Trip Report - Day 1
From a Palm T3 & GPRS
Overall, great views.
Day 5:
Spent 2 nights at HeLiu camping ground near TienXiang in Taroko. Great weather. Taking the 9 to get to HuaLian was not as bad as I thought. My Vespa was able to keep up with traffic. My wife came down by train to spend one night with me before going back to Taipei on Sunday.
Took the 8 and 14 over HeHuanShan yesterday. Stayiny in a B&B 10Km from PuLi. My Vespa almost did not make it over the pass at around 3300 meters. Air really thin … and cold, around 10 degrees.
Plan to check out this area and then on to Sunmoon Lake. There is a Starbucks in Puli!
Day 7:
Sounds like a great trip, Pinesay. Hope you had a safe journey down from Alishan. Bet you’re getting some good photos. Maybe you could post a couple here when you have time, or link to them?
Day 8:
Stayed in JiaYi. Had to make an emergency run back to Taipei (client issue), straight shot up the 3. That was … a long ride. I wanted to take it easy and spend another two days along the coast … but, I did spend an hour riding around downtown Taizhong and taking a detour along the 124 to see Lion’s Head Something-or-oter Senic Area.
I will post pictures soon.
Thanks for everyone’s suggestions. I was able to modify my trip to make the most of them. I was going to take until next Monday, but had to come back quick due to a fire I had to put out. Overall, rode about 1300 Km.
For some of you that asked, I didn’t keep track of the difficult places to pass as far as the Km-markers were concerned. It seems like the road from ShuiLi to the top of the mountain in Yushan National Park at TaTaJia (~2600 meters) is just one rockslide after another. The decent to Alishan is much better. All debris has been moved to one side of the road, but extereme caution is advised, as the road is still littered with branches, leaves, freshly fallen rocks, loose dirt, mud and small streams, not to mention partial bridges, spit roads and potholes … all which are manageable if you go slow. Two places of particular difficulty where I had to walk my bike because I couldn’t get traction:
Right at the turn-off for ShenMu on the 21, although the postman on his bike didn’t seem to have a problem with the makeshift road of rocks, mud and fording small steams in the road.
The other place is just after the official welcome sign to Yushan National Park on the accent up on the crest of the hill.
In these particular cases, the debris is too much, so it can not be moved to one side so quickly. Instead, a path is made OVER the heap of debris. So, it is kind of like off-roading in a sense.
Note, that other roads in my journey were much better, including the road over HeHuanShan. It is just the road up the north side of Yushan National Park that will take time.
Here are the highlights of the 8-day, 1300 Km (808 miles) trip. Remember to switch to UTF-8 browser encoding if you can’t see the Chinese characters.
HeLiu Camping Ground (合流露營區) near TianXiang (天祥) in Taroko National Park (太魯閣國家公園)
The campsite is free, no reservation, first-come-first-served.
Setting up My Tent at HeLiu Camping Ground
There are full facilites, incluidng fire pits, tables, restrooms, showers, etc.
Close-up Scenery at HeLiu Camping Ground
The site has an up-close view of waterfalls and the river below.
Mrs. Pinesay Taking a Rest
Mrs. Pinesay comes down to Taroko for one day. HeLiu is a great place to spend a few days “car camping” style.
Outdoor Kitchen
Tired of instant noodles? Private fire pits make BBQ easy.
Continuing on the Cross-Island Highway (8 & 14甲)
This was the most beautiful part of my trip. Road conditions OK.
Convenient Pit Stop along the Way
Dreamy Landscape
These views are typical of the Cross-Island Highway.
Watercolor Sunsets
Reaching the Summit at HeHuanShan (合歡山)
Crisp, clear, sunny and cold (even in July). Going over the previous day was 10 degrees at dusk.
Man & Vespa
This is the highest point on Taiwan’s highway system (3275 meters or 10,745 feet). My 125 cc engine almost didn’t make it over the mountain. The air is thin.
Looking Down to WuShe (霧社)
Looking over HeHuanShan down towards WuShe.
Sunmoon Lake
It is a nice place … but overhyped as the honeymoon destination.
