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“I've Been to Hualien” is a series of travel adventures focusing on one of Taiwan's province on the east coast – Hualien. Many tourists in Taiwan go here just to see the Taroko National Park thinking that the gorge is the only place that they can see. They go back home telling their friends and loved ones that they've been to Hualien without ever visiting its other exciting places. There are Japanese villages that had been forgotten by time and a theme park that is just beside the Pacific Ocean. You can fly in the sky by paragliding and be adventurous with a river rafting and river trekking activity. Watch dolphins swim freely in the ocean and enjoy taking videos of running ostriches in a big ranch. Dip your bodies in a hot spring with the feel warmth of being in a nostalgic Japanese town. There are just many places to visit proving that Hualien is more than just Taroko. Ride the train and travel with your friends or just be alone. It won't really matter because there is always something waiting for you in this province. Come and explore its many tourists attractions and say proudly that “I've been to Hualien”.
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“I've Been to Hualien” is a series of travel adventures focusing on one of Taiwan's province on the east coast – Hualien. Many tourists in Taiwan go here just to see the Taroko National Park thinking that the gorge is the only place that they can see. They go back home telling their friends and loved ones that they've been to Hualien without ever visiting its other exciting places. There are Japanese villages that had been forgotten by time and a theme park that is just beside the Pacific Ocean. You can fly in the sky by paragliding and be adventurous with a river rafting and river trekking activity. Watch dolphins swim freely in the ocean and enjoy taking videos of running ostriches in a big ranch. Dip your bodies in a hot spring with the feel warmth of being in a nostalgic Japanese town. There are just many places to visit proving that Hualien is more than just Taroko. Ride the train and travel with your friends or just be alone. It won't really matter because there is always something waiting for you in this province. Come and explore its many tourists attractions and say proudly that “I've been to Hualien”.
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| From left to right: Susi, Ali, Mrinal, Fisoliya and me |
The opening salvo for this Hualien Special is a trip to Qixingtan beach. Four Travel Buddies joined me and they were all excited to see Eastern Taiwan. Susi (Indian) and Ali (Pakistani) were first timers in my travel adventures while Mrinal (Bangladeshi) last joined in Taiwan Day 883 (My Long-Lost Brothers). Fisoliya (Zimbabwean) was the lone female among the group and she joined to do a comeback appearance in my Taiwan Day Adventures. She won the 2015 Travel Buddy of the Year and I paid for all of her travel expenses as her prize for winning the prestigious award. My entire travel team woke up very early and met at 6am just to reach the Taipei City Hall Bus Station where our journey to Hualien would start.
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| The combo tickets are available at Taipei City Hall Bus Station, Xincheng Station and Hualien Stations. |
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| The combo ticket |
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| The additional NTD 73 ticket that we paid for an express train at Luodong Station. It took only 1 hour to reach Hualien instead of the usual 1.5 hours. |
Going to Hualien was difficult due to the scarcity of train tickets from Taipei to Hualien but the problem was easily solved by buying combo tickets. This mode of transportation going to Hualien is done by boarding a bus from Taipei City Hall Bus Station to Luodong Station in Yilan province and then transferring to a local train going to Hualien. The price of the combo tickets was NTD 209. Just tell the lady at the counter of Taipei City Hall Bus Station that you are going to buy combo tickets to Hualien. What's the advantage of buying combo tickets? You will get discounts in the bus fare and for the train trip. We upgraded our tickets at Luodong Station to a Tze-Chiang Limited Express since the last local train before 8am already left. An additional fee of NTD 73 was requested from us at the ticket counter in the train station.
It took 1 hour for the express train to reach Hualien. Some trains take 1 hour and 30 minutes to reach Hualien and for this “slow” express train an additional fee of NTD 23 is only needed. It really depends on the total travel time on how much will you add more for your combo tickets. I was so lucky to get a seat number printed on my ticket and I slept comfortably while the train goes inside a tunnel.
