Taiwan Apr 2006 清境. 花蓮, 九份. 廟口 (last update 2008)

View of the mountain ranges from ChingJing

ChingJing (清境）

Chingjing is a mountain town located in Nantou county with an altitude around 1500m. There are many hotels and minsu scattered in the area, provinding a relaxing and cooling holiday getaway for the locals as well as foreign tourists. Not much of package tours for foreign tourists (well, i dont see Chingjing as part of the itinery in any singapore travel packages). Price of accomodations can range from the basic to the extravagant hotels that comes even with an olympic size swimming pool.

The picture above is taken from our balcony at the Florence hotel at Chingjing. In the background was the central mountain range.

Getting to ChingJing is quite simple. From Taipei, take the HSR or normal train service to Taichung. From Taichung, take the connecting Nantou bus to Puli and from there, take another bus that goes up the mountain to ChingJing. Check the nantou bus service for bus schedule as the bus frequency from Puli to Chingjing is limited.

At the Puli bus terminal. Bus stop to ChingJing is just infront of KFC(not the Nantou bus terminal)

Florence Hotel @ CJ

The is the hotel Florence (above). This was taken during our morning stroll in the gardens below. We took the 3 day 2 nites package which include all meals plus a hotspring ticket at the town of Yu-chi, a 30mins drive downhill. There nothing much you can do at Chingjing. Just enjoy the crisp mountain air and learn to relax. There is a tourist centre by the road that has Starbucks and some souvenir shops. The buses that start from Puli will make a stop here. This is also where we alighted, made a call to the hotel for them to pick us up.

ChingJing Verteran Farm

In the above is the famous ChingJing Veteran Farm (清境農場）。You need to buy tickets to go into the farm. Over here you can feed the sheep and watch animal show. Too bad when we were there, the stage on under construction. There were workers instead of sheep on the stage. Our hotel provided free shuttle service to the farm. There are many hiking trails you can take to enjoy the nature. The end point will be the tourist centre.

At the ChingJing Veteran Farm

Sheep spotted on the grassland

Another view from our hotel balcony

Central Cross-Island Highway

Today we made our way from Chinjing to Hualien through the central cross-island highway. This is the only road that links the west coast to the east cost of Hualien, through the high central mountain range of Taiwan. On the way, we stopped at the DaYuling which is above 3000m in altitude. You can experience the high alphine air just by driving there. Our Hualien cabbie drove us through the thick mists and suddenly we were above the clouds.

Morning drive across the cross-island highway

Short shop at the roadside

Afer DaYuLing, we took the east road and started our decent along GuanYuan, Bilyu, all the way to TienSiang. The picture on the left showed our cab stopping at the roadside for us to roam around to enjoy the great scenary.




Taroko Gorge (太魯閣）
As we made our way down the mountains through the Central Cross-island highway. We arrived at Taroko Gorge. The famous 19km long of majastic canyon of granite and marble. You can virtually see huge chunks of white marble rock in the river bed as well as the side of the of the steep clifs. Our local cabbie cautiously drove us through meandering roads, past many cloud layers and once a while stop his cab to explain to us some of the fauna and medicinal herbs that you can find.

A segment of the gorge

 
In times of typhoon, the roads to Taroko will be closed as the roads may be floated. Our cabbie Mr Chen told us there an incident that he was stuck in Taroko because the roads were flooded and there was no way to get back down to Hualien. As we near the tourist areas, we saw loads of tour buses plying up and down the roads. It was a total experience from the atmosphere we had while we were driving down the Central Cross-Island highway.

Do you see the face?

The picture above shows the face of an American Indian. This is what the locals named it. You can actually made out the eyes, nose and mouth of the fellow. At times when the water level is high, it will look like he is drinking from the river bed. This is one of the must-see spot in the Taroko Gorge Tour.

Tunnel of Nine Turns

The picture above is the Tunnel of Nine Turns. The tunnel is named after its unique turns having nine of them. The tunnel has been made into a walking path. Tourists would normally alight at one end of the tunnel and walked to the other end. We also made our way through the nine turns.

Water level can rise very high in times of typhoon

In the above is a typical narrow gorge in Taroko. You can imagine when typhoon comes and the whole area can be flooded with thundering water sweeping through the gorge. Wouldnt want to be here during a typhoon. The east coast of Hualien has always been beaten with typhoon and many times the Taroko Gorge will see some change in its rock structure.

Little holes in the rock wall for swallows

The picture above shows many of the little holes on the rock face which are the homes to the swallows. There are swallows flying in and out of these. I jokingly asked our cabbie tour guide are there bird nests inside this holes. He said there wont be because every time the typhoon comes, whatever bird nests will be washed away. Just for non-chinese who are not accustomed to the delicacies of bird-nests. We are not refering to the nests of the swallow itself. It is actually the saliva of the swallow that chinese collects as delicacies. You can buy these 'bird nests' from any chinese medicine shops and supermarkets. It is said that these bird nest helps to improve our health.
To get to Taroko Gorge : You can base yourself in Hualien, hire a cab to get there. There are lotsa of cabbies waiting at the Hualien Railway station to offer their service. Train from Taipei to Hualien takes about 4hrs.


HuaLien(花蓮）

At the 七星譚

Another view (crowded)

 
After coming down from Taroko Gorge, we reached the gateway to the famous Taroko Gorge (太魯閣）and itself is one of the largest city on the east coast of Taiwan. HuaLien has always been the victim of typhoons that lash at the city many times in a year. It is located on a narrow strip of land between the Central Mountain Range and the Pacific Ocean. The place offers an endless view of the pacific ocean. The picture on the right is one of the attractions of HuaLien, the 七星譚。Wonder why they call it a lake since it is actually the ocean.

