East Coast of Taiwan - Taitung and Hualien

Lunar New Year Trip to Taiwan - January 7 ~ February 6, 2020

Chiayi to Taitung -- January 14, 2020

With Lunar New Year coming up in ten days or so, we thought it would be good to take a short trip to the east coast of Taiwan before the holidays when it's going to be very crowded. The last time I visited the east coast of Taiwan was 30 years ago, a quick two-day trip through the central route. It was a scary drive with narrow roads off the cliffs and occasional landslides. I am hoping it's not going to be like that this time around. FIL decided that he would not join us as it would not be convenient to deal with his health condition on the road.

Before the long drive, BIL took us to the milk fish restaurant in Tainan where we enjoyed a breakfast of fresh milk fish soup. What a wonderful start!

A bowl of minced pork rice and milk fish soup.

So fresh and sweet!

Hardly anyone there at that hour.

Then we went on Highway 3 to the south of Taiwan, all the way to Pingtung County. We made a quick stop somewhere I believe is called Fangshan for restroom breaks and walked around a little bit just to enjoy the beautiful seashore.

Very tropical feel at this beach side stop.

Some vendors but many of them were not open because of few visitors.

This is the southwestern coast of Taiwan.

Then we went on Highway 9 to cut across to the southeastern coast. Parts of this highway was rebuilt which made the drive a lot easier with straighter and wider roads. No more scary ride. 

Now we arrived on the other side of the island. With Pacific Ocean right besides us.

The color of the ocean seemed to be quite different from the west.

Originally, we were trying to buy some bento boxes for a quick lunch but we couldn't find any that looked decent. Then we came upon this beef noodle restaurant by the roadside which looked good. The signs said it's own and run by four sisters, all of whom with bachelor degrees. 

Very clean and nicely decorated. 

With a huge parking lot.

Good beef noodle.

I don't know what town this is but it's just right off the highway.

Nice garden.

Touchai Bed and Breakfast - 236 Xinzhan Road, Taitung City, Taitung, Taiwan

After a couple of hours, we finally arrived at our Bed and Breakfast near the Taitung Train Station. There are many, many bed and breakfast establishments in this quiet residential area. I was surprised that even being near the train station, this area seemed clean and quiet. Probably because this is not near the city center. This particular bed and breakfast is run by a young couple. They really took good care of us while we were there.

Our bedroom on the second floor.

Sitting space in our bedroom.

Hallway

A small balcony outside our room.

After settling down, we went out to explore the downtown area of Taitung and find dinner.

It was not easy to find parking, but we managed to get a parking space near the Taitung County Stadium. A little farther than we wanted but it worked with a longer walk.

As we walked towards the busier part of town, we came by the Railway Art Village and very much impressed by all these paper lanterns hanging around the park.

So colorful, making the whole place alive.

Our host told us about the places where we could get good local food, so we had some ideas of where to go. MOR wanted to have some Rice Noodles, so we had some at the Rong Shu Xia Rice Noodles. It was very busy at this popular eatery, which I did not feel comfortable taking pictures. Then we walked around some more. There was a pastries shop that I wanted to get some shiao-bing, but they were all sold out. After checking out more places, My mind was set to have a Chishang bento box to go for dinner and there was one of those franchised store in town. We got a a couple of boxes to take back to the bed and breakfast and enjoyed them in our rooms. They were so good that now I always look for the same franchised bento place while in Taiwan The name of the franchise is Wu-Tau Chishang Lunchbox. We all agreed that their lunchboxes were excellent. By the way, Chishang is the most well-known rice production area in Taitung. 

January 15, 2020 - Taitung to Hualien

This morning we will continue our drive from Taitung to Hualine where we will spend the night. BIL is the one who arranged this trip so I did not have to worry about where to go and what to do since they are the local experts. 

Going downstairs for breakfast.

Making coffee for ourselves while waiting for breakfast.

These bed and breakfast places are usually decorated nicely with different themes.

The owners really put in their efforts and making these places pleasant.

Entrance to the bed and breakfast with a little garden out front.

Living room downstairs.

Cute napkin holder.

A pamphlet about the B&B.

Very unique and delicious breakfast was served.

A good breakfast before checking out.

I must say that I am not very fond of B&B. It's like living at someone's house as a guest where one would have to 'behave' accordingly. I feel more comfortable in a traditional hotel where I have my private space without being watched. I found this hotel online and thought that we could come back for our third night stay on this trip. We decided to check the hotel out this morning. It's located in a good area, right by the shore and walking distance to town. And there is underground parking which makes it very convenient to go downtown without taking the car. We booked our rooms right there and then and looked forward to be back in two days.

This time we left Highway 9 and went on the coastal highway 11, which goes along the eastern coast from Taitung to Hualien. Absolutely beautiful scenes all the way.

Xiaoyeliu

Yehliu in northern Taiwan is a very popular tourist spot with unique rock formations along the seashore. Here in eastern Taiwan Xiaoyeliu (Little Yehliu) is also a well-known site of sandstone rock formation. Although they are different in appearance as far as the rock formation goes but both are beautiful in their own ways.

We had to take a little walk from the Visitor Center to the shore.

There are souvenir stores and restaurants near the Visitor Center with plenty of parking.

Quite impressive!

Then we reached a scenic stop near the Dulan Bay, where it's like the Confusion Hill in California called "Water Running Upward" with irrigation channel defying gravity and running upward instead of the normal sight of downstream.

Water going upward. The leave was to show how the water was flowing.

This site is right by the highway with pretty sights overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

And a huge park.

This bao-zi (steamed buns) shop is a local specialty. But on the day we were there, they were closing early for their pre-new year dinner celebration called "Way-Ya". By the time we got there they did not have much choices left and once we got ours, they closed and locked up the place. I guess we can consider ourselves lucky. This is called Donghe Bun Shop in the town of Donghe.

We got different kinds of buns to try.

A very different bun, shrimps and cheese. They were all very good though.

As we were sitting at the picnic table outside, we watched people coming excited and then leaving disappointed.

Sanxiantai

Our next stop was the rocky seaside of Sanxiantai which is a very popular spot on the coast. There were a lot of people on the day we were there, which was not a holiday. Buses brought in loads and loads of visitors making the place very busy but still enough space for everyone.

 

The Arch Bridge and the Sanxiantai Island in the background.

Hey, got a picture with no one in there!

Umbrella Rock

Further up, there is a parking lot with a huge grassy piece of land, and that was the Umbrella Rock View Point. We just had to stop for a look.

A nice huge park.

Zooming on the Umbrella Rock which is way down near the water.

The wide-open space of the park.

Jing Pu Tropic of Cancer Landmark. Which means this is at the same latitude as the city of  Chiayi.

White Palace B&B

Here, we arrived at our new B&B in Hualien. It took us a while finding the location since it is at the end of a side street. This one is run by a couple who usually reside in Australia but come back to Hualien every so often to be with their elderly parents. We were lucky that they were back for the election thus opening the B&B while they were there. This stand-alone building is like a villa very well taken care of and the couple being very courteous. The gentleman even gave us some special gifts when we checked in.

Our room was on the third floor. Fortunately, they had an elevator inside the building.

Inside our room "Brisbane".

A walk-in closet between the bedroom and the bathroom.

With a small make-up area.

Small balcony outside the bedroom.

Exploring the city of Hualien was what I was looking forward to do. The last time we came to the east coast we did not come to Hualien, so, this is a whole new city for me to discover. 

There was this one restaurant that I read on Tripadvisor that I thought would be a good place for dinner. It's called Mr. Goose on the main street of Zhongshan Road downtown.

I had a bowl of thin rice noodle to go with the meal.

A plate of goose meat. Prices are on the expensive side but everything was good. I think because of the reviews on Tripadvisor, there were quite a few foreign tourists there that evening and the waiter was able to communicate in English and Japanese.

After dinner we walked back down to the Dongdamen Night Market where we parked the car.

This is probably the busiest place in Hualien in the evenings. We had fun checking out the whole market and looked at all the food stalls even though we did not try any.

Other than this BBQ corn which looked so yummy!

Then back to the B&B for the night to get ourselves ready for tomorrow.

"For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless."   -- Psalms 84:11