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| The Hualien Bus Company building where we were supposed to wait for the bus going to Liyu Lake. |
We reached Hualien at 9:21am and after getting out of at the Front Exit of Hualien Station opportunistic taxi drivers wanted to get our attention. One of these drivers is a man named Mr. Hong. Let's just call him Uncle Hong. He was insisting to ride his taxi for a fare of NTD 500 where he would take us to Taroko National Park visiting all the spots there and also the famous Qingshui cliffs for one whole day. My original plan was to go to Liyu Lake first and then Qixingtan and I got a bit irritated by Uncle Hong until I just saw the Taiwan Tour Bus going to Liyu Lake just passed by. My friends and I were waiting at the wrong Taiwan Tour Bus stop and that was the reason why we missed the bus. There are actually two bus stops for the two separate lines of the Taiwan Tour Bus. The Taroko line is in front of the Hualien Visitor Information Center which you can find by just walking out of the Front Exit of the Hualien Station and walking to the right side. You can easily see the visitor center and the Taiwan Tour Bus (Taroko Route) marker just stands there. The Taiwan Tour Bus (Hualien Route) going to Liyu Lake was in front of the orange colored building of the Hualien Bus Company. My group should have walked to the left side of the train station after we got out of the Front Exit. Uncle Hong succeeded in destroying my travel plan so we were forced to go to Qixingtan first and ride his taxi for a fee of NTD 200 (NTD 40 each). The bus fare going to Qixingtan was only NTD 24. We were five people so the taxi fare was a bit cheap but if you are travelling alone then a NTD 200 taxi fare to Qixingtan would be really expensive. Nevertheless, we arrived safely at the famous pebble beach.
The Taiwanese way of opening a hole in a coconut
It's not yet the summer months in Taiwan and the crystal blue waters of the Pacific Ocean was not obvious in the photos that I got but the cloudy sky made at least the temperature comfortable to all the visitors in the beach. We strolled at Qixingtan’s pathway were vendors selling different kinds of food can be seen with the coconuts as the one catching the most attention from the visitors. I paid NTD 100 to buy one and I was so curious how will the Taiwanese vendor open a coconut and a put a straw inside. I was surprised when a kid just assisted me. He then punched a small hole in the coconut. Voila! He put a straw and gave it to me. In the Philippines, a large kitchen knife called 'itak' is used to cut open a coconut with one big slash so I was a bit surprised with the Taiwanese way of opening a hole in a coconut.
fighter jets flying from a nearby military base
I brought my coconut near the beach where my Travel Buddies were having fun taking photos of themselves with the cool waters of the Pacific Ocean. The waves crashed into the beach and as it returns to the sea it carried pebbles creating a sound that only Qixingtan will only have. Everybody heard the song of the ocean as fighter jets flew from the nearby military airport like guardians in the sky.
Nobody was swimming in the ocean and people just went to the beach on that day to enjoy the scenery. You have the Pacific Ocean in front of you and at your back are towering of mountains of Taiwan at a height of 3,000 meters so it was not really surprising to see large rounded pebbles to gather around the shoreline of Hualien. It is the geology of Eastern Taiwan that created this magnificent work of art. I don't know what happened to the sands but it was simply missing. My Travel Buddies even explored to the far side of the beach and what they found were just rounded and smooth pebbles. haha! Qixingtan is really the beach without a grain of sand. (To be continued...)
