Eight Arch Bridge: Hualien

After going to the Lintian forest, my dad drove us to the coast to see eight arch bridge and to eat seafood. The drive was pretty long (maybe two hours?) and the roads were a little scary to navigate because there were so many twists and turns (and I don’t remember a lot of safety guard rails while we were driving!) Luckily my dad is a good driver and we got to the eight arch bridge in one piece.

The bridge is to the right of the water and leads people to a small island that also has a lighthouse (sadly, I don’t have any photos of the bridge because they’re all on Ken’s phone!). But, some more photos of the scenery:

The area was not very well developed and there aren’t that many resorts there (although in the winter time, it’s very windy and we were wearing our winter coats while walking on the bridge). During the summertime, it’s well visited but tourists usually don’t sunbathe here (because Asian people don’t sunbathe and because there isn’t sand, it’s very rocky). It’s a beautiful area and fun to get there; during our long drive, we talked about my mom and dad as teenagers in Taiwan and about how all their friends from high school are now famous politicians!

Lintian Mountain Forestry Center

On our first full morning, we drove to the Lintian Mountain Forestry Center, a large forest that used to be filled with cypress trees but was used for lumbering by the Japanese during the 1920s. Most of the cypress trees have been cut down but the forestry center is still very beautiful and interesting to walk around.

The forestry center became a town because they were exporting so much cypress from Taiwan to Japan that they needed workers and their families to live there. The area has a dormitory, a clinic, a welfare center, a rice store, a grocery store, a laundry, a barbershop, a fire department, a kindergarten and an elementary school, all of which you can walk through during your visit. It’s free to visit and worth a morning tour – get more information here.

This house was made of cypress and still had a faint smell of the cypress tree, even though the house was build in the early 1900’s:

These railways were built specifically for transporting cypress trees out of this area:

Here’s part of the town:

We walked around the cypress town and ate lunch in the area, too. The dormitories still have some of the artifacts from the people that lived there. My mom recognized some of the records and artists that the cypress workers listened to, too!

After our lunch, we took a long drive along the coast – more tomorrow!

Hualien – Day 1

After a day in Taipei and Nankang, my dad bought us train tickets so we could travel to Hualien on the east side of the country. The train system in Taiwan is really clean, fast, easy to use, and affordable. We took an early morning train from Taipei to Hualien:

The weather in December was chilly (in the 50s) and somewhat wet. Once we arrived in Hualien, we took a cab to a hotel – there are a lot of nice hotels in the area since Hualien is very touristy and fun for people to visit when they’re traveling within the island. After we checked into the hotel, we walked to a restaurant that my dad visited the last time he was in Hualien.

The restaurant is known for their chicken and traditional Taiwanese food. My dad tried to explain what they do to the chicken, but it got somewhat lost in translation. I later found out that what they do is castrate the chicken while it’s young…but it’s a free range chicken with hearty meat.

We started with some vegetables, one of my favorites from the entire trip, shanshu, which was sauteed with goji berries, garlic, and fish:

We also ordered clams with basil and garlic:

Traditional water spinach:

And the chicken:

When I told my dad I thought it was a little tough, he said that’s what made it so special! Then he offered me another piece by saying, isn’t is SO TOUGH? Me, Ken and my mom weren’t huge fans of it but my dad insisted we eat more because it was such a delicacy.

For dessert, my dad ordered the speciality of the restaurant. The sweet potato dessert takes a while to prepare because they coat it in sugar, which takes a bit:

The sweet potato is covered in warm sugar and then dunked into ice to make a caramelized shell:

Fishing out the sweet potato:

You can see the sugar makes everything stick together but it’s worth it because the sweet potato is warm under the cold caramelized sugar:

After the filling lunch, it was raining out so our initial plans to drive to Taroko National Park, but it can be dangerous if you’re not used to driving in that area and we decided not to risk it. Instead, my dad took us to a hot spring!

The area has a lot of fun hot springs and people go all year round to relax with friends, soak in the water, and bathe. We went to a hot spring that is also a resort (a little western-y):

There were flamingos on the grounds:

We rested for a bit in their cafe and drank coffees and ate milk candy before heading to the hot springs. We rented rooms (you can rent them by the hour) and it’s almost the same as taking a bath. They have marble bathtubs and the water comes directly from the hot spring. It smells a little bit like sulfur, but makes your skin very soft and is very relaxing.

After our fun afternoon at the hot springs, we ate at Dai’s Dumplings:

They only serve wontons at the restaurant and it’s only about $3USD for one bottle, but they were filling and it was a good way to end the evening.

Museum of History and Philology, Academica Sinica

On our first full day in Taiwan, my dad brought us to his campus to the Museum of History and Philology. The museum has a lot of original artifacts and rare texts that my dad enjoys viewing so he brought us there for an early afternoon visit. Here I am at the entrance:

And Ken:

The museum was very quiet the day we visited and we were able to walk through and see all of the exhibits. The entrance exams were the most interesting; the pages were filled with a student’s answers to an essay question and the calligraphy was so uniform and perfect.

I took some photos of the weapons that were in the museum:

Helmets:

And a very cute bronze owl, which I think is from the late 14th century:

After the museum, we went to the old residence of Hu Shih, the Hu Shih Memorial Hall. Hu Shih was an academic that spent time in Academia Sinica (as well as the United States). He was also a former ambassador to the United States and the head of Peking University.

Here’s me and my mom outside his house, which is now also a museum:

Tomorrow, we head to Hualien!

Traveling to Taiwan

Over the holidays, Ken, my mom and I traveled to Taiwan together. We flew from New York to San Francisco and then from San Francisco to Taipei. The flights weren’t too bad because we had a nice layover in San Francisco and we were also able to sleep on the flight from San Francisco to Taipei. Here are the meals I had on the flights!

On the flight from New York to San Francisco, we had a fruit salad, greek yogurt, potato gratin, sausage and egg:

Ken and I didn’t eat the entire thing because it was a little on the salty side and we didn’t want to get too swollen during the first flight. When we were in San Francisco, we sat down for some Japanese food during our layover and got on our flight to Taipei.

Me and Ken once we got on the flight:

The flight from San Francisco had some healthier options; we had ahi tuna with a salad for lunch:

But then took a turn towards unhealthy again with braised shortribs with veggies for dinner:

And the best part of the flight was the sundae cart they pushed vanilla ice cream and all kinds of toppings (I got the whipped cream, cherries and chocolate sauce on the side):

We landed in Taipei after watching a lot of movies and filling our bellies with food and we were all so happy to see my dad! When we arrived, my dad took us to a restaurant for some dumplings + soup:

My dad also brought me some really good fruit, which I told him I was craving – pink dragonfruit, starfruit, and custard apple:

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing about our trip all over Taiwan, including stops in Hualien, Kaoshiang, and Taipei!