Christmas in Taiwan: Three weeks to see the entire country

From Thailand we took a sharp turn north to Taiwan. Three and a half hours after leaving Bangkok’s 30 degree heat we were in Taipei where it was 8 degrees, rainy and windy. We aren’t carrying cold-weather clothing so had to quickly adapt. We spent three weeks circumnavigating the island. Though barely bigger than Vancouver Island (or Belgium for non-Canadians), three weeks was only enough to skim over the highlights.

Taipei

Taipei is a massive city with a population of 2.5 million. Fortunately getting around by metro, bus and train is a breeze. Traditional old neighbourhoods and markets sit side-by-side with futuristic modern towers and glitzy designer shopping malls.

The city is dominated by Taipei 101. When it was completed in 2009 it was the world’s tallest building. The high speed elevator runs at 1,010m/min. It had us at the 89th floor observation deck in 37 seconds. Most of our time was spent wandering the neighbourhoods, making good use of our metro cards. We hiked up Elephant Mountain, an urban mountain trail overlooking the city.

A highlight of our visit was catching up with old friends. Cary, a former colleague of Maria’s, introduced us to the famous Taiwanese hotpot. Christmas Eve dinner was hosted by Per, a classmate of George’s we hadn’t seen since 2005, and his partner Tina. Being so far from home at Christmas it was a pleasure to share the season with friends old and new.

Michelin-starred street stalls

If eating ever becomes an Olympic sport, Taiwan will sweep the medals. When Taiwanese aren’t eating, they’re lining up to eat. The city has countless night markets filled with food stalls. Few of the dishes were familiar but the sights, sounds and smells were tantalizing. The line-ups for popular stalls, some of them Michelin-recommended, stretch down the street.

The Tourist Trail

The nearby towns of Jiufen and Shifen have become obligatory stops on the tourist trail. Fleets of tour buses deliver tourists to the towns each day. We took the early morning local train to Shifen, beating most of the crowds. There were still plenty of people there releasing lanterns into the sky and waiting for trains to traverse the railway market.

As the crowds built, we hopped the next train to Jiufen. We were too late. The town is known for its quaint old street lined with tea shops and illuminated by lanterns. There’s nothing quaint about fighting your way through mobs of other tourists. We quickly fled. Two buses and a local train later we were in the harbour town of Zhengbin. No other tourists in sight. After relaxing with a coffee overlooking the colourfully-painted houses lining the harbour, we were back on the bus and train back to Taipei. Much more fun than riding tour buses.

Sun Moon Lake

Sun Moon Lake is one of Taiwan’s iconic attractions. It can be reached as a day trip from Taichung or even Taipei. As a result it attracts busloads of visitors to its lush green mountains, calm waters and temples.

We arrived mid-week. The days were a little busy but after the tour buses left in the afternoon the town was deserted. So deserted that everything shuts down by 8 pm. Our first evening we relaxed with a pre-dinner drink before looking for a restaurant. They were all closed. A lot of other visitors were as ill-informed as we were. We joined the long queue at Chez 7-Eleven to load up on instant noodles and a bottle of cheap wine. (Not the first or last time we did that for dinner!)

Boat tours circle the lake with stops at both main towns and a lakeside temple. We hopped off at the first stop and hiked up one of the many forest trails up the mountainside. The next stop was the town of Ita Thao to graze our way through the lines of food stalls before taking the cable car up the highest peak.

The next day the shop beside our hotel was foolish enough to rent us electric scooters to explore the flat, paved 30 km trail around the lake. With our limited experience driving scooters, it was more like bumper cars. Only one of us crashed, thankfully with just a few scrapes and bruises to show for it. By the end of our ride the streets, tour boats and bike trails were all jam-packed. It was the day before New Years Eve. Sun Moon Lake holds a big New Years Eve party. Seemingly half of Taiwan showed up to join the festivities.

Down the West Coast

Taichung is a few hours by train from Taipei. It is a more laid-back city. The city is compact so we were able to see much of it on foot. Liuchuan Riverside Walk was only a few blocks from our hotel. It was elaborately illuminated with Christmas decorations. We joined the many families strolling the riverside taking selfies in front of the lights. Considering only about 3% of the population are Christian they sure get in the spirit.

There are few tourists in Taichung. Many places we were the only foreigners. Foreign tourists were such a novelty at the Martyrs’ Shrine that the caretaker asked us why we were there. Taichung Second Market was another place we were a novelty. The market dates back to the Japanese colonial period. Not much has changed over the years. It is very much a locals’ food market. We had a great bowl of noodle soup for lunch for just two dollars. Maybe they gave it to us at a discount because we were the only Caucasians there – or maybe they doubled the price!

Further south is Kaohsiung. Though only a few hundred kilometres from Taipei, the climate is markedly warmer. It was one of our favourite parts of Taiwan.

Our first day we stumbled across a place that will be familiar to Vancouverites – the Yaletown Bistro. We enjoyed some Canadian specialities – Montreal smoked meat sandwiches and Moosehead Lager. New Years Day we wandered around Pier 2, an old port warehouse area that houses art galleries, funky stores and restaurants. From there we followed the crowds of locals to hop the decrepit old ferry to Qijin Island where a massive street party was in progress. In the evening it was back to Pier 2 for another street party, this time with a lively night market with food stalls, musicians and local artists.

We closed out our stay with a relaxing day walking around Lotus Pond, visiting the many temples and garish pagodas. The final stop was the Sanfong Temple. It is adorned with hundreds of red lanterns, one of the most beautiful sights in the city.

Eastern Taiwan

The train from Kaohsiung across to the East Coast passed diverse landscape. Vegetable farms, lush rice paddies and massive aquaculture farms on one side, the ocean on the other, mountains looming ahead. After many long tunnels we emerged on the east coast. The Central Mountain range plunges steeply into the Pacific Ocean.

It was awe-inspiring to see the massive washouts carved through the mountains. There was barely a trickle of water in them. When the typhoons strike those little creeks become torrents pushing car-sized boulders towards the sea.

Our first stop was the small hot spring town of Zhiben. To be kind let’s just say its glory days are behind it. It was very tranquil and quiet, very few tourists around. In ten minutes we had walked the town.

The next morning we joined packs of students on the early bus to the nearby city of Taitung. Though just a population of 100,000, it was a pleasant city to explore. It has a lovely coastal park along with a forest park with multiple shady trails to explore. It was another town where we were the only tourists.

Next up was a train north to Xincheng, our base to explore Taroko National Park. The centrepiece of the park is Taroko Gorge, a dramatic gorge created by the collision between two of the earth’s plates. The collision exposed massive formations of marble. The area remains unstable, with frequent landslides. We hiked a few of the trails, including the Swallow’s Grotto where we were required to wear helmets due to the frequent rockfalls. The 196m long, 150m high Buluowan Suspension Bridge tested George’s fear of heights. It was not encouraging when the guide cheerfully explained that there is not yet any charge to cross the bridge because they are still testing it.

From Xincheng it was another slow train back to Taipei, closing the circle on our 1,500 km circumnavigation of Taiwan.