Just put your flashing light on and say you’re an international expert come to survey the repairs.
Just got back from the run to Taipei. After driving through there, i’m amazed they got it open as fast as they did. That looks like End of Days in there. Apart from the sheer number of landslides - would say more than 50 - the magnitude of some of them was quite alarming. The bit where one of the buses got swept over a couple of years ago was hit again and when you look up driving by you see a very sizeable piece of the mountain has collapsed there. It’s very ‘sword of Demicles’.
Equally, if not more worrying, is the damage beneath that you can’t really see. A few times on bends though there were glimpes of the erosion going on on the sea side of the road and there are several sections where it seems to be hanging by the proverbial thread. If it cops a ‘one-two’ hit this season then it’ll be a real mess.
The worst hit areas were just north of Hualien. Travelling south, on the right, just as you come into the outskirts of Hualien, there is a large vacant apartment block that used to have a ‘for sale’ sign, but you could always see why it wasn’t selling coz a mountain view is nice, but not when it’s visibly crumbling down on top of you. Anyway, that did inevitably get ‘got’ by an avalanche of boulders.
A bit further north, just south of Nan Ao, there’s a small village that got totally inundated with a landslide. Most houses seemed to be more or less still standing, but some of them were full of rocks. I don’t know if those people were evacuated or not, but it would have been a scary place to be for those two days.
I know it was a bad typhoon and moved slowly, but was still surprised by the extent of the damage. Wondering if that area is becoming more and more unstable. People talk about the problem of cultivating mountainsides and growing bing lang and how that weakens the mountains, and it no doubt does, but there are no bing lang trees along the Su Hwa, so far as i know. Someone suggested it’s a knock on effect from 921.
After the last trip i had the subsequent pleasure of donating a, quite small and reasonable amount actually, $1800, to Taiwan’s public coffers, via a speeding fine: No. 11 Highway, 44km mark. Should have been easy to remember. 44, double death, and did remember this time, also noticed it’s just on the outskirts of a village called Sinshe.
I think much of the road from Suao to Hualian has always been unstable and remains so today.
That’s why many stretches are no longer used and tunnels bored into the mountain to replace.
I was always happy to pass through and arrive in Hualian (or Suao as the case may be).
Nice drive but a bit dicey for sure. And in good weather. Its insane to attempt in heavy rain due to the potentially huge landslides.
In nice weather you still have to worry bout possible earthquakes rolling through that could dislodge large rocks or cause a major slide as well.
Anyone planning on making the trip south should probably do it before typhoon Tembin arrives on Thurs. Originally predicted to be a minimum Cat 1, there has been a dramatic upgrading in the expected windspeeds to 140kts for max gusts. That’s about 260kph and getting well into super typhoon territory.
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Given the state that the Suhwa Highway is already in, a direct hit in that area again would almost certainly result in the road being closed for several days at least.
Closed again as of Dec 14. Major landslide about 10k south of Su-ao. Shows what a parlous state that road is in - although there were a couple of days with a 100ml, that’s not really what you would call torrential falls. Will supposedly reopen on Dec 31.
That road is basically a temporary road that is called a permanent road. I mean it’s on the edge of a huge cliff in an earthquake, monsoon and typhoon zone. What can anyone expect? There has to be a more viable long term solution. More tunnels, I think.
I am meeting my family at Taoyuan Airport on December 29th and was going to take a taxi to Hualien. Now it seems that the taxi will not be able to go its usual way.
All trains and planes for the 29th are fully booked by now. Could anyone suggest what are my options ?
Will taxi go some other way around ? How much could it cost ? Thank you.
You can drive down Freeway 3 south and cross on the 9 to Taitung and then drive up Highway 11 to Hualien. No idea about price. It’ll be a long day though so maybe consider staying in Taitung the first night. Or look into flying from Songshan Airport in Taipei to Hualien.
Well, that is 660 km instead of 220. Taxi will definitely cost a fortune. And I don’t wanna drive 1300 km round trip on my own on the first day of a long holiday in Taiwan 
Flights from Songshan to Hualian (as well as to Taidong) are all already booked, no seats available.
What about a detour ? For example, Sanxia - Fuxing - Datong - Heping - Taroko Gorge - Hualian ?
Is it real or taxi drivers will laugh me out ?
Well, that is 660 km instead of 220. Taxi will definitely cost a fortune. And I don’t wanna drive 1300 km round trip on my own on the first day of a long holiday in Taiwan
Flights from Songshan to Hualian (as well as to Taidong) are all already booked, no seats available.
What about a detour ? For example, Sanxia - Fuxing - Datong - Heping - Taroko Gorge - Hualian ?
Is it real or taxi drivers will laugh me out ?[/quote]
That’s also really long because of the winding mountain roads. But it is a beautiful route and easy to drive yourself. Why not just rent a car?
Taxi drivers will probably laugh but you could try a mini-van driver. I can ask for a number if you like.
Alternatively, take the HSR to Kaohsiung from Taoyuan and then train it across if you can get tickets.
Thank you ! Sent you a PM.
A quick note that I know you can usually get Kaohsiung to Taidong tickets even if they’re sold out by first buying a Kaohsiung - Fangliao and then Fangliao - Taidong. You just need to switch seats at Fangliao.
Might work out the same to Hualien. Try checking it out to see if you can get Taipei - Ilan and then Ilan - Hualien or something similar.
Thanks to everybody! Ended up staying in Taipei until Dec 31, then no problems with tickets. Best luck to you all!
Okay good. Sorry but my contact for a minivan still hasn’t got back to me.
Su Hwa is open again, but only one way for certain sections, so i imagine it will be severely traffic jammed for this weekend in particular.
Was talking to a friend who got through just before it was closed. It was night, then it started raining, then the car headlights went out. They had to complete the journey to the next town with one of them hanging out the window and shining a flashlight on the road. It’s a dangerous drive at the best of times, but that’s like an x-treme sport.
The road was open on the 28th December. One very small section is one way only with alternative traffic. No traffic jams to report.
Didn’t someone say that the road would be open for New Year’s weekend and then closed after that?
I had assumed it was just open now, but don’t know that for a fact.
Looks like Ilan is getting another bucketing today so that could lead to more problems as well.
Here’s the info no. again if you are planning a trip: 039 982 161
Some partial information, which can be a dangerous thing.
Heard the Su Hwa is currently closing every day at 8.30 in the morning. Which i assume means it is open at night, but don’t know what time it opens. Around dark, i guess, when they knock off work. (or just get the real info from the no. above)
Travelling on a highly unstable cliff road at night, usually in the rain, with a converged traffic volume - that’s in the ‘not for the faint-hearted’ category.
Latest info is that it is only open from 5-9am.