Entering Yushan National Park (玉山國家公園)
The road (21 & 18) will be a disaster for the forseeable future.
Yushan Tea Plantations
Visit and tour tea plantations. Go tea tasting.
Extreme Example of “Rockslide”
How nice of that boulder to leave me one side of the road.
Obstacle Course of Rocks (zoom out photo)
Most rocks are actually fist-sized. However, those are the dangerous ones if you hit them wrong with your tire.
great pictures
Great pictures Pinesay, especially the one of you standing next to the massive boulder. Actually, that’s one of the most amazing pictures I have ever seen taken here in Taiwan. Just a pity that you only had a cell phone camera.
(EDIT - Pinesay tells he had both a digital camera and a cell-phone camera)
Wauww… what a trip!
Can anyone please tell me where I can rent a bike in Taiwan(near by the airport or in Taipei city or where ever :s )? I’m holding a HK drive license, can I drive in Taiwan. I plan to visit Taiwan for 4 - 5 days, any sugguest of route? I have no idea of what to see and where to visit.
Jess, does your HK license include motorcycle endorsement? If it does, then get yourself an International Driving Permit in HK and bring that together with your regular license.
If your license doesn’t cover motorbikes, then any IDP you got wouldn’t either, and you wouldn’t be entitled to ride a motorbike in Taiwan.
I will be completely honest and say that you might have a more enjoyable and relaxing visit to Taiwan if you used public transport. There are two reasons;
1 Traffic here is dense and general driver behaviour is unpredictable. You have to concentrate hard, even on country roads. If you’re looking for a laid-back cruise this may not be the place.
2 Most rental bikes here are 150cc or under. I think they’re likely to be scooters rather than motorcycles. There are some larger motorbikes available to rent, but this is very expensive, and in addition the rental shops for these bigger bikes may only rent to Taiwan residents.
There’s information about a big-bike rental shop in Taipei here;
[Real motorcycles for hire
and a thread started by somebody with a similar question to yours here;
[Rental of Motorcycles in Taiwan
Regarding places to go; this thread itself has some good information if you can wade through it. There are also a lot of other good ideas in the travel forum. One more thing; if you do go ahead with the motorbike trip idea, don’t be too ambitious in terms of distances for your itinerary. As I said, the riding is demanding here, and you’ll also want to allow yourslef plenty of time to stop and see things.
Yes, my driver license include motorcycles.
My point is to have more control of our time instead of spend time in public transportation. I don’t expect to tour in Taipei City. I’m thinking of driving to the countryside, or along the shoreline. At this point, I don’t have any idea in mind as to where to visit. I want to get more info so I can start planning.
150cc scooter is fine with us as long as it can take us to the destination, we are not asking for large horsepower bike.
One more question, ride on a highway is illegal in Taiwan? How can I get around that?
[quote=“jess”]Yes, my driver license include motorcycles.
My point is to have more control of our time instead of spend time in public transportation. I don’t expect to tour in Taipei City. I’m thinking of driving to the countryside, or along the shoreline. At this point, I don’t have any idea in mind as to where to visit. I want to get more info so I can start planning.
150cc scooter is fine with us as long as it can take us to the destination, we are not asking for large horsepower bike.
One more question, ride on a highway is illegal in Taiwan? How can I get around that?[/quote]
Motorcycles are prohibited from the major national freeways. However, most provincial roads and highways that make up most of Taiwan are OK. You’ll be able to get anywhere you want to go. For example, if you wanted to ride the coast, those roads are OK. Get a road map from any bookstore in Taiwan. It will become immediately clear which roads are freeways (for example,
Pinesay’s advice on highways is good. For more tips on navigating these roads see here;
[forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.ph … 248#145248](Motorcycle touring
He’s also correct about carrying a passenger and luggage on a scooter – cumbersome and a little risky.
I have an idea. Why not take a train to somewhere like Hualian, then rent a scooter and go up Taroko (Tailuge) Gorge? Either stay in Tianxiang for a night or two, or just do day trips from Hualian. Taroko is certainly one of the most beautiful places in Taiwan, and if you go midweek it will not be so crowded. You’ll have to check road conditions though. I’m not sure whether they’ve cleaned up and reopened the roads after the recent typhoon damage.
If you don’t fancy Taroko then I suggest the same approach for another place. Get out of Taipei by train or bus, then rent a scooter somewhere else. It’s no fun riding with luggage and a passenger in big cities, and public transport will get you out of Taipei and into more interesting places much quicker than if you did the whole trip by scooter. You can still see some great scenery from the bus or train.
There are tips on small bike touring and some routes and destinations here;
mcttw.tripod.com/trips_photos.htm
The specific bits about Taroko are here;
mcttw.tripod.com/8.htm
and here;
mcttw.tripod.com/tailuge.htm
For other information on Taroko and many, many other great places to go I really do recommend that you browse through this thread and the other threads in the travel part of Forumosa here. Use the search function for specific destinations.
So, to conclude, if you go ahead with this, you’ll need an International Driving Permit as well as your HK licence. You’ll need good quality full-face helmets for yourself and your passenger, as well as personal accident insurance. You should be an experienced rider.
Could be a great trip. Have fun and let us know how it goes.
Thanks Pinesay and Joesax for all your info.
The Hualian route sound pretty good to me. I should start look into more detail of this province, places and road to visit etc. We are group of bikers, we all have HK motorcycle license, if we do this bike trip, we will all be the driver.
I really need to translate the places you mention into Chinese or get a map in English. Any website have good road map?
Another picture of highway 102 on my way south from jiufen. Nice vistas. You can see the road going through the grass.
This is of course a panorama of three images.
I went on a trip on my 150 cc Kymco Xing from Taipei to Kenting via Snow mountain last Chinese New year. It was an incredible trip (but you have to be a bit of a masochist to do it at that time). Heading through the Snow mountain area we encountered many indigenous villages and met some great people.
Things that stuck out in my mind:
Just North of Snow mountain we were driving up a steep road and entered “Cabbageland”. It was only a few degrees above 0 and we were nearly frozen solid (especially my hands and I had 2 pairs of gloves). We got off at a gas station and walked across the street for a hot drink. There was a shop run by an indigenous family (Can’t remember the group) who welcomed us. Their Chinese wasn’t so good but they tried so hard to communicate with us and very sooo friendly.
Shortly after that the temperature dropped below 0 and the moisture from all the mist on us turned to ice. There was litereally a line where the trees all of a sudden had ice on them.
Li-Shan was great as well. The mountains were covered with snow. Great view
We spent 2 days in the central mountain region which was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen (Both culturally and Geographically).
The road out to the east coast was via Taroko Gorge (Tai lu ge). That was absolutely amazing. We were whipping around a corner (more f a gentle curve) at almost 100kph cause we were freezing in the mountains and wanted to get out and all of a sudden the canyon appeared on our left. I almost crashed cause I was so taken aback by it’s beauty.
Just before Li-Shan I was coming around a corner when all of a sudden the road turned to ice. I crashed and was ok but the next 5 km were all ice. I had to walk my bike. It was a parking lot cause no one (including myself on my bike) knew how to drive in the snow. Then there was a tunnel and on the other side of the tunnel it was sunny and nice.
The stretch from Hualien to Kenting was fast and the ocean was on our left hand side almost the whole time. It was nice to be able to drive straight after 2 days of hard curved and a bit of stress.
We camped at Bai-sha-wan close to Kenting for a few days of R&R. Then I went up the west coast as far as Tainan and got sick of driving and put my bike on a train.
The whole trip down took us 3 days of hard driving to get down there for your info.
It was a great experience filled with hardships and exhilarating experiences. I’d love to do it again. But this time be better prepared.
That seems like a great trip. I prefer cold, crisp weather.
Well, glad you posted. I was thinking that ice would be a problem, and on a bike it could be really dangerous. Chains for bikes? I like snow and all, but I’d rather not crash.
I was thinking of doing a trip down the 7 from Ilan to Lishan. If I did it later this year or even into the beginning of next year, when would I most likely hit snow? … or what I really mean is “ice”.
Some people did have chains for their cars but bikes?
If you are thinking about doing it then post me a PM and give me your ph# and we can chat about it.