My two cents worth is based on 4 years of riding in Taiwan and a bunch of really good memories. Sometimes I ride 30k along the Da’an Riverside to Tucheng to get the MRT for an evening in Taipei, then cruise home at midnight in absolute silence until i get to Daxi and climb up out of the river valley. I’ve followed the river from Daxi all the way to Datong into downtown, and back too. Or I may ride to Fuxing and back, or Baling if I feel frisky. I like hwy 7 from Daxi to the east coast too. Go to Ilan/Jiaoxi for Sat. night at the hotsprings, come back Sunday through Pinglin - 250k for the w/e is nice.
I end most of my rides with a cold beer watching the sun go down on the lake at Longtan. I’ve ridden around the island 2x, done IM Taiwan down in Kenting in 2015. I rode up to Dayuling from Ilan once by mistake. LOL then rode down to Hualien and hitchhiked with the bike back to Longtan. Haven’t done it all, but have hit the high points I think. I’d say it is a cyclist’s paradise. It’s what you make it.
I rave about Taiwan for the bicycling opportunities every chance I get - to my friends, to fellow triathletes at races, and anybody else when the topic arises. I love the heat, even the humidity, because - no snow! (I’m Canadian. Cycling gets tough for half the year back home in The Great White North.)
I live in Longtan and the roads here are fine, surface, lines, shoulders, all good. The variety of terrain is terrific - I can ride up a mountain just a few klicks from my front door, or rip along 114 through Xinwu to the seacoast at Yongan and back in an afternoon. Luoma Lu, around Shihmen Reservoir 65kms, is riding in a forest with curves and hills galore. Barely any traffic. I climb LaoZhuang Road above Longtan and cruise down into Yangmei for a burger at Ronnie’s, or on Sundays for breakfast. Unless I want to coast down through the tea plantation to hwy 20, then climb #115 back to Yangmei, That’s good too.
Thx BHL4life,
Maybe I just picked a great neighbourhood!
What I like most about riding in Taiwan is the variety.
Everywhere I go I see new stuff and because the roads are so twisty and winding
I never get tired of the view. things happen to surprise me.
I was riding up through a tea plantation with some forest cover and
suddenly a green tree snake dropped to the roadway and humped it to the verge right in front of me. My heart rate rose considerably since I learned that all snakes in Taiwan are venomous and this one looked like a mamba, only bright yellowish-green, almost neon green. I was too shocked to get out my camera but I will not soon forget that day.
But other rides have been more beatific. The route to the coast from Taoyuan revealed the Baishajia lighthouse below
and some pretty monstrous wind turbines.
The gardens and temple were lovely too.
Taiwan is wonderful when you look for it.
For those of us in the middle of Taiwan, the air pollution has made things very difficult. I think perhaps this is reflected in the lack of updates and posts on the blog. What used to be the best time to ride -the winter months- have become a nightmare for air quality. Most days are approaching 100 PM2.5 and some days are quite a bit worse. I wonder if it affects you guys up North and your frequency of cycling?
Probably not nearly as much as you, but yes. There are more days now where I look out the window and either pass on the ride or do a trainer ride indoors.
