Things to do in Taitung?

Travel Taiwan Travel
1

Looks like we’ll be there for 3 nights during xmas break. My wife tells me there are lots of great things to do there. I googled and found this.

members.virtualtourist.com/m/271a0/1064d7/4/

:laughing: I feel cheerful already. But I hope there’s more to do than roaming about in a cow pasture.

The above link also has photo of this ridiculous bridge.

It may not seem so ridiculous until you walk over it; then you’ll understand why most bridges are flat. I walked over it 8 years ago, when my wife and I stopped briefly on a drive around the island. Guess we’ll have to take the daughter there this time.

Other than that, how would you spend 3 days/nights in Taitung?

2

[quote=“Mother Theresa”]Looks like we’ll be there for 3 nights during xmas break. My wife tells me there are lots of great things to do there. I googled and found this.

members.virtualtourist.com/m/271a0/1064d7/4/

:laughing: I feel cheerful already. But I hope there’s more to do than roaming about in a cow pasture.

The above link also has photo of this ridiculous bridge.

It may not seem so ridiculous until you walk over it; then you’ll understand why most bridges are flat. I walked over it 8 years ago, when my wife and I stopped briefly on a drive around the island. Guess we’ll have to take the daughter there this time.

Other than that, how would you spend 3 days/nights in Taidong/dong?[/quote]

I’ll ask my fren when he comes home from work. He was in the army there for a while.

3

You gotta take the vomit boat to Green Island. Make sure you ride up top, and DON’T look at the horizon.

4

the highlight of my taitung trip was the royal chihpen hotel and its hotsprings.

5

There’s an odd thing called “Water Running Uphill” somewhere in the area - at least I think it’s in the area. It’s an optical illusion that makes it look like water flows up. Your daughter will probably love it if she’s old enough to understand that water should go down.

6

:s Keeping an eye on the horizon is the best way to prevent seasickness.

Anyway, one place I like in Taitung is the Chihpen (Zhiben) Forest Recreation Area. Lots of nature, trails, plants…and monkeys.

7

Beinan Culture Park for excavations from one of the world’s first neolithic settlements.

Beautiful un-peopled beaches. Take a fishing rod and surfboard.

Chulu Ranch is ok if you grew up in the dirty ol’ heart of a city where the sun refuse to shine and want to know where real milk comes from before they add the Melamine. Good for women and kids I spose.

There’s a Carrefour in town now if you want some real cheese.

Taidong, Wo ai ni.

Lucky bastard!

8

Chulu Ranch is OK for an afternoon stop. I never saw a cow there though. Mostly they trying to pump you to buy their milk products and trinkets. But can ride pony in small corral and ride cariage around behind a horse.

Take the walk along the converted train line from downtown old train station to the Naruwan Hotel, or vice versa. Stop along way for drink or snack. Near Starbucks is a simple walk up a large hill with view of city. Naruwan very family convenient with game rooms downstairs where families might be able to play for hours. Also, has spa and bike rentals.

Have dinner at Kazaa. A few bars, one with live Philippine bands and russian hosts. Also, gay bars, but they are friendly to straight people who also frequent the places.

Go out by the harbor for light snacks or drinks before dinner. There is a place with live aboriginal music on weekends. Just before the harbor look for the blue alley… hard to describe.

Nice place for tea looking over the city out past the new train station. Been around for over 40 years and open til 2 or 3am. No alcohol.

Walk along the beach park in day time.

Rent a scooter.

Depending on how far you want to drive up/down the coast, there are many sights. Just north are some beautiful rock formations on the beach. Water runnning up hill. The old suger factory, which has live aboriginal pop music on weekends, and the place next door open most nights with live music.

Many B&B along the coast. Some can even hear the waves crashing on the shore while sleeping.

Closer to Hualien is the black sand beach at Cow Mountain/Hutong.

Hot springs… goes without saying. Although Chipen is a dirty disaster until you get to the nice hotel at the end.

History museum is one of the better ones in Taiwan.

