliffs (清水斷崖), which has been closed to traffic for 2 weeks due to a rockslide. As reported in the local news media, falling rocks from that rockslide landed on a bus and pushed it down a plunging cliff with 26 passengers on board. No human body has been recovered and all passengers were presumed to have perished.
Suhua Highway has many lengthy and narrow tunnels, inside which there is barely any clearance for bicycles. This bridge, Taroko Bridge, leads to the first of these tunnels. When I was planning this trip I had thought about riding through these tunnels but was talked out of it by almost anyone I encountered. Maybe everyone thought I was too old for these tunnels, and in retirement, I've learned to grudgingly resign to the fact.
The train station for Taroko National Park (太魯閣國家公園). A full-day visit to this renowned and awe-inspiring scenery site was in my original plan and I was looking forward to the visit, but Typhoon Megi had unexpectedly interrupted my itinerary and I had to forgo the visit.
The rain seemed to have stopped after Taroko. The scenery on one side of the train changed from the coastline to a flat plain with lush green. On the other side of the train, cloud-topping Central Cordillera (中央山脈) looked imposing.
I arrived at the Hualian train station at noon. It was a deja vu experience for me. I had been at this train station 15 days prior, and at that time had to abandon my trip and took the train back to Kaohsiung because of Typhoon Megi. This second time around I was very determined to finish the trip and complete the loop of cycling around Taiwan.
For lunch, I stopped to ask a local and he recommended this place, Zou’s Steamed Dumplings (周家蒸餃). Steamed buns and dumplings were all very tasty.
Tsu Chi Campus (慈濟園區). It consists of a hospital, a Buddhist university, and a magnificent Still Thoughts Hall (靜思堂). Tsu Chi Foundation, a humanitarian organization founded in Taiwan by a Buddhist nun, has an outreach office near my house in San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Among many community service activities, its volunteers organize weekly visits to nursing homes in the Valley. Both my kids used to take part in these visits and played the piano at various convalescent homes.
Leaving Hualian, I took Highway 9 (台九), the mountain route, going south. I would stay on this highway for the next two days to finish my journey.
The Hualian local, whom I'd stopped to ask for the lunch recommendation, suggested that I visited Qingsiou Temple (慶修院), a restored Japanese Buddhist temple. It was built in 1917 for Japanese farmers during the Japan Occupation period. It is located in Jian (吉安), a rich farming township.
A well-constructed building houses the Farmers Cooperative of Jian, a testimony of the wealth of local farming enterprises.
The signage of East Rift Valley National Scenic Area (花東縱谷國家風景區). The scenery along Highway 9 in this area is mostly of pristine farmland, flanked on two sides by Coastal Mountain Range (海岸山脈) and Central Cordillera.
Taiwan's east coast was not very developed until 1911 when Japan started to move many of its immigrants into this area. Japanese systematically set up farming and tobacco zones for its own poor farmers imported from Kyushu (九州) of Japan. A township, Fongtien (豐田), still maintains this legacy with its well-drawn street layout and some old tobacco towers (菸樓).
Here is an old picture of the Japanese Immigrants Assistance Office, dated 1911.
The old Fongtien police station from the Japan Occupation era is now the town’s cultural center.
Old houses in Fongtien from the bygone era.
My destination for today is a township called Fonglin (鳳林), a small town with a sizable concentration of Hakka people (客家). My ancestry is of Hakka origin but I've shamefully failed to learn the language. Both my parents spoke Hakka often and I grew up with many Hakka relatives around. For this trip, I have wanted to stay at least one night in the town of Hakka people so I could live the Hakka experience.
The cop on duty at Fonglin police station gave me the direction to an excellent hostel called Fang-Chao-Gu-Su (芳草古樹).
The hostel sits on a large parcel of land. It has a restaurant in the front. Bedrooms are housed in converted tobacco towers at the rear of a park-like yard. On one side of the yard is a campground. Here is the passage to the back of the hostel.
I stayed in this tobacco tower by myself. The room was very spacious and clean. The hugely discounted fee for the night was only NTD $800 (USD $26.67), excluding meals.
Dinner of Hakka dishes at the hostel's own restaurant.
The first map shows the upper portion of the island of Taiwan. My bike ride for the day is in red highlights; while the train ride is in blue highlight. The second map gives a closer view of the bike ride from Jiaoxi to Yilan. The third map shows the bike ride from Hualian to Fonglin.
The first vertical profile shows the ride from Jiaoxi to Yilan, which is mostly flat. The second vertical profile shows the ride from Hualian to Fonglin, which consists of modest hills.
The first summary of the ride shows a distance of 9.11 kilometers between Jiaoxi and Yilan. The second summary shows a distance of 40.38 kilometers between Hualian and Fonglin. The total distance for today’s cycling is 49.5 kilometers (30.8 miles). The train ride for today is 98.2 kilometers (61 miles). The total distance traveled for today is 147.7 kilometers (91.8 miles).
-Joe
Next: 20101104 Day 15 Final - Joe's Cycling around Taiwan (Fonglin 鳳林 to Kaohsiung 高雄)
Thanks for sharing your experience, you sir, are an inspiration! My wife and I (we are also from LA) will be cycling around Taiwan later this year, I would love to share my itinerary with you for some pointers. Please email me if you have a moment to spare.
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