Yummy sushi at the fishing harbor

A little stall serving fresh sushi and fried rice noodle

 
Our cabbie that drove us all the way from Chingjing, brought us to the Hualien fishing habour. I can say this is the freshiest sashimi you find in Taiwan. In the heart of the town. Do try the ZengJi Muaji (曾記嘛吉）。The city centre are all low storey shop houses with shops sellings everything from foodstuffs to apparel. When the night falls, the combination of the lights and bustle makes it quite a pleasant place to walk after dinner. Oh, it is not as congested as ShiLin (市林).

Zeng-Ji MuaJi at Hualien

Hualien Ocean Park
We spend the morning and late afternoon at Hualien only theme park. The Hualien Ocean Park. This park has some fun rides, with acceptable Gs from the Viking, and some splashes from the Pirate Ship ride. There are schedule shows for dolphins and swim with dolphin sessions as well.

Hualien Ocean Park

Mock up castle at Ocean Park

How to get here? Just hail a cab. The charges are fixed and may not go by the meter. For us, our Mingsu(民宿）owner gave us a ride on his MPV to the theme park and fetch us back to the city centre after the park closes around 4pm. Yup. they close early. No complains. The attractions could not last visitors the entire day.

For the next day, we made a trip to the East Valley rift valley area further down south of the Hualien along the coastline. Our minsu host provided us the option to tour the area for a fee of course. We visted one of the dairy farm which they converted into a theme base family friendly centre where their local produce was made an attractions for visitors.
 


JiouFen (九份）

Street entrance to JiouFen

Jioufen is a small little town located on the hills or northen taiwan. Once a mining town in the past, now the town hosts shops attracting tourists from all over the world. Many tour packages would include JiouFen as one of the items in their itineries. The town offers a spendid view of the pacific ocean, and a clear close view of 基隆山(picture below). We thought it was a brisk walk up the summit of 基隆山, but ended up all sweaty and hot. It is all steps of stairs to climb. Just as we thought we were nearing the summit, there was more to come. Do try out the spicy cuttlefish balls. They are great. Remember the traditional pineapple tarts. Get them there from a Hong Kong style confectionery.


Getting here : Many ways. there are buses from Taipei that come all the way here. Or you can take the train to RueiFan (瑞芳）station and transfer to a bus to JiouFen. For us, we took a GuoGuang Bus to Keelung City (基隆市）and transfer to another bus to JiouFen. It takes much longer but enjoy the slow ride. Passing many of the local schools and shops. Faster way will be bus ride from RueiFang train station and you can take a train from Taipei Main Railway station to RueiFang. The bus stop at RueiFang is just infront of the station next to the 7-eleven convenient store,

Mt Keelung (accessible from Jioufen)

If you happen to visit Jioufen, dont forget to savour the foods at the night market of MiaoKou(廟口）. You wont regret it. Personally, i think this is the truly food street of all the night markets. It is just a short walk from the Keelung City train station. There are frequent buses from Jioufen to Keelung. Just look for bus with the signage Keelung and board the bus. Somewhere in 2008, the use of the same farecard used in Taipei city can be used in the Keelung and Jioufen area as well.

Coast view shot taken from Jioufen

JiouFen & MiaoKao (九份. 廟口）(Revisited in Oct 2008)

Back in Oct, we made another visit to Jioufen after scaling the summit of Taiwan, Mt Yushan. This time we came with a group of friends. So instead of creating another blog, just add on to the previous one. Getting is still the same, but this time we took the RueiFang station route. Much faster. What makes JiouFen so special are the rows of shops that dotted the narrow alley running up the slope. The coziness, the old steps that brings out the flavor of history behind it. Merchandise and local food stuffs that scented alley way. And if you break away from the crowded main stone paved path, you will chance upon little surprises. Some of the less crowded restaurants are located away from the main tourist path, so it does reward those who like to explore a little.

Shops decorated the walkway. Jiufen characterised by the red lanterns

Sovenirs and local produce.

Fragrant flower tea. Love the GuiHua.

Back alley with red lanterns

Little magnets of wooden clogs

Tea houses at the back lane.

The so called end point has a fantastic view of the Keelung bay and on good weather, can even see the Keelung harbour. The are some nice cafe at the top offering visitors a cool drink with superb mountain view. A word of caution is that on public holiday the roads up to the mountain village of JiouFen can be super crowded since the road is only a 2 way single lane road.

Direct bus to Taipei (too long journey maybe)

From JiouFen, we took a straight bus into the heart of KeeLung to visit the famous MiaoKou(廟口) nite market. This was our 2nd time here and never will we be bored by the food stalls there. Seemed to be ever changing.

The icon lanterns of MiaoKou Street Food market

Oyster panfried (waiting for it)

Plate of  oyster omelette

Favourite crabmeat soup & glutinuous rice

The food street is a short walk from the Keelung train station. For those taking the bus down from Jioufen, you can alight 2 stops before the train station to save some walking distance. The entrance from the train station side is located among shops houses and to find it just look for the big fast food chains like KFC which was located opposite the entarnce.  From here, getting back to taipei is a breeze. Either take the train (MRT) from Keelung train station ( tap with the same farecard), or the Guoguang express bus. Price is about the same, but the bus seemed to be more cozy and you can sleep through the one hour journey.