Check out the Aboriginal musuem near the new train station. Actually has an open dig for viewing.

So much to do. Keep eyes open. Drive off the beaten path.

9

Are there any? Last time I was there a tiny section was being excavated and it was as exciting as watching people dig a hole. The culture park was also just a big grassy field with one small museum though that was not bad. Most of the artefacts have been shipped to taipei. What is left is actually still buried under the grass to prevent looting.

10

We went there last month. There’s an excavation of old stone foundations, a small cemetery, and, under the lookout platform above the big grassy field are three unearthed coffins made of slate. There’s a small museum, but we were on a Taiwanese tour, so naturally we didn’t have the time to go inside.

Here’s the excavation:

There’s not that much to see, but it can be worthwhile if you work in a picnic lunch and some frisbee throwing on the big grassy field.

11

MT, not far from that bridge,(Chen Gong) there is a half way decent aquarium at the fishing harbor. Coming back toward town from Chen Gong, stop off at Dong He, and turn off the cross mountain road and go inland about 2 KM, and you will see monkeys at the bridge there. Bring some bread and your daughter will have a blast feeding them.

As you come into Dulan, a village about 20 mins. north of Taidong, stop at Marino’s Kitchen.
Dave Marino is an Italian American with long time ties to the island. He also makes some damn fine food. A lot of the old timers from Taibei remember Dave as the Engineer from ICRT.

As was mentioned, Chipen forest is a nice little hike. Try out the hot springs at Dong Tai.
Nice, but sometimes too crowded for my tastes.
I prefer the hot springs at Hong Ye, about 20 mins. north of town, off of highway 9. It is very nice and much more rustic and less crowded than Chipen. A little further up 9, you will see Gao Tai, the mountain tea house. It is a famous place for paragliding and also offers some great views. If you’r feeling adventurous, you could take a tandem ride for 1000nt.
They also have little grass bobsleds to ride down the hill there, as well as a playground for the kids.
On the way back to town, you could stop at Chulu farms, as you mentioned. Also on the same road as Chulu farms, there is an Herbal hot pot rest. at the Taidong County Agricutrual
farm. All of the herbs and veggies are grown on the premises.

In Taidong, there is also bike rentals available at the Forest Park, These trails also connect to the beach, and you could spend the better part of the day riding.

Sorry I won’t be in town to act as a tour guide, I will go back to America for my first Chirstmas at home in 8 years.

12

I second going to the Hongye hot springs or Junluan Hot Springs just south of Taitung.

I also like the long long beach at Tamali. Great for just strolling and watching the waves crash to the shore.

Also the beach at Jinzun north of Taitung is beautiful.

The hang gliding place is really scenically beautiful. I would have included it in the last LP but the roads and signs in an out are labelled so poorly I couldn’t even find my way back to check out some things. Maybe next time.

Please don’t bring bread to feed the monkeys however. bobl, that is really bad advice and a good way to encourage accidents between man and beast.

13

MM, the OP is going with his Taiwanese wife and kid, These monkeys get fed bread all of the time by Taiwanese wifes and kids. Good luck trying to stop them.

14

Robert Storey’s LP suggested hiking up the Chihben River gorge beyond the hot springs and the forest recreation area. This gorge, IMO, blows away Taroko and any other Taiwanese gorge, and I’ve seen quite a few valleys in Taiwan. A combination of some river tracing up that pristine valley and some hot spring-soaking would be my suggestion. Monkeys, deer, and whatever remains of Taiwan’s wildlife can be seen up that majestic canyon. Also, this valley does not suffer from the ravages of jeep-drivers. Check out this article about how jeep enthusiasts have ripped up many a riverbed in Taitung:

sinorama.com.tw/en/show_issu … 1&distype=

I’m heading out to Taimali in 2 weeks, one of the places supposedly torn up by jeep lovers. Skip all museums and head for the gorges.

