Hualien | 花蓮

January 3, 2023

Happy New Year! This is the first of a few posts with updates from December. During the last week of November, I went to Hualien, a city in eastern Taiwan with some friends. Hualien is known for its beautiful scenery, and it certainly did not disappoint!

After class on Friday, we took the Taiwan Rail to Hualien. Our train was a very new and modern train and was quite fancy! After our two and a half hour train ride, we arrived at Hualien station. Our Aribnb was a short walk from the station, and was perfect for our short weekend. We slept in capsule bunk beds which were a unique but comfortable experience. We went to bed nice and early to get up the next morning for a long day of seeing scenery.

Our fancy new train

In my capsule bed

In the morning, we enjoyed a typical Taiwanese breakfast before being picked up by our lovely driver and heading to Taroko Gorge (found inside Taroko National Park) to see many different sights.

First, we stopped at Qingshui cliff on the outskirts of the park. Although it was a cloudy and drizzly day, the scenery was still stunning, like nothing I’d seen before. The water was a beautiful turquoise-blue, and the cliffs were shrouded in misty clouds. After Qingshui, we drove into the park and made a brief stop at the visitor’s center to collect the Taroko Park stamps before heading to the Boluowan terrace and suspension bridge. We enjoyed a brief and early lunch in a small restaurant before crossing a large suspension bridge spanning the width of the gorge. The view from the bridge was amazing.

After viewing the bridge, we headed to the Swallow’s Grotto Trail, a paved trail cutting through rock on the edge of the gorge along a former Japanese road. Along this trail, we observed lots of holes in the rock, and could also see the clear and distinct layers of rock present in the gorge. The trail is called Swallow’s Grotto because swallows will often nest in the rock near the trail. We spotted a couple swooping through the gorge but couldn’t identify any nests. Since Taroko is in Hualien, a place with a lot of earthquakes, we wore helmets (borrowed from the park for free) while on the trail in case of falling rock.

After Swallow’s Grotto, our driver took us to an Indian head rock, a natural feature in the gorge that locals say resembles an indigenous American chief. While the parallels are a bit outdated, I could appreciate the resemblance of the rock feature to stereotypical portrayals of some indigenous Americans. After this stop, we visited the tunnel of nine turns, another short trail along another former Japanese road in the gorge. From here, we were able to view the river rushing below.

Our final stop in the park was at the Eternal Spring Shrine. We had hoped to hike up close, but unfortunately, the trail was closed for construction maintenance, so we had to view from a distance. The shrine looks like something out of a fantasy book…the colors were so vivid against the dim green trees and gray clouds. The surrounding misty mountains made the scene even more magical.

Indian head rock

Eternal Spring Shrine

Before we knew it, our day in Taroko was over. Our driver was so kind and helpful that we hired her for our second day to take us around to different scenic spots. After a brief evening rest, we went to Dongdamen (東大門夜市) night market in Hualien. I enjoyed a lot of tasty things including some classic night market BBQ skewers and some of the best banana milk I’ve had in my life. After a delicious night market dinner, we noticed some people singing on a plaza nearby and went to investigate. We soon figured out that the singers were people visiting the night market and that it was an outdoor KTV (karaoke) setup. Violetta and I decided to go out on a limb and try to sing a song together. We settled on a song called 十年 (shi nian) and practiced a couple times off to the side before getting up on stage and singing at the park. It was a bit scary, but also such a fun and memorable time. Later that night, we experienced a pretty intense earthquake, especially by Taipei standards. The magnitude was 5.1, and we were located in the epicenter. Our whole room was shaking and swaying for about thirty seconds before it stopped. We were all a little shaken (no pun intended:), but we were safe. We asked our driver about it the next day, and she was pretty unfazed…earthquakes of that magnitude are pretty frequent in Hualien, so locals don’t bat an eye.

Singing in the park with Violetta

A cute lemon tea at the night market

Banana milk

The next day, we followed a similar morning routine before packing up our bags and meeting our driver. Our first stop was to 七星潭 (Qixingtan beach), a famous rock beach in Hualien. We were surprised to have some sunny weather and enjoyed soaking up the sun next to the beautiful blue water.

Next, we went to 砂婆噹溪畔公園 (shapo dangxipan park) to enjoy some small waterfalls. It was a bit cold to swim, but we were able to wade and take some fun pictures! After the waterfall, we stopped for some lunch and tried 煎麵 (jian mian), a type of fried noodles which was really yummy!

At the waterfall!

A lovely morning on polaroid

With our driver

After lunch, we went to a nearby park area with some fall colors (a rare sight in Taiwan). I hadn’t seen any colorful trees yet, so it was nice to be in a place where it felt like the seasons were changing.

We made a brief stop at 鯉魚潭風景游憩區 (liuyu lake), but didn’t stay long because the weather turned more overcast. Next, we went to 9803 Cafe, a coffee shop that my Chinese professor always used to go to when she was in college in Hualien. Supposedly (according to her) they have the best hot chocolate in the world, so we went to check it out. I was super impressed with the hot chocolate…it was Italian style—very creamy, thick, and chocolate-ey. Although the cafe was out of the way, it was 100% worth it! I would agree with my professor that it’s some of the best hot chocolate in the world, at least that I’ve had.

After a final stop at a small jade market, we made our way back into Hualien and enjoyed some brown sugar shaved ice before heading to the train station. The shaved ice had the flavor and texture of brown sugar straight from the bag, and was delicious. After a very heartfelt goodbye with our driver, we went into the station and got on the train back to Taipei.

The incredible hot chocolate

Eating shaved ice

Shaved ice with lots of toppings

There’s so much more I’d like to see in Hualien. I could devote an entire trip to more intense hiking in Taroko National Park, and I’d like to explore more of the city/downtown area next time I go. Our trip was an amazing first taste of some of the beauty Taiwan has to offer. I’d never seen scenery like I saw on this trip—it was truly incredible.