How good or bad is this road? I’m planning on taking a road trip next month and would like to use this route to get to Hualian. I’ve done the Ilan/Taichung route and that was horrible. I’m hoping this one is in much better shape.
If you’re coming down the 7 from Taipei I don’t think you’d need to use the 14甲 since you’d come off the 7甲 onto the 8 and take that over HeHuanShan and that all way to the coastal 9… If you’re coming from Taichung / Puli direction up the 14甲 to the 8, then the 14甲 is fine… A pleasant to very pleasant ride that gets better and better the higher you get with great views and decent, fun to ride roads, potential Morakot damage notwithstanding… The massive drawback is that unless you hit it very early or very late it can be a total parking lot… Scores of lumbering tour busses and hundreds of distracted gormless city drivers can clog the road bumper to bumper from Puli all the way from HeHuanShan on weekends and holidays…
No really, don’t mention it, you’re welcome… 
Well I for one found your post to be very helpful, well written and accurate. Thanks.
OK Princess since I was waiting to look at my map book that my kid likes to play with this was going to take some time for me to respond.
What I’d like to do is take 14 from Changhua to 14甲 in Nantou county after Renai township, then head to route 8 and go through Taroko Gorge to Hualian.
I had done 7甲 to 8 then headed through Taroko Gorge. Ilan and Hualian had surprisingly good roads, while Taichung and Nantou had roads that were complete and utter shit. I don’t want to take 14 and 14甲 if the roads are going to be dangerous. I want to take them even less noticing that Hohuanshan is a primary destination there with the usually dangerous Taiwanese drivers in droves.
Are cabbage trucks a problem on 14甲 like they are on 8 and 7甲?
Thanks,
Okami
I think you’ve misunderstood how this works sonny boy…
You asked a question, I went out of my way to provide this information, rather churlishly you don’t bother to show any appreciation despite having read the reply (you have to consult a mapbook before you’re capable of spelling ‘thanks’?)… Now you come back with petty insults and want more questions answered?.. ppffffttt…
I know how you feel. I get people writing me all the time, here on Fcom and on my blog, asking for directions and advice. Less than a quarter ever write back to say thanks. I just don’t bother with a lot now.
MM, where can I get some sour cream?
I don’t know. Breathe on yoghurt, perhaps.
I’m a happy person. When I write a couple paragraphs in answer, sometimes after consulting a reference book, or after taking the time to type out the name of a place in Chinese, and get nothing back, I’m no less happy but I feel as plasma: :raspberry:
whining on an internet forum that you don’t get no appreciation.
Geez, Okami. That’s a tad nasty.
Thanks, Jimip. Appreciate it.
Thing is, I was waiting till I had more info to respond to plasmatron. I wasn’t aware that the road went past Hohuanshan. He also mentioned other roads that I had been on or were not familiar with particular stretches. Give me some time to respond and say thanks, don’t come and whine that I don’t appreciate your help. I got smeared as an ungrateful bastard because I hadn’t responded in his time frame. With a wife, kid and job; Plasmatron is low on the list for people to please. You want to wear your heart on your sleeve and whinge about being under appreciated do it IRL, because there ain’t a whole lot of sympathy here.
Yeah, Okami. Two days is a heck of a short time to extract a map from your kid and read it. Perhaps plasmatron wasn’t empathetic enough to your plight and overreacted. You could have been a little more gracious towards his pain by speaking with only one foot in your mouth instead of two, though.
IME, the secret to pleasant touring in alpine 'wan is WEEKDAYS. Weekends and holidays, ride a bike in the city. Contraflow.
wow all the love 
Okay, so maybe 2 and a half days was too short a time frame for your busy schedule, but since you’d managed more than half a dozen new posts on Forumosa in those 2 days it seemed to me the demands of your job, wife and child on your oh so valuable time couldn’t have been too pressing… But I can understand not bothering to take 20 seconds to type one more “Thanks, I’ll check my map.” post, you had other stuff to do, you didn’t really care, manners aren’t mandatory, fair enough…
But then you come back with petty insults and laughable “let’s take this to the real world” passive aggressive posturing and complain about being labelled and ungrateful bastard?.. Next time maybe check to see if the cap fits before acting like a jackass… You say thanking people who go out of their way to help you is a low priority for you, well co-incidentally, belligerent ill mannered people to whom I owe nothing are pretty low on my list of priorities, so if you have any further questions you know what to do with them…
Enjoy the drive…