Hualien

During the second week of break, Lane, Alison, and I made a little trip to Hualien, a town on Taiwan’s east coast. We took an evening train from Taipei, arriving shortly after eight o’clock.

On our first day in Hualien, we made an excursion to Taroko National Park, a reserve established around Taroko Gorge. After an hour-long search, we were finally able to locate the Taroko-bound bus, which we rode until the Shakadang Trail. The trail was an easy, leisurely walk, and the scenery was quite pretty, especially the Shakadang river’s azure waters juxtaposed against the gorge’s orange rocks. The only inconvenience was that the trail did not – contrary to our initial expectation – lead to another station of the bus, and we had to return the same way we had come, which was a tad boring.

 After Shakadang, we rode the bus to the end of the line, where we ate lunch and bought water. We then rode back down to the Swallow Grotto Trail, a curious assembly of caves and tunnels above the river. We spent the afternoon and evening in Hualien, exploring the city and relaxing at a nearby beach.
 The Hualien Coast
 More of the same
 More of the same
 More of the same
 More of the same
 A statue of Guanyin looking towards the sea
 More Hualien beaches
 More of the same
 The beginning of the Shakadang Trail
 The Shakadang River
 Walking through tunnels along the Shakadang Trail
 The Shakadang River
 More of the same
 Tropical plants
 A resilient sapling
 Another view of the Shakadang River
 A big spider making its way over the trail
 A green snail shell
 The Shakadang River
 A red anthurium
 Damselfly
 Another view of the river
 Another green snail shell
 Yet another view of the river
 At the top of the Taroko line
 The gorge as seen from the Swallow Grotto Trail
 The inside of a cave
 A fluffy caterpillar
 Pebbles on a Hualien beach
 A spider on a rock
 A rock that looks like bread
 A pebble tower
Another Hualien beach

We spent the next day biking. The sun shone so brightly that I don’t think I ever sweat as much as I did that day. We saw several beaches, a local lighthouse, and of course the east coast’s  majestic mountains slowly draping themselves in clouds as the day went on and the weather changed. We left for Taipei the following morning.


 Flowers in our garden
 A cemetery under Hualien's majestic mountains
 Another Hualien beach
 More of the same
 Sunfish statue close to our house
 Industrial Hualien
 A Hualien lighthouse
Clouds above Hualien's mountains

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