Quality Inn Hualien

... guess that's ok. There really wasn't anything else to do apart from that as there wasn't enough time to go on any of the other hikes. Tian Xiang was a lot more rural that I had originally thought. We just sat in our room watching movies on cable and had dinner at 6pm (breakfast and dinner is included in the accommodation). It was actually pretty good for something similar to cafeteria food, and I was perplexed at the fruit we were given. It was green on ...

We had yet another early start today. We had planned on waking up at 6:30 to catch the 7:30 bus, but we were wide awake by 5:30, so we decided to take the 6:30 bus to get into Taroko Gorge early. We went into the park with our new friend Wang something something, who stayed at our hostel, and spoke about 15 sentences the entire day.

Taroko Gorge is one of the deepest gorges in the world, and ...

... were never found. The Taiwanese government decided to turn a highly damaged middle school campus site into a National museum for the purpose of educating for the future and well as honoring the dead. The museum is enormous and a lot of work went into exposing the fault in the ground so everyone could see it. They structurally secured classroom buildings so that they would not fall down under their own weight, but the damage caused by the earthquake could be ...

Before I begin re-telling our Sunday adventures...here is a quick blurb on New Year's Eve: Meghan and I both worked til 9:10 PM and then stopped off at the dorm to change and head out to Taipei to try to catch the fireworks. Apparently they are absolutely amazing and this would be the last year that Taipei would be doing the whole NYE fireworks thing. So, Meghan and I booked it to the train station (we had purchased our tickets the week before) and got to Taipei shortly after 11 PM. We ...

... Grand Canyon, we didn't just go to a rock and look at it. We took a 6+ hour bus ride through the gorge. We saw sites such as the Tunnel of Nine Turns, the Eternal Spring Shrine, The Bridge of the Kind Mother, Swallow's Mouth, etc. At one point we were dropped off and allowed to walk through a series of caves and the bus driver picked us up on the other side. In addition we stopped and explored bridges ...

16 May Woke up at 6:30, had breakfast (Cheerios) in my room and packed for the train trip to Hualien, the town from which tours to Taroko Gorge, Taiwan's most popular tourist destination, originate. Professor Lee dropped me off at Taipei's Main Railway Station in time for my 9:25 departure. I had a first-class ticket (commensurate with my social standing - he he) for the 2 hour and 15 minute ride. The cost for a one-way ticket was about NT$400, or approximately US$12. The train was ...

Beach patrol along Pacific Ocean, from Jingmei railway station to Qisingtan, Climb every mountain, search high and low, follow every by-way, every path you know, Climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow, till you find your dream, every body like the movie "The sound of music", walking off road, along the beach, find ...

... without one car turning this way, I decided to walk the coast. When I reach the other side of the street two cars come and turn right. I take it as a sign from somewhere to forget Rueisuei for the time being. On the way I move slowly, I am tired, worn out and later, when it gets hot without shade and the heat under my umbrella rises I feel dizzy and demotivated. Still the people in the villages, sitting and chatting in the shadow in ...

... I walk to an old Japanese house settlement, which is now empty , but under some kind of protection - a really nice place beside a river with a very nice atmosphere. My further way leads me along the habor park, the stone sculpture park ( with the Hualien Stone Carving Museum which I do not visit due to lack of time ) and then two very old, very lifely and elaborately decorated Taoist temples Dongjingchan and Tzu Hui Tang ...

... and farming. They had a strong fighting spirit. Toroko in their clan language means ' platform on the hill-side '. In Japanese times they were massacred, mainly due to their strong fighting spirit and resistance against the occupiers. They shed a lot of blood and tears to protect their land. The remaining Truku assimilated with the Atayal to escape persecution. That's why it took so long for them to be recognized as separate tribe. As of now they are ...