A lot of Taiwanese thinks that hurricanes are actually more powerful than typhoons because of the amount of destruction it does to the Americas.
Itās because the way they build houses in the Americas as well as lack of a mountain to shield things and poor flood control that makes hurricanes really destructive, but typhoons as a rule is actually more powerful because they have a much bigger ocean to strengthen in.
When I landed in LA there was some 8 or 12 inch rains happening and I thought "man we see 30 inch rains in Taiwan during typhoons, 8 inch aināt nothing), and it was pretty hard rain, and caused a lot of flooding.
Hurricane Harvey dumped 30+ inch rains in Houston and that was like Biblical, but Taiwan can handle it just fine. We get a couple of really destructive ones every 20 years or so though, so donāt let your guard down but Iāve noticed Taiwan becoming better at managing typhoons. Used to be in the 80s we were getting week long power outages in Taipei and we donāt even get power outage now.
If ur looking to Huandao, I do think it would be preferable to wait a bit longer and push it to a cooler and drier month. Iām sure the folks here can tell you exactly when that is, but I assume sometime in fall?
Chinese holidays are actually a better marker of season than the Christian calendar.
The rule is, temperature starts to drop at Mid Autumn festival, and will be coldest around Chinese new year, and then temperature will slowly pick back up. Then around tomb sweeping day the monsoon/plum rain will start, and will continue until dragon boat festival where the hot weather begins, that lasts until mid autumn festival.
If you want to huandao, then do it about 2 weeks after mid autumn festival.
Youāre like the opposite of @tommy525 and his helpful and funny anecdotal stories (Tommyisms).
Yours shall be branded as Luthiersisms (not to be confused with Lutheranism).
I guess it depends what he means by āaround the islandā. I wouldnāt recommend going into inland mountainous regions even with a powerful bike; if he literally means around the perimeter of the island, most of the roads are in very good condition, and on the flat. I havenāt gone actually around the island myself, but Iāve done quite a lot of driving here and there on a scooter, and never felt that I needed a bigger bike. Largest bike Iāve ever hired was 250cc and the responsiveness and higher top speed is nice, but thatās about all.
Well I usually do bit this one seemed to make good sense. Factoid maybe not the right word and I donāt really know the weather year round, but it makes sense in terms of how calendars were generally made and where festivals landed historically in imperial China and I honestly know more about that than I do modern china in some ways
Itās so accurate that you could practically predict weather around it. Sure the cooling days varies but those days pretty much mark the time to expect temperature change.
I remember in 2020 mid autumn festival didnāt start until early october, and the temperature did not drop even a little bit until the actual day of mid autumn festival.
The temperature drop is always accompanied by rain, just so you know. Bring an umbrella, and make sure itās the folding kind that you can stow in a bag. DO NOT assume that it will not rain because you see the sun. Weather can and do change at the drop of a hat in Taiwan, and after mid autumn festival, temperature drop can occur mid day and the drop can exceed 20F!! So plan accordingly.
Get a good rain coat, these are required equipment for motorcycles in Taiwan.
On this one, heās reasonably accurate as far as the south goes. Basically October to May is a lot drier and less hot.
True enough, but in the south it is pretty hard to avoid low mountains. Southern cross island highway is currently closed from rain damage, and the roads further to the south are open now but dangerous in the rain and way less beautiful.
If heās coming all the way here to ride around the island, just doing a circumnavigation is a bit of a shame. Especially since the west side of the island is so dull and developed compared to the mountain roads. East coastal roads are beautiful, but less so in the rain
Thank you everyone. A lot of valuable information, really.
I shouldāve stated for context that Iām from Barcelona, Spain. Here, āitās going to rainā means the day is going to be mostly cloudy and some point drops of water may possibly fall from the sky. Any more intensity than that is usually a big drama. So yeah, Iām not used to rain, in fact havenāt had to drive a motorcycle in the rain for months. On the other hand Iām not afraid of heat.
āHuandaoā. Thatās an interesting concept, Iāll try to remember it as it could be something useful to shout inside a motorcycle rental shop if all other means of communication fail.
ē°å³¶ if u want to just show it to them since the tones definitely donāt come naturally. Theyāll probably be happy to know what youāre doing with it, although they will also probably charge u a bit more for non local usage, but buying in (time terms) bulk will help u out on that front somewhat. But the people who have the nicer bikes to rent might be the same to be hesitant to lend to a foreignerā¦ You might want to provide something to give them as ę¼é (deposit)
It means āaround the islandā (usually on a scooter). Itās a rite of passage for many Taiwanese, mostly because how annoying and uncomfortable it is to ride around the island on a scooter.
These folks organize tours and know about license requirements:
Bienvenido.
Darle la vuelta a la Isla en bicicleta, scooter o motocicleta de alto cilindraje es muy comĆŗn. Ahora hace mucho calor y todavĆa hay efectos del tifĆ³n, pero si va a pasar un tiempo acĆ”, serĆ” una experiencia Ćŗnica.
My personal take on the matter - and Iām sure different people will disagree - is that an extended tour like this is more fun if you can leave it slightly open-ended. Allow for the possibility that you might get stuck somewhere, either voluntarily or because of the weather, or that you might want to take a detour, and pre-book as few staging posts as possible, allowing plenty of time in between. So for example he might book six hotels on alternate days in well-chosen locations, and play the rest by ear as far as practically possible. Central Taiwan (around Nantou) is a nice place to just pootle around, and you can detour off into the āmountainsā without encountering any terrain that a scooter canāt handle (in my limited experience).
I agree itās best to wait for clement weather, but Iām not sure Taiwan actually has such a thing.
