Taiwan Day 5 / Taitung 台东 to Hualien 花莲

The view from my room.

Breakfast that morning with other tour groups from China... And I had a first-hand experience of how impolite Chinese people can be (no offense please, I'm not stereotyping - just writing down what I encountered!).

To begin with, the room is so small that the tables had to be arranged very closely to each other, so it was hard to walk about. Besides that, one row of tables were placed so near the buffet table, that chairs on the side had to be moved nearer to each other to provide walking space for people to get their food. Unfortunately, only the tables on that row were empty when we came down, so that meant we ate while being squashed like sardines.

Given the really tight space and a bunch of impatient people, what resulted was a series of shoving and pushing while people were getting their food, or going back to their tables. Also, they were so many people grabbing the food at the same time, a man even snatched a man tou from my mom when she already had it in between her chopsticks. Seriously?! Needless to say, I was in no mood to eat in such a chaotic environment - I just munched a few man tous to keep my stomach full.

Well.... A culture shock indeed. After breakfast, we travelled along the east coast. On my side was mountains and greenery everywhere, while on the other side was the ocean.

We came to this popular attraction called "Water Running Up" (水往上流) in the small town of Dulan (都兰). Here, water in the 1.8km irrigation channel miraculously flows upwards. At the start of the channel stands a stone tablet with the word "miracle" engraved in big characters.

It wasn't a very steep slope, but still a slope nonetheless. The water really seemed to flow up the slight incline.

I actually have my doubts regarding this mysterious phenomenon. Maybe the slope isn't actually a slope but a flat ground that feels like a slope? I came upon this website which "proved" that it is just an optical illusion. Well, I don't know about that but it sure is interesting to know. I want to try the trick myself too haha.

The view on top of the hill. It was so cold and windy up here!

Back on the road.

We went to Taiyuan Glen (泰源幽谷) next.

At the Donghe Bridge Scenic Area (东河桥游息区). There are actually two bridges - one old and one new - and both are built across Mawuku Creek. The new red bridge was built on tough limestone at the northern shore, which allows vehicles to pass through.

However, the old bridge was only supported with frames as the foundation at the southern shore was laid on a soft sediment. This is why the old bridge is only open to pedestrians.

I love the colourful sashes!

Notice the beautiful white limestones beneath the bridge.

At the Tropic of Cancer Marker (北回归线標).

The Tropic of Cancer is the Northern Hemisphere's furthest location from the equator at which the sun appears directly overhead. Every summer, the sun will shine directly over the Marker during noon, causing the white pole to have no shadows at all.

Was so excited to be standing at this "imaginary line"! :P We crossed the road to see this beautiful view of the ocean.

It was so cold that I had to cover my ears and wear gloves to prevent my ears and fingers from falling off!

Then, we travelled for more than an hour along the coastline amidst crashing waves and rolling hills. The scenery of the countryside was absolutely stunning. I gotta admit, looking out the window at the clear, blue water and strong waves for such a long period of time is somehow very therapeutic for the soul.

Xincheng Taroko train station (新城太鲁阁站) situated opposite the restaurant where we had our lunch. Look at the mist :O

Next we went to Taroko National Park (太鲁阁国家公园), one of the eight national parks in Taiwan. It is named after Taroko Gorge, the landmark gorge of the park known for its spectacular mountains and abundant supply of marble. The park actually spreads over the counties of Taichung, Nantou, and Hualien - so you can imagine how freaking enormous the area is.

We were given 10 minutes to take some photos by the roadside before going into the park itself.

After that, we had about half an hour to walk around the vicinity of the park.

Mountains and more mountains. I love this place!

The Visitor Center. You can find information about the park, a small museum, and a cafeteria inside.

We came to the cafeteria and saw that they were selling ice-creams, even though the weather was so cold. All the ice-creams looked so cute that I couldn't resist them, so we bought two (yes I know having ice-cream when it is so cold outside is crazy)! The green tea-flavoured one looks like an apple while the yam-flavoured one looks like a flower :D

We continued to Hualien Marble Factory (花莲大理石工厂). The factory processes raw marble blocks into shiny and polished marbles. Marble accessories and ornaments are also sold here, including items made from other minerals such as jade. An impressive marble fountain stands in the compound, and statues of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals greet visitors at the entrance of the factory. Inside, marble objects that serve as decoration are placed at almost every corner of the building.

Again, the same thing happened. We went into a room, someone gave a talk, and then asked if we wanted to buy some marble jewelries. While the promoting was going on, I walked around the place briefly and then waited outside because the place wasn't fascinating to me. I think we spent close to an hour waiting for our bus. It seemed like it mysteriously disappeared, along with our two tour guides. 

I was feeling restless plus it was so cold and windy - and then it rained. Not very heavy, but big and frequent droplets nonetheless. Which meant that we may not get to go to our next destination, Chihsing Tan Bay (七星潭). I listened to the Malaysian tour guide (who magically appeared later on) in dismay. Finally, our bus came and I thought we were really not going to the bay after all. But along the way, the rain gradually became lighter and then stopped (yay thank You God!!!).

As you know previously, the east coast of Taiwan is full of marbles. At the Chihsing Tan Scenic Area (七星潭风景区), even the parking curbs are made of marbles! This proves that there is such an excessive amount of marbles in this area that they don't know what else to use the marbles for. 

We were given 45 minutes, but I would prefer to stay longer as the time wasn't enough for me to soak in the magnificent beauty of the bay besides taking photos and videos, posing for the camera, and just... soak in the beauty (without freezing to death).

The bay has an elegant arch shape, with an excellent view of the clear blue waters of the Pacific ocean. If you noticed, there is no sand here but pebbles (woots no need to worry about getting sand in my shoes!).

Very cacat jump shot except for my sister, lol.

I didn't wanna leave this place D:

It was a short drive to a roadside restaurant where we had organic meals - it was dinner at 5:30pm. An early dinner meant that I will surely feel hungry later at night :/ It was 6 something by the time we finish, but as usual, the sun had disappeared beneath the horizon and I kept thinking it was already 8 or 9pm. Well, the good thing about having a super early sunset is that you have "extra" time at night haha! After dinner, we left for F Hotel.

Ermahgerd this is so cool. Of course, there is a blind to cover the window.

Three hours after dinner, my stomach began to grumble. My dad was fast asleep in his room so my mom, sister, and I walked to a nearby convenience store (there are quite a few shops and restaurants located just around the corner from our hotel) to buy noodles - Taiwanese version of Maggi Hot Bowl; beef-flavoured - and a packet of Oreo biscuits.  

The roads were quiet and it was only 8 something at night. There were merely a few cars parked by the roadside and not a single person in sight (although we did meet the local tour guide and a few people from our tour group along the way). Despite the street from our hotel to the convenience store being quite deserted, the feeling wasn't eerie at all as I felt pretty safe! It was so nice and refreshing to walk in the cool night air.  

(Okay actually the main reason why we went out of the hotel was to pass the time as we had to bring down our luggage to put in our tour bus at 9:30pm. We would be travelling back to Taipei by train the next morning, because one part of the highway is situated along a dangerous cliff so it would be risky to carry 20 lives on-board.)