Hello everyone! I just spent several days in Hualien and loved every moment of it, so am thinking about moving there to live. I think I know the advantages (proximity to nature, relatively low cost of living, better air quality, etc), but there may be disadvantages that I haven’t thought about (too quiet, earthquakes, typhoon, etc.) Any input you have would be appreciated.
FYI, I currently live in mainland China, but air pollution / food safety / traffic situations are getting intolerable, so I want to move. I speak Mandarin and have no need to work. I just want to move to a more livable place than mainland China.
With no need to work, I’d say rent a furnished apartment and give it a go for a couple of months. Time will tell if it’s the place for you. Move along if it isn’t.
Quakes - you’re either comfortable with that, or you’re not. There are regular tremblers between 4 and 5, and they often go unfelt by the rest of the country. A few times a year, larger quakes hit (5 to 6.5). And The Big One can never be ruled out.
Typhoons - peak season Aug-Oct. It’s been really quiet the last 3 years, but the east coast is right in the firing line for typhoons roaring in off the Pacific. Everyone stays indoors for 36 hours, listens to the wind howling and moaning, and mops up water being forced through the window frame edges.
Quiet - very, compared to Taipei, Kaohsiung, Taichung. There’s a couple of hundred foreigners, a few bars, a couple of music venues, but it’s a fairly conservative town and not a lot goes on. Most restaurants serve only from 5-8pm.
Rain - it can be wet and miserable for days on end. I didn’t see the sun once in the first part of Feb.
Sun - UV levels very high here in the summer months. It’s hard to be active outside, unless you can get out of bed at 5am.
Can’t think of that much else. The air is very good .
Thanks very much for your comments. This is very helpful. Actually, Huilien reminded me of Boulder. CO where I used to live, and that’s why I liked it so much. I’m into hiking, running, and biking, so I figured this would be a perfect place for that. The only concern is that if it rains so much, what would I do? I’ve read another thread somewhere regarding gyms in Hualien, and it appears that there is only one gym and it’s expensive. If you know anything about gyms there, I would appreciate a comment.
Also, I have been checking 591 website for apartment rentals. Looks like there’s plenty of furnished studios available for under NT$10k per month. But I wonder if I can find a landlord who’s willing to do, say, three month lease, as opposed to one year. Or I have to sign a one year lease and if I decide to move on after three months or so, I just give up the deposit. Over here on the mainland, pretty much everything is negotiable.
You might also want to look further down the coast at Taidong. Besides Taidong city, there is also Dulan. I’m sure Hualien looks like paradise compared to China, but you might want to look around a bit more.
Hualian City is a bit of a dump compared to the rest of Eastern Taiwan. There is a surprising amount of industry and it is just big enough to have some of the annoyances of big city life in Taiwan. Also there doesn’t seem to be an ideal place to live in the city. The northern part has a busy air force base. Jian is too near the industrial area. Another disadvantage (to me ) is that you will need to own a car. There are some nice towns like Shoufeng a little south.
The standard lease in Taiwan is one year and if you move out early the deposit is nonrefundable. Hualien may be more flexible since like the rest of the east coast there is population drain due to the lack of jobs. I’d offer a two week non-refundable deposit and see if you can get someone to rent for three months. There will also be some cheap (and somewhat seedy) hotels near the train station where you can rent by the week. It will be a lot easier to do this on the ground after you arrive.
The Meilun area in Hualien, where many foreigners live, feels quite enclosed (to me) by the port area and industry to the north. The coastal part of Jian Township, south of Hualien itself, is quite grim, with a large polluting factory. IMO the best place to be is directly west of Hualien City, around the Jian Road area.
Hualien is best for running, hiking, canyoning. Taidong for surfing.
Cycling is good in both.
Finding somewhere nice to rent can take some time. A year’s contract is usual, unless you can strike a deal.
My favourite small town here is Chishang, top of Taidong County. Don’t like Shoufeng much.
Thanks again everyone for your input. This is very helpful.
As for other cities in East Coast, I’ve spent a few days in Taidong and Yilang, and they were okay. But Hualien stood out because of its proximity to Taroko. Weather may be nicer (drier) in Taidong, though. Taidong is also close to good hot springs.
As for the area to live in Hualien, a lot of the apartments that are listed in 591 website under NT$10k / mon is around Tzu Chi University in the back of the train station. The area looked boring, but it’s right by the river and the park, so I thought I could live in that area. But I didn’t see any markets around, so it can be a bit inconvenient. Any thought on this?
As for transportation, I was going to get a mountain bike and use that as the main mode of transportation. When it rains, though, I will take buses or walk.
Yilan is too close to Taipei and probably the wettest part of a wet country. It doesn’t really count as a city on the east coast.