Sakura Series - Taiwan
2024 Forecast
Taipei 101 first flowers
Tianyuan Palace backyard
Taipei Flower Test Center
Pingjing St. Lane 42
Broadwood Park
Sunshine Sports Park kawazu sakura
Wuling Farm (武陵農場)
SYS kawazu sakura
Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village
CKS Memorial Hall
Shibafen Yoshino Sakura
Hope River
Dongfang Temple
Tianyuan Palace
Neicou Stream Trail
Orange Garden Cafe
Yangming Park Visitor Information Center
Yangming Park Service Center Bus Stop
Huashan Road
Qianshan Park
Zhongshan Hall Entrance
Tenglong Sakura Farm
Flower Test Center Shōwa Sakura
Neihu Creek Trail
Shulin Land Office
Xióng Kōng Cherry Blossom Forest
Lung Yen Sakura Forest
Yangming Park cherry stream
Yangming Park fountain
CKS Memorial Hall Tairyō sakura
Wugu District Tianyi Road
CKS Memorial Hall yaesakura
Loving Farm
Yong Long Farm
Zhongbaling Sakura Road
Sun Link Sea
Tai'an Police Station
Cherry Hill Slope
Hsinchu Park
Taipei 101
Kāng Gào Kēng Creek
New Garden City
Broadwood Park
Tianyuan Palace backyard
Pingjing St. Lane 42
Alishan Ranger Station
Alishan House
Alishan Police Station
Alishan Forest Railway
Alishan Station
Alishan Entrance
Alishan Gou Hotel
Alishan Magnolia Garden
Wulai tour
Wun Chang Elementary School
Bishanyan
Sanzhi Sansei Trail
Sakura Series - Taiwan
Nei Cuo Stream
Orange Garden Cafe
Sansei Trail
Tenglong Sakura Farm
Yangming Park Cherry Stream
Yangming Park Fountain
Flower Test Center
Broadwood Park
New Garden City
Yinghua Park
Pingjing St. Lane 42
Yangmingshan Visitor Center
Taipei 101
Tianyuan Palace backyard
Sakura Series - Japan
Kamonyama Park
Near the Nippon Maru Memorial Park
Shinko Park
Minato-mirai 21 area
Tokyo Tech Suzukakedai Campus
Onda River
Tenryuji
Byodoin
Kiyomizudera
Himuro shrine and Yakushi-ji Temple
Hōryū-ji Temple
Nara Park attractions
Tokyo Tech Ookayama Campus
Sumida River
Tsuruma Park
Gion
Maple Series
Taipei Aowanda
Shimen Dam
Alishan
Aowanda
Shanlinxi
Taoyuan Valley Garden
Fushoushan Farm
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| Yehliu to Jiufen? Yehliu to Shifen? Cheaper than yellow taxis |
The "Taipei kong mahal" (My beloved Taipei)
Always in my heart
MRT birdman
Valentine's Day
Tulips Festival
2018 Taipei Lantern Festival
City of Azaleas
Linji Huguo Temple
Nanjichang Night Market
Gudetama Chef restaurant
Dalongdong Bao'an Temple
Shilin hollyhocks
Ningxia Night Market
Ximending graffiti
Discovery Center of Taipei
Chunghwa Postal Museum
Double-Decker Bus
Shilin Cold Balls
Jingimoo
GomanMango
mud volcanic ice
Fire and Ice Dumpling
Opium Fen-Yuan
Ichiran Ramen
Liu Shandong Beef Noodles
hydrangea flowers
National Palace Museum
Other attractions in Taipei
Taipei on a budget
Japanese buildings
Dāoxiāomiàn beef noodles
Presidential Office Building
Yongkang St. and Elephant Mountain
CKS and SYS Hall
City tour
Beitou ramen
MRT Monopoly Game
Winter city tour
Zhicheng Park
Shilin Plum Blossom
Art museums
Shopping in Taipei
Summer desserts
Qingtiangang
Qixingshan hiking
2015 Calla lily
2016 Calla lily
Beitou tour
Beitou-Zhuzihu tour
NTU
Confucius Temple
2015 Dadaocheng Festival
Puppet Museum
Fantasy Ice World
2016 Bread Show
Strawberry picking
2015 Rose Garden
Modern Toilet
Shilin Night Market
NASA Exhibit
Raohe Night Market
Longshan Temple
2013 Taipei Zoo
Maokong Gondola
Lupin flowers
Taipei 101 day visit
Taipei 101 night visit
Tiger Mountain
Din Tai Fung
Taipei Story House
2014 Flower Show
Chrysanthemum Show
Miramar Ferris wheel
Miniatures Museum
Archery
1600 Pandas
Wulaoguo hot pot
Upside Down House
2016 101 Fireworks
New Taipei
Tamsui Pumpkin Tunnel
Shifen Waterfall
2017 Sand Sculpture
Dragon Caves
New Taipei tour
2016 Kite Festival
Pingxi Crags
Bitou Cape
2016 Sand Sculpture
2015 Christmasland
Juming - Jinshan
Houtong - Pingxi
Sandiaoling Waterfall
Jiufen foodtrip
Guanyinshan hike
Yehliu Ocean World
2014 Kite Festival
Pingxi Rail tour
Jinguashi tour
Vigor Kobo Pineapple
British Consulate
Yehliu Geopark
2014 Sand Sculpture
Paragliding
2014 Christmasland
2014 Pingxi Lantern
firefly watching
Yingge Ceramics Street
Jiufen tour
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