It was a grey but dry morning. It’d be a reasonably short ride today, so I was in no rush to leave. Yesterday I reconsidered my ‘over the mountain’ route to Hualien when I realized that it would be a very quiet single lane road. Given the April 2024 earthquake (magnitude 7.4) and the washouts I’ve seen, I won’t risk it on my own. instead, I plotted a 50 km ride past a nearby lake and the waterfront in Hualien. I also added a short section of what would be a climb to a viewpoint, according to Komoot.
Eighteen people were killed in the April earthquake and 1100 were injured. It was the worst one since 1999 - see our visit to Jiji. They figure the nearby Taroko Gorge trails won’t open for years up to seven years. The highway through the park is open for part of each day, but it’s reportedľy still full of debris and busy with trucks. They don’t need some dolt on a bike coming for a look. Too bad, because the photos of the gorge show that it is spectacular.
I received a couple of guavas and a few bananas as a parting gift from Shoufeng. I feared the bananas won’t do well on the back of my rack, but I didn’t want to turn them down.
My climb to the viewpoint was less successful. A passersby let me know that the mossy road ended at a monastery. It was too steep anyway, so I turned around.
I made a food stop at Family Mart despite their awful jingle that plays whenever the door is opened. We found that we like 7-Eleven yams better. And there’s no jingle to get lodged in your brain.
I quickly entered the agricultural outskirts of Hualien, which are very pretty.
I pedalled past the port. Naming is tricky. This coast guard ship is identified both with ‘Republic of China’, the official name, and ‘Taiwan’, which seems the preferred name. And the giant neighbour next door It was easy to find my nice accommodation in the centre of Hualien, with no terrifying traffic to contend with. Too too bad there is lousy Wi-Fi in my room. As per usual, my bike got rolled right inside lobby. the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ at the Olympics and other events. Passports also apparently show both Taiwan and ROC on the covers.
This area of beach seemed to have lots of seaside tourism development. But the waves were still crashing in, and it didn’t look like a swimming beach to me.
The route to my hotel took me on a bike path through a flood control area with big berms on either side. They were cleaning it up after recent flooding.
It was easy to find my nice accommodation in the centre of Hualien, with no terrifying traffic to contend with. Too too bad there is lousy Wi-Fi in my room. As per usual, my bike got rolled right inside lobby. This is a bigger city - I’m across from and Adidas store. And I quickly discovered there there is a very good French bakery in the next block, so a yummy puff pastry and caramel used sugar creation was consumed.
I ate dinner near my hotel - sesame noodles that were good but weren’t as tasty as the ones in Jiji. Plus wontons. And a small brown sugar boba milk for dessert at the night market. I had to have a boba (bubble tea) drink in Taiwan, since they were created here.
Hualien has a very large dedicated night market space, not like other places we’ve been where they take over a street. It wasn’t very busy, and lots of the stalls were closed. Tourism is way down after the earthquake. What a shame - they’d just come through COVID (very well) and now this.
I count 12 rooms in my accommodation, and I think only one other is occupied, based on the shoes left where I swapped for the house slippers.
After all my mention of earthquakes, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised to be woken up at 11:30 by shaking. It was a magnitude 5.2 quake, apparently. Just a baby compared to April, but still alarming to me.