Taroko is a major attraction. But if you don’t have your own motorized transportation, you might not go that that often. Maybe you could find a place in the village of Sanzhan? Right next to Taroko and in front of its own smaller gorge with no tourists.
If you are looking for Taroko-like attractions, you should explore the area around highway 20 (the southern cross). It starts around Chishang. Yuli is another pleasant town in the rift valley that borders Yushan National Park. Plus hot spring (Andong) and the coastal mountain range. Dulan is also great for the outdoors although nothing like Taroko.
The area around Tzuchi/train station seems OK to this frequent visitor from Taipei. Personally, I would live in Taidong.
[quote=“cminorseven”]Thanks again everyone for your input. This is very helpful.
As for other cities in East Coast, I’ve spent a few days in Taidong and Yilang, and they were okay. But Hualian stood out because of its proximity to Taroko. Weather may be nicer (drier) in Taidong, though. Taidong is also close to good hot springs.
As for the area to live in Hualian, a lot of the apartments that are listed in 591 website under NT$10k / mon is around Tzu Chi University in the back of the train station. The area looked boring, but it’s right by the river and the park, so I thought I could live in that area. But I didn’t see any markets around, so it can be a bit inconvenient. Any thought on this?
As for transportation, I was going to get a mountain bike and use that as the main mode of transportation. When it rains, though, I will take buses or walk.[/quote]
Taroko is great for the hiking, although you’ll be limited with only a mountain bike - that 20km ride up there gets old after a few trips. And that’s just to the park entrance.
Tzu Chi Uni area is fine for starters. There’s a huge indoor market quite close by, on Zhongyang Road, and a good but smaller street market even closer. Plus Heping Night Market.
There are no town buses. But you’d be close enough to everywhere with a mtn bike.
You could rent/buy my motorbike if you like, it doesn’t get used much at the moment .
Thanks!! All your comments are incredibly helpful. I think you’re absolutely right about getting to Taroko if you don’t have a motor vehicle. I passed through Chishang on a train, and didn’t pay much attention. Maybe I should revist. I did stop, however, in Ruisui, which is between Yuli and Hualien, to visit Ruisui Hot Springs. The place was very nice and quiet, but there was nothing, except the hot springs. Maybe Taidong deserves another look.
Hi, Nuit, thank you again for the insight. I was told that besides Taroko, there are other hiking trails that you can get to from the city. Are they easy to get to on a mountain bike?
I didn’t realize that there are no city buses. When it rains then, transportation could be a problem for me. Oh, one more question: is there a gym in the city? I thought I read somewhere that there is one place but it’s fairly expensive. Please let me know if you have any info.
On a bike you could get to the Farglory Hotel and the ridge beyond, the Liyu Lake area, Tongmen & its gorges, the trails west of the city (Fenglin, Guangri, Zuocang), the twin gorges of Sanzhan - so yep, plenty to keep you busy.
If all that gets boring, it’s easy to ride down into the Huadong valley and then get a local train back up to town.
The only gym that I know of is the overpriced Yawei. You’d think there’d be somewhere else in town, but no-one knows of one.
Hi, Nuit, thanks again for all the info! Yeah, I’ve read about Yawei in other thread and they are expensive (compared to what I pay here in Dalian which is a little over US$100 for one-year membership, and the gym is right upstairs from where I live. The gym has full equipment, aerobics studio, yoga studio, treadmills, and bikes, and the place is clean, too). So, this (= Hualien having only one gym that’s overpriced) is a major issue for me…when the typhoon hits and you are locked up in your apartment for 36 hours, what do you do…? This is a major drawback.
If a typhoon hits, it don’t matter if you’ve got a street full of gyms - you’re still going to be locked up in your apartment with the storm outside.
Yawei is definitely the only gym in town with a full set of treadmills, bikes, studio & classes. But its reputation is so-so. There’s rumoured to be a weights-only gym somewhere, but no-one knows where. I’ve thought of moving my own (limited) equipment out into a communal space, so that might be up and running this year, but again that’s just free weights.
The only other place you might find a gym on the East Coast is Taidong. I lift inside and run/bike outside, and that works here.
Have you experienced a full blown typhoon. You don’t want to go outside during that, especially on the east coast. Besides people get typhoon holidays.
Full blown typoons have passed through here a few times in the past seven or so years, but I live in a building that has the gym, Walmart, and shopping mall downstairs, so I don’t have to go outside to keep my life going. So, I’m really spoiled. You’d probably have to be in Taipei or Kaoshiong to find this type of set-up in Taiwan, I guess. Oh, I forgot to ask another question: is tap water safe to drink as long as it’s boiled, or you need to get mineral water over there?
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