Hualien 花蓮

Hualien is a city on the east coast of Taiwan known for its natural beauty,including Taroko National Park.

From Kaohsiung to Hualien

As mentioned in my Kaoshiung post, I took the TRA after my day trip to Cijin Island all the way up north and looped eastwards to arrive at Hualien. The journey was about 4.5 hours 🥱. No HSR for this leg as Hualien was not served by the HSR. I have considered taking the HSR from Kaohsiung to perhaps Taipei and transfer to the TRA to Hualien but after I went through the various factors, I thought taking a nap to hopefully recover from my sleep deprivation over the last week would be a better choice 😴. Yes, I lacked sleep but it was well worth it.

Arriving at Hualien

By the time I arrived, it was close to 2100 hours and I proceeded to check in at my accommodation, after which I went foodhunting for my dinner.

The accommodation suggested a fish soup shop nearby but when I went over, it was already sold out.

I walked down the street and came across other street food stalls. When in Taiwan, it was obvious that I had to try various versions of their braised pork rice. I went into one of them and ordered a braised pork rice. The server tempted me with their layout of other dishes and I ordered a piece of soya bean curd to go with my rice.

Supper was not in my plan as I wanted to have an early night for my day-long hike the next day. However, after I had dinner and was walking back to my accommodation, I came across a stall nearby managed by an elderly couple. The man had a hunched back and wore a back brace.

I saw that they had no customers and walked in to order a bowl of noodles to support them. The bowl of noodles was huge and I was quite bloated at the end. That as at about 2300 hours.

When I was on my way to the bus station at about 0600 hours the next morning, the woman was washing her utensils and crockery. That time, it was her who was wearing the back brace. 🥲

Just hope they are ok and remain in good health.

In and Around Hualien

Hualien was the last leg of my Taiwan adventure and the objective of including it as part of my adventure was obviously for Taroko Gorge.

I visited the following places while in Hualien:

• Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園/Taroko Gorge 太魯閣
• Hualien Bay Mall
• Dongdamen Night Market

Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園 / Taroko Gorge 太魯閣

iseasywith.me Public Service Announcement

Due to the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred on 3 April 2024, all levels of trails and facilities within the Taroko National Park jurisdiction have been damaged and are closed at the time of writing this article. Do check out the National Park Service website for the reopening dates.

iseasywith.me Friendly Reminder

During your research, you may want to plan which trails you want to conquer.
If you intend to do Zhuilu Old Road, you need to apply for a park entry permit. There is a quota of 96 persons (156 persons on Fridays, weekends and public holidays) allowed on the trail each day thus I would recommend to apply early when you have firmed up your itinerary.
If you intend to do the mountain trials, you may need to apply for a mountain permit.
Do prepare a decent pair of trekking shoes for the trails. Try walking around in it before your trip to 'run in' the shoes and see if there are any adjustments required e.g. insole, thicker socks, etc. I would discourage walking/running shoes as those soles are quite flat and may not provide sufficient grip

There are 31 trials and they are graded from 0 to 5.

I planned to do Zhuilu Old Road, Swallow Grotto (Yanzikou) Trail and Baiyang Trail.

On the morning of my visit to Taroko Gorge, it rained cats and dogs. I checked my phone and it showed 6 degrees Celsius with rainy conditions all day at Taroko National Park 😣. I was ok with the temperature but not the rain.

It became a drizzle at my scheduled departure time from the accommodation and I decided to proceed with my plan as I have only a day in Hualien.

I took bus 310 from Hualien Bus Station and the journey was about an hour.

If you are going to Zhuilu Old Road, alight at the Swallow Cave stop and the ticket counter/trail entrance/exit would be just in front.

After you show your permit and identification document and buy the entry ticket (NT $200), the staff would lead you to the gate for you to start your hike.

Even before I started my hike, the scenery at the entrance was already gorgeous and I started clicking my cameras. If you need more time to take photos, videos, selfies, etc., before you start, just let the staff know and that you would inform them when you are ready to enter and they would be glad to do so.

The start and end point is the same i.e. you hike to the end of the trail and take the same way back.

Zhuilu Old Road 錐麓古道

iseasywith.me Friendly Reminder

As advised by Taroko's website, this trail is rugged along much of its length and the cliff section is very narrow. Do not attempt it if you lack fitness, scared of heights or suffering from heart disease.
Trail entry is restricted from 0700 to 1000 hours daily.
The website also mentioned 'There are often venomous snakes and insects on the trail, so hikers should be extremely careful.' but I did not see any. 😔
As mentioned, some parts of the mountain paths are very narrow. I reckon they were less than a metre wide and beyond that was all the way down to the gorge so do be very careful when you are taking your photos, videos and selfies. We do not need to shoot a Superman scene there.

Zhuilu Old Road is part of the Cross-Hehuan Mountain Old Road, an important connection between Truku villages in the early days. It is the only culture/historic area in Taroko National Park.

When I was there, only the east 3.1 km of the trail is open to hikers. The rest of trail remains closed due to the rockfalls damages. Starting from Zhuilu Suspension Bridge, the trail leads to the Cliff Outpost, where hikers must turn back to the trail entrance in order to exit.

As it was still drizzling when I started the hike, I put on my cap and kept my jacket on but as I moved on, it became quite warm and I removed my jacket.

As I hiked on, the skies opened up, started to rain and I had to put on my raincoat. I had a challenging time juggling between my camera and phone (for selfies) along the way as they were below the raincoat but managed to overcome it.

The hike was amazing and upon reaching the mountain paths, the views were just out of the world!

It rained for the remaining of the way until I reached the end the trail.

On my way back, the rain stopped but the fog stepped in. The mountain views were covered but fortunately, I took quite a few shots on the way up.

As the ground was wet from the rain and it was a downhill path, I had to be careful with my steps.

As I took my time taking many shots on the way up, I took about 4 hours to complete the trail. The timeline mentioned on Taroko's website was 3 to 5.5 hours.

Swallow Grotto (Yanzikou) Trail

The Swallow Grotto Trail is just next to Zhuilu Old Road's trail entrance/exit.

You can take a leisurely walk and enjoy stunning views of the marble cliffs, deep ravines, potholes, Liwu river and the Indian chief.

Taroko's website mentioned 'Visitors should wear a safety helmet, and pay attention to their safety when entering the trail.' and 'Please borrow a free hard hat (helmet) at Xipan check in/check out Service Station at 177.9km on Provincial Highway 8.'

It was an easy walk with beautiful views of the mountain and water.

Baiyang Trail

After completing the 2 trails and as it was still drizzling, I did not want to take the risk thus decided to move on with my itinerary.

iseasywith.me Travel Hack

To me, there was nothing much at the Taroko Visitor Centre thus there was no point to specially check in there.
However, if you are taking a bus from the trails before the visitor centre towards Xincheng Train Station or Hualien Bus Station, you could check out the bus arrival times of buses 302 and 310.
Bus 302 ends at Xincheng Train Station and bus 310 ends at Hualien Bus Station.
I was headed towards Hualien Bus Station and I took bus 302 from Swallow Cave stop and alighted at the visitor centre. Bus 310's next arrival was in about 15 minutes. Thus, I had about that about of time to recee the visitor centre and collect stamps (see Taiwan- Resources), which I felt was sufficient. 😁
Do watch your time closely and you do not want to miss the bus as the frequency is not that 'frequent'. 😜

Hualien Bay Mall/Paradiso

There was nothing much here except for the first Starbucks made up of shipping containers.

Dongdamen Night Market 東大門夜市/Fuding Night Market 福町夜市

After visiting the container Starbucks store, I went over to Dongdamen Night Market/Fuding Night Market.

As it as drizzling, there was not much crowd. You can expect the usual food and game stalls like most night markets here.

If your accommodation is a distance from the night market, do check the bus schedule as when I was there, the last bus ended quite early and I had to walk all the way back to my accommodation. Fortunately, it was only slightly more than 2 km and I took a stroll back while enjoying the night scene at Hualien as I would be leaving the next morning.

As my pair of jeans was muddy from the morning's hike in the rain, it was a blessing that there was a laundrette near my hostel. Since I was washing my jeans, I washed the rest of my worn clothes as well. As I did not have enough coins, the laundrette provided changing of coins by making customers buy a NT$10 item from the vending machine with NT$100 before giving the change in coins. I needed more than NT$100 for my laundry and had to 'change' twice and ended up with 2 useless items. Total damage was NT130. 🙃

Food and Beverage

Departing Hualien

After achieving my objective of hiking Zhuilu Old Road at Taroko Gorge, it was time to say goodbye to my Taiwan adventure.

As my flight back home was in the evening the next day, I planned to spend half a day back at Taipei for some last minute foodhunting and shopping before heading to the airport for my flight.