[quote=“vim”]Got next week off, weather’s looking… not too bad. Thinking bout motorcycling down to do the Cross Island Highway as I’ve lived here for over 2 years and never done that particular exploration.
Is the highway open? Can’t seem to (easily) find info here or on the web. Figured I’d see if anyone’s been over that way recently.
Also, any advice? I plan on camping my way around. I’ll leave Taipei next Tuesday morning / Wednesday night and return Sunday evening. Is that enough time? should I consider another closer trip?[/quote]As Urodacus says, it’s the “New Central Cross-Island” route that you’ll be doing. I’ve done it a few times.
Some thoughts:
You’ve got enough time. If you can go on Tuesday morning instead of Wednesday night, that will be better as it’s such a beautiful route you’ll want to take time to appreciate it. But even if you have to go on Wednesday night, it’s still doable.
Normally I’d suggest you go down the west side first (Provincial Highway No. 3 would make sense as quite a nice route and fairly direct to where you’re going). But as you’re starting midweek, maybe it would be better to go down the more scenic east first as there will be far less tourist traffic then and you can make the most of it. Then you’ll come up the west side at the weekend which will be a bit of a slog but doesn’t matter so much.
I’d get a map if I were you. At the minimum, one of those fold-out single-sheet ones with the Romanized names on. But it would probably help if you can cope with a single-volume book form map too. The latter don’t have any Romanization, but it’s not actually that hard to start reading the Chinese place names, even if you don’t read any Chinese already.
The weather up on Hehuanshan (the highest point) is often clear in the morning and foggy/rainy/cold in the afternoon. So it would make sense to get up there as early as possible. Maybe you can stay in Tianxiang (the main village in Taroko Gorge) the night before, then make an early start up the mountain.
As Urodacus implies, your motorbike may well have problems breathing on the high mountain. Both my FZ and my SR used to lose power above around 2,500m. Up at the top it was really slow going and it was a bit tricky to keep the engine running. But both bikes made it OK, even with a passenger and luggage.
Of course your motorbike should be in very good mechanical condition before you start the trip.
How about something like this for an itinerary?
Taipei – Su’ao or thereabouts – Tianxiang – Wushe or Puli – Miaoli County somewhere – Taipei