15

MM, the OP is going with his Taiwanese wife and kid, These monkeys get fed bread all of the time by Taiwanese wifes and kids. Good luck trying to stop them.[/quote]

I almost got in a fistfight with a Taiwanese guy trying to feed them french fries. Just because the local ignoramuses do it is no reason for a liberal Californian to follow suit. :slight_smile:

16

[quote=“banana smoothie”]Robert Storey’s LP suggested hiking up the Chihben River gorge beyond the hot springs and the forest recreation area. This gorge, IMO, blows away Taroko and any other Taiwanese gorge, and I’ve seen quite a few valleys in Taiwan. A combination of some river tracing up that pristine valley and some hot spring-soaking would be my suggestion. Monkeys, deer, and whatever remains of Taiwan’s wildlife can be seen up that majestic canyon. Also, this valley does not suffer from the ravages of jeep-drivers. Check out this article about how jeep enthusiasts have ripped up many a riverbed in Taidong:

sinorama.com.tw/en/show_issu … 1&distype=

I’m heading out to Taimali in 2 weeks, one of the places supposedly torn up by jeep lovers. Skip all museums and head for the gorges.[/quote]

Which valley are you going up? There’s a great free campground with hot springs at Jinfeng up the valley a few km.

Do you have any pics of the gorge up from Chihben? Is it a marble gorge like taroko?

17

French fries ok for you but not for monkeys?? hahahaa

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Monkeys and humans may have a shared evolutionary ancestry but monkeys have an extra vertabrae that allows them to bend over and suck their own dick. When you or any other Taiwanese can do that tommy, you all have my blessing to feed monkeys anything you like. :laughing:

19

Monkeys and humans may have a shared evolutionary ancestry but monkeys have an extra vertabrae that allows them to bend over and suck their own dick. When you or any other Taiwanese can do that tommy, you all have my blessing to feed monkeys anything you like. :laughing:[/quote]

okok I got it, if you feed them french fries then they get too fat and when your fat you cant bend over and do the dirty like you would be able to.

Actually I agree that we should not feed wild life because it encourages them to get lazy and not go after their regular foods. And also they are less healthy because just feeding on bread isnt as healthy as going for the jungle food. I saw some vids of this college in Hsichiwan where monkeys go right inside the dorms without any reservations. Leading some white guys to go after them with a bb gun (definitely not the thing to do). That is certainly way too much interaction. I guess its unavoidable right there in the heart of a major city, but we certainly should not go out of our way to the forests to feed the monkeys. They should be left alone.

In california, its against the law to even feed wild birds, let alone any mammals.

If they are not fed at the edge of the forest, they wont keep coming to the edge of the forest and will go deeper into the forest where they belong. MOnkeys are mean and do bite. They are aggressive little mofos and not friendly really.

20

Monkeys and humans may have a shared evolutionary ancestry but monkeys have an extra vertabrae that allows them to bend over and suck their own dick. When you or any other Taiwanese can do that tommy, you all have my blessing to feed monkeys anything you like. :laughing:[/quote]

okok I got it, if you feed them french fries then they get too fat and when your fat you cant bend over and do the dirty like you would be able to.

Actually I agree that we should not feed wild life because it encourages them to get lazy and not go after their regular foods. And also they are less healthy because just feeding on bread isnt as healthy as going for the jungle food. I saw some vids of this college in Hsichiwan where monkeys go right inside the dorms without any reservations. Leading some white guys to go after them with a bb gun (definitely not the thing to do). That is certainly way too much interaction. I guess its unavoidable right there in the heart of a major city, but we certainly should not go out of our way to the forests to feed the monkeys. They should be left alone.

In california, its against the law to even feed wild birds, let alone any mammals.

If they are not fed at the edge of the forest, they wont keep coming to the edge of the forest and will go deeper into the forest where they belong. MOnkeys are mean and do bite. They are aggressive little mofos and not friendly really.[/quote]

Yep. When animals get used to people feeding them it usually turns out badly for the animals: eg, they have to be shot.

But I must say, I never considered that overfeeding them would hinder their sex life. :slight_smile: