2021
MAR & APR
No.
GOOD FOOD COFFEE OR TEA?
104
LOCAL LIFESTYLE
TWO CYCLING ENTHUSIASTS FROM TEXAS
CYCLING IN TAIWAN EAST RIFT VALLEY AND EAST COAST
Places To Stay In
H ualien FROM HOMESTAYS AND INNS TO LUXURY VACATION RESORTS
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TAIWAN EVERYTHING EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TRAVELING IN TAIWAN!
Find Travel in Taiwan articles published in earlier issues, complemented with colorful images, Google maps, and links to our social media sites, including Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram, and informative sites of other bloggers in Taiwan. Check out TAIWANEVERYTHING before you plan your next trip to Taiwan! taiwaneverything.cc Website
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Taiwan!
Publisher's Note Dear Traveler, Spring in Taiwan is arriving with its usual beauty and grace. At this time of the year, what is in everyone’s hearts? Getting out of the city and deep into the lovely countryside, of course. In this issue we spend much time in a region that has a solid claim to being Taiwan’s most pristine and scenically rewarding countryside, the northern region of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan, home to such iconic tourist favorites as the rugged Taroko Gorge and the idyllic farm-painted East Rift Valley.
ON THE COVER
This region is so filled with alluring attractions, natural and manmade, that we’ve divided our Feature into three separate files to cover as much as possible for you. And we’re taking an unusual angle in all – a key element in the creation of your most memorable trips, you’ll agree, is always the enjoyment you experience in the places you overnight, so our main focus in each is introducing some of the region’s top accommodation choices at length. These range from a big 5-star hotel and a cabin-centered complex right in the gorge to a ritzy hotspring hotel resort in the valley to numerous luxurious first-rate inn-style homestays, each of unique character. When the weather is fine, one of the best ways to go out touring is on a bike. Taiwan is the right place! You’ve likely heard that the island is referred to as the “Kingdom of Bicycles,” and in recent decades this has become one of the world’s best destinations for cycle-loving travelers, with a superb interconnected network of cycling routes and first-rate, plentiful rental facilities. In Biking Fun we introduce and answer your practical questions on Taiwan’s renowned round-island tour, an adventure on the bucket list of many bicycle travelers from overseas. In Cycling in Taiwan we present eastern Taiwan outings in the East Rift Valley and along the Pacific Coast. And in Local Lifestyle you’ll meet the dynamic expatriate duo that runs Taipei Bike Works/Taipei Bike Tours, servicing bikes and running popular tours. In Good Food, you’ll find a completely different kind of touring. We “tour” the frontlines of the ongoing friendly competition between tea and coffee for the loyalty of Taiwan consumers, and while doing so visit trendsetters – two chic teahouses, a teashop-cummuseum, and a hipster café/roaster – all in Taipei. Taiwan in the springtime – the possibilities are endless.
Echo Villa in Hualien City (photo by Aska Chi)
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C O N T E N T S
2021
MAR/APR
10 01
FEATURE
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
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40
HUALIEN / VACATION
CYCLING IN TAIWAN / HUALIEN & TAITUNG
LUXURY VACATION STAYS IN HUALIEN
04 TAIWAN TOURISM EVENTS
A Trio of Its Best Big Hotels/Resorts in Beautiful Settings
10 HUALIEN / COZY PLACES TO STAY
06 TRAVEL NEWS
FINE HOMESTAYS AND INNS IN THE NORTHERN HUALIEN REGION Intimate Lodgings Amidst Grand Scenery
34 GOOD FOOD / COFFEE OR TEA THE GREAT TAIWAN COFFEE & TEA WAR Bean Challenging Long-Supreme Leaf for Islander’s Love
VALLEY OR COAST? OR BOTH? How to Do Scenery-Rich Eastern Taiwan on Two Wheels
44 BIKING FUN / ROUND THE ISLAND WHICH WAY AROUND? Things to Consider Before Circling Taiwan
– HAPPENING IN TAIWAN NOW
22 08 CULTURE
– CONCERTS, THEATER, EXHIBITIONS, FESTIVALS, SHOWS
HUALIEN / HOMESTAY ACCOMMODATION HUALIEN HOMES AWAY FROM HOME Places to Stay with Artsy Characters and a Warm Feel
46 LOCAL LIFESTYLE / ALEC GATES & ALEX BRYANT WORKING ON BIKES Two Cycling Enthusiasts from Texas
TAIWAN TOURISM EVENTS
April-June
The Beauty of Art, Nature, and Cultural Celebrations Exciting Activities During Late Spring and Early Summer 3 1 PINGTUNG COUNTY
May ~ June
PINGTUNG BLUEFIN TUNA CULTURAL FESTIVAL 屏東黑鮪魚文化觀光季
For lovers of fresh seafood, the fishing-harbor town of Donggang in Pingtung County is a place not to be missed. The season for bluefin tuna is April to June, and during this time of the year you can sample the best and freshest of melt-in-yourmouth sashimi, among other tuna-starring culinary specialties. Apart from tuna, Donggang is also famed for sakura prawns and oil fish roe. From the harbor, the mainland area of Dapeng Bay National Scenic Area can be reached with a quick drive, and you can also take a ferry from the harbor to Little Liuqiu (Xiaoliuqiu) island, known for intriguing coral rock formations and sea turtles.
Website: www.dbnsa.gov.tw (Dapeng Bay National Scenic Area)
2 TAIPEI CITY
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April 16 ~ 25
CREATIVE EXPO TAIWAN 臺灣文化創意設計博覽會
First staged in 2010, the Creative Expo Taiwan has become the most important domestic display and trade platform for cultural and creative merchandise and image licensing. In recent years the concept of curation has been introduced to the event in an attempt to guide the development of cultural trends in Taiwan and inspire citizens’ thoughts on cultural issues. This year’s main themes will be “Interdisciplinary Thinking of Cultural Content” and “Introduction of Smart Technology,” with works being presented in the Huashan 1914 Creative Park, Songshan Culture and Creative Park, and Taipei Expo Park (Expo Dome). Website: creativexpo.tw
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3 PENGHU COUNTY April 22 ~ June 28
PENGHU INTERNATIONAL FIREWORKS FESTIVAL 澎湖國際海上花火節
For more than two months, the sky over Magong Harbor in Penghu is “set on fire,” colorfully and spectacularly, each Monday and Thursday during this festival. Happening prior to the hot-summer peak season on these tourist-friendly islands, this attraction is like a special welcome gift for early birds who come to spend some time in Penghu in the late spring/early summer. The fireworks are accompanied by a spectacular synchronizeddrone light show. In addition to the shows in Magong there will also be individual shows on three other islands: Qimei (May 8), Wang’an (May 22), and Jibei (June 5).
Website: www.penghu-nsa.gov.tw (Penghu National Scenic Area)
4 YILAN COUNTY
March 27 ~ May 9
YILAN GREEN EXPO 宜蘭綠色博覽會
It is fitting that once a year this “green expo” takes place in Yilan, a county in northeastern Taiwan known for its rich agricultural resources and precious mountain forests. During the event, visitors are introduced to various aspects regarding nature conser vation, including greenenergy concepts and sustainable business practices. Apar t from its educational components, the expo also gives you ample opportunity for having fun, including discovering interestingly designed buildings, joining DIY sessions, and going on riverboat cruises. The venue is the Dongshan River Ecoark park, close to Dongshan Railway Station. Website: www.facebook.com/yilangreenexpo
5 NEW TAIPEI CITY
May 30 ~ September 27
FULONG INTERNATIONAL SAND SCULPTURE ART FESTIVAL 福隆國際沙雕藝術季
Throughout the summer, the long fine-sand beach at Fulong, a small village on the Northeast Coast, attracts large numbers of visitors seeking fun by the sea. The sand here is regarded as the most suitable on the island for building sand castles, and sand castles they build! Sand-sculpting artists from Taiwan and abroad each year specially create incredibly intricate sculptures for this festival, greatly impressing the crowds of visitors, who just can’t stop shooting selfies in front of them. This year’s main theme is “A Giant’s Dream World” – expect to see many a sandy behemoth with lifelike features gracing the beach. Website: www.necoast-nsa.gov.tw (Northeast and Yilan Coast Coast National Scenic Area)
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Photo courtesy of Pingtung County Gov't
Taiwan Tourism Events Calendar Website
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TRAVEL NEWS
HAPPENING in TAIWAN Now Taiwan has fared comparatively well during the ongoing global pandemic, and restrictions on domestic travel have been, for the most part, minimal over the past year or so. Sights around the island can be visited as usual, and new tourist attractions, new public-transport options, and new accommodation choices have been (and will continue to be) added to the ever-improving local travel environment.
THINGS TO DO IN MARCH~APRIL
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Photo courtesy of Dongshi Forest Garden
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1. With the end of the winter season, boat trips to Turtle Island in Yilan County are available again starting in March www.necoast-nsa.gov.tw 2. Enjoy the cherry tree bloom at Tianyuan Temple in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District www.tamsui.ntpc.gov.tw 3. Experience the Mazu Pilgrimage in central Taiwan www.taiwangods.com
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Tips for the
LATE SPRING/EARLY SUMMER
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4. Watch fireflies in the evening at locations like Dongshih Forest Garden in Taichung www.tsfa.com.tw
New
HOTELS
Photos courtesy of hotels
What to Wear Starting in April, the chance of cool weather is neglible in Taiwan’s low-lying areas; in the south temperatures will easily approach 30 degrees during daytime. Keeping a light jacket in your bag is always a good idea, however, in case you find yourself in cool places such as generously air-conditioned trains and buses.
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Blue Tears in Matsu The small islands of the Matsu Archipelago, close to the mainland China coast, are best known for traditional stone house villages, military tunnels, and the “blue tears” phenomenon (seawater that seems to glow in the evening; an effect caused by a certain type of algae being disturbed). The best time to see the blue tears is April through June!
Hotel Resonance Lakeshore Taipei Hotel Hualien Central Taipei
Great Emperor Hotel
Close to Taroko Gorge Kaohsiung City (Taroko National Park) in Hualien County
Did You Know? The city of Kaohsiung was recently listed by the New York Times as one of 52 Places to Love in 2021. (www. nytimes.com/interactive/2021/travel/ places-to-visit-vacation.html)
New Cultural Venue
History Museum Reopens
The cit y of Kaohsiung has a brand-new cultural landmark attraction. Located right beside the city’s harbor, close to the mouth of the Love River, the main purposes of the Kaohsiung Music Hall is to provide a state-of-the art venue for pop music performances in southern Taiwan and to help nurture domestic pop music talent. The striking architectural design of the hall blends in harmoniously with the surrounding harbor scenery, presenting tourists with a superb photogenic attraction. kpmc.com.tw
The National Museum of Taiwan History in Tainan recently received a major facelift, the project lasting two years. Significants improvements and upgrades were made to the lighting and the arrangement of exhibition space, with the aim of giving visitors a more immersive museum experience. You are now presented with a fascinating introduction to Taiwan’s past with large-scale, lifelike exhibits showing the living conditions of the local people in days gone by. Presenting the old with the help of modern technology, including many interactive exhibition elements, the museum offers a perfect mix of education and fun. www.nmth.gov.tw
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Music Hall
Photo courtesy of National Museum of Taiwan History
Transportation
Wufeng Lin Family Garden
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Metro
Wufeng, the southernmost district of Taichung City in central Taiwan, has a number of touristwelcoming cultural attractions worth visiting. In order to make it easier and more convenient for visitors to discover these sights, the Taiwan Tourism Bureau recently established a tourist bus service named Wu Feng Touring. On weekends and holidays there are eight shuttle services, with buses making stops at ten attractions in Wufeng, including Wufeng Lin Fa mily G a rde n, the 921 Ea r thquake Museum of Taiwan, Asia University Campus, and Guangfu New Village.
The mass rapid transit system of Kaohsiung Cit y (Kaohsiung Metro) consists of two mostly underground lines (Red and Orange), which intersect at Formosa Boulevard Station, and one above-ground circular light rail line (LRT), which is currently in the second phase of construction. Earlier this year nine new stations were added to the tourist-friendly circular line, taking you by many city sights. The completion of the line, closing the circle around the urban center of Kaohsiung, is slated for 2023.
www.wftrip.com.tw (Chinese)
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Railways Administration Railway aficionados who wish to travel around Taiwan by train and in style can now opt for the luxury Future train, introduced by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) last year. The train has impressed railway lovers with its sleek award-winning design and the high standards in comfort and onboard service. Five-star tours (5 days / NT$49,000) can be booked with Lion Travel Service.
travel.liontravel.com (Chinese)
www.krtc.com.tw
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CULTURE & ART
Culture
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
Concerts, Theater, Exhibitions, Festivals, Shows
EDITOR'S
CHOICE Photo courtesy of udnFunLife
Exhibition Tony Oursler: Black Box 黑盒 - 幻魅於形 : 湯尼·奧斯勒
Until May 16 Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts ( Kaohsiung City )
Exhibition Takuji Yamada x Hank Cheng: Miniature Life 山田卓司 x 鄭鴻展 微縮人生
This exhibition showcases the incredibly detailed work of two leading miniature artists, Takuji Yamada from Japan and Hank Cheng from Taiwan. On display are 60 outstanding lifelike dioramas showing daily life scenes from Taiwan and Japan. www.huashan1914.com
Until April 5 Huashan 1914 Creative Park ( Taipei City )
This exhibition is a comprehensive introduction to the work of American multimedia and video ar tist Tony Oursler, known for combining sculpture and performance art with video projections. Among the immediately recognizable artworks created by Oursler is a figure named Caricature, consisting of not much more than a pair of huge moving eyes and a mouth, which talks in a cutesy baby voice – leaving onlookers wondering whether the artwork is cute or creepy.
www.kmfa.gov.tw
Festival Taiwan International Festival of Arts 台灣國際藝術節
Until May 5 National Theater & Concert Hall ( Taipei City ) The Taiwan International Festival of Arts is Taiwan’s most important annual art event and one of Asia’s brightest cultural-arts happenings. Each year, a total of close to 70,000 people watch the amazing stage performances by local and foreign talent. Unfortunately, due to the ongoing global pandemic a number of shows planned for this year’s edition have been canceled. The remaining acts, however, including Huang Yi & KUKA, a performance featuring humans and a cute robot arm, are exciting creations and well worth looking forward to. npac-ntch.org
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Exhibition I Love Banksy Until April 5 Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall ( Taipei City ) Not everyone loves Banksy. Just ask people in charge of keeping city walls free from artistic expressions. But most people do enjoy the art of this famous – yet to this day anonymous – graffiti master who was born in 1975, started with graffiti art at age 14, and has been a street art sensation since the 1990s. This exhibition presents 60 of Banksy’s paintings, including some of the creator’s best-known works, such as Girl with Balloon and Flower Thrower. www.cksmh.gov.tw
EDITOR'S
Photo courtesy of Kaohsiung Museum of History
Opera
Exhibition
茶花女
Reflection Impression 映像’印象
Until June 20 Kaohsiung Museum of History ( Kaohsiung City ) If you want to see what the city of Kaohsiung looked like back in the 1950s and early 1960s, this exhibition featuring more than 100 photographs will give you a great idea. Especially interesting to see is how the arrival of American aid and troops introduced a rich and diverse culture to the people of Kaohsiung in the 1950s. khm.org.tw
CHOICE
La Traviata March 18~21 National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) ( Kaohsiung City ) La Traviata is arguably Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s most beloved creation, a simple love story depicting a cour tesan who abandons her lavish lifestyle for true love only for it all to slip away as she perishes from tuberculosis. This co-production by the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) and the Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival premiered in 2016, and features a cast of top Taiwanese vocalists accompanied by a local Kaohsiung-based orchestra and chorus. www.npac-weiwuying.org
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HUALIEN
Cozy Places To Stay
Fine Homestays and Inns in the Northern Hualien Region Intimate Lodgings Amidst Grand Scenery TE X T R I C K C H A R E T T E
P H OTOS A S K A C H I, V I S I O N
When traveling, you target places of the most inspiring beauty, natural or manmade. As you well know, however, choosing your places of accommodation can be just as important as choosing the sights you’ll visit. Stays in “OK” facilities, at best, add nothing to your experience, while stays in “sub-OK” spots can ruin a trip. In this file we’re traveling in Hualien County, in the Taroko Gorge/Hualien City/northern East Rift Valley region, which provides you with all the inspirational aesthetics, natural and manmade, that you could desire. While doing so Travel in Taiwan provides you with first glimpses of some of the region’s finest places of cozy, intimate accommodation, each of wholly different style, character, and scenic surroundings.
EAST RIFT VALLEY The wonderful rural countryside of of Hualien has many hidden gems, including the Yun Shan Shuei Ecological Farm 10
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or your information, in our accompanying article about vacation options in Hualien we’re bringing you to a trio of the region’s big hotel/resort attractions, which though far grander in size and visual impact on their surroundings, at the same time share a reputation for warmth and intimacy – in large part because of the quietness of their environs and because of the unusually warm, attentive service for which this region is known. Each of these is also of wholly different style, character, and scenic surroundings. So, why spend time in Hualien County? Let me paint a picture for you. If looking for an idyllic getaway destination where you can get a little – in truth, a lot – closer to nature, this is it. The pristine eastern Taiwan region, with Hualien County in the north and Taitung County in the south, has often been referred to as Taiwan’s “backyard garden.” Why so? The thick north-south central mountains have long acted as a barrier preventing heavy
contact with the island’s far more heavily populated northern/ western regions, lowering economic development and population inf low and preserving nature’s glories largely intact. When thinking of Hualien County’s essence, what springs to mind are its towering peaks, azure skies, sweeping ocean vistas, scenic deep valleys and gorges, cultural diversity, indigenous villages, fertile neat-plot farmland, and notably warmhearted people. As elsewhere in Taiwan, over the past two decades the homestay-accommodation sector has exploded in the region, with the number of attractive, high-quality choices continuing to grow at a steady clip. Most higher-end locations are purpose-built as accommodation facilities rather than as true private homes, with the owners living either in or very close to the homestay. Most are also home to more, often many more, sleeping-quarter rooms than normal residences would have. Most also feature sleek, modern architectural styling. Not qualifying as true inns, the term I prefer is “inn-style homestays.”
HUALIEN
Cozy Places To Stay
On The Way To Taroko Asia Cement Ecological Park This attraction, established by the Asia Cement Corporation, is filled up with pretty living things. It sits in the gaping mouth of the mighty Taroko Gorge, staring into its depths. It’s a superb destination for eco-education outings, a mini-paradise for carefully selected butterfly, insect, and native plant life, with sections dedicated to each, though butterflies are busy throughout the pathway-laced facility. Guided visits are free, with registration required three working days in advance. Taiwan’s largest privately-run butterfly eco-park, it’s home to 35 species, with the rarest the nationally protected troides aeacus formosanus, from the golden birdwing family. Commonly called the small birdwing, this elegant artwork has black forewings and golden hind wings. As confinement rearing is not permitted for protected species, the park is designed and operated as an open and natural habitat. A large netting-wall/roof butterfly breeding area is used for the introduction and breeding of species in accordance with the park’s eco-load capability. In the stick insect demonstration area the celebrities inhabit large plant-filled boxes, providing them with extra protection and making spotting easier for visitors. There are both imports and Taiwan homegrown stars. Some of the insects have bodies about six inches long, and some look exactly like small leaves or tree bark. The native-plant garden sports around 250 species, mostly flowering plants. Though just above sea level, the park provides you with a tour of plants that grow by the sea all the way up to high-mountain species that grow at 3,000m. Separate family/genus zones help make it easier for you to identify their differences. ASIA CEMENT ECOLOGICAL PARK ( 亞泥生態園區 ) (03) 861-2108 No. 125, Xinxing Rd., Xincheng Village, Xincheng Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣新城鄉新城村新興路 125 號 ) accpark.org (Chinese)
Photos courtesy of Asia Cement Corporation
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INