{"id":963,"date":"2010-11-08T22:53:55","date_gmt":"2010-11-08T15:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/?p=963"},"modified":"2010-11-08T22:53:55","modified_gmt":"2010-11-08T15:53:55","slug":"east-coast-of-taiwan-hualien-to-taroko-gorge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/2010\/11\/08\/east-coast-of-taiwan-hualien-to-taroko-gorge\/","title":{"rendered":"East Coast of Taiwan – Hualien to Taroko Gorge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chishingtan,<\/a><\/p>\n

Total Miles Traveled: <\/strong>40,324<\/p>\n

Ladies and gentlemen – we’ve just crossed the 40,000 mile mark! \u00a0That’s a lot of miles! \u00a0To give you an idea of just how many miles that is… the\u00a0circumference\u00a0of the earth (at it’s equator) is 25K miles – so we’ve circumnavigated the earth almost 2 times. \u00a0From Maine to California is around 33oo miles across – so we’ve gone back and forth across the US 12 times.<\/p>\n

We had the opportunity to travel to the East Coast of Taiwan with Tony\u2019s parents and his aunt.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good thing we went with them because the area is largely inaccessible to English-speaking tourists.\u00a0 Most hotels are small and information about them can only be found in Chinese (Tripadvisor and Expedia are useless here).\u00a0 In addition, the best way to tour the area is by hiring a driver who can take you to the many out-of-the-way places and tell you about the area you are visiting.\u00a0 While we didn\u2019t understand a lot of what the driver said, at least we had Tony\u2019s family translate key points.<\/p>\n

Taiwan\u2019s east coast is quite picturesque.\u00a0 In some places there is less than a mile distance from ocean cliff to mountain terrain.\u00a0 This makes for some dramatic vistas. \u00a0Tony and I found it interesting that much of Taiwan\u2019s coastline is under-developed or not developed at all.\u00a0 We learned that the government controls a lot of the coastal land in an effort to fend off attacks.\u00a0 So you get alot of scenery like this:<\/p>\n

\"Chishingtan,<\/a><\/p>\n

and this…<\/p>\n

\"Chishingtan,<\/a><\/p>\n

The first night, we stayed at a small sea-side hotel. \u00a0Check out the ‘luxury’ bathtub…<\/p>\n

\"Chishingtan,<\/a><\/p>\n

The hotel was situated in a small village. \u00a0While checking out the village, we stumbled upon a small fish market. \u00a0The fishermen had just returned with their catch of the day. \u00a0We were surprised to see the rays as well as the baby hammerhead shark (we’re pretty certain it was illegal to catch it).<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

In the neighborhood we were staying in, Qi Xing Tan, we were told that goat\u2019s milk coffee is a delicacy.\u00a0 Well, of course we had to try it.\u00a0 While some people drink it hot, the proper way to serve it is cold.\u00a0 They also served goat\u2019s milk tea.\u00a0 We tried both.<\/p>\n

\"Goat<\/a><\/p>\n

The verdict:\u00a0 Not our \u2018cup of tea\u2019.\u00a0 Imagine melting goat cheese in your coffee.\u00a0 Blechhk! \u00a0We had our coffees hot, though we suspect that the cold ones would have been better.<\/p>\n

Taroko Gorge<\/strong><\/p>\n

About an hour inland there is a national park called Taroko Gorge.\u00a0 This area is known for tall mountains with steep cliffs, treacherous mountain roads, beautiful marble rock formations and\u00a0pristine\u00a0water. \u00a0Definitely worth a visit and maybe spending a couple of days hiking, if that suits your fancy.<\/p>\n

\"Taroko<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Taroko<\/a><\/p>\n

Don’t forget to wear your sexy hard hats when walking along the gorge…this keeps your head intact as the falling rocks, well, fall around you.<\/p>\n

\"Taroko<\/a><\/p>\n

This suspension bridge was fun to walk on… \u00a0Kind of a doozy because it would bounce up and down from you and others walking on it. \u00a0The trail ahead was closed presumably because there was a rock slide (which are quite\u00a0prevalent\u00a0throughout the area).<\/p>\n

\"Taroko<\/p>\n

\"Taroko<\/a><\/p>\n

The family – from left…Tony’s aunt, his dad, his mom, and us:<\/p>\n

\"Taroko<\/a><\/p>\n

What’s special about the photo below? \u00a0 The boulder. \u00a0Taroko has huge marble boulders along the river bed, many of which are more than 10 feet high! \u00a0It’s what makes this scenery different from the Andes Mountains in Argentina.<\/p>\n

\"Taroko<\/a><\/p>\n

Can you spot the facial profile of a person carved in to the rock? \u00a0Look for a nose.<\/p>\n

\"Taroko<\/a><\/p>\n

We hiked up some steep steps to see this temple…<\/p>\n

\"Taroko<\/a><\/p>\n

and this huge buddha statue…<\/p>\n

\"Taroko<\/a><\/p>\n

That night,we stayed at an “authentic” aboriginal “campy” hotel with beds on the floor that had built-in electric heating. \u00a0 If you ask Tony’s mom what she thought: \u00a0“I didn’t like the hotel at all.” \u00a0Despite the confused style, the food wasn’t bad.<\/p>\n

\"Taroko<\/a><\/p>\n

And, you cannot beat the view… the hotel was surrounded by mountains on all sides and accessed via a narrow valley.<\/p>\n

\"On<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a slideshow of all the photos:<\/p>\n

[flickrslideshow acct_name=”tony-chen” id=”72157625314389237″]<\/p>\n

Next up – it’s back to the coast and driving south past Taitung to Ziben – known for its natural hot springs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Total Miles Traveled: 40,324 Ladies and gentlemen – we’ve just crossed the 40,000 mile mark! \u00a0That’s a lot of miles! \u00a0To give you an idea of just how many miles that is… the\u00a0circumference\u00a0of the earth (at it’s equator) is 25K miles – so we’ve circumnavigated the earth almost 2 times. \u00a0From Maine to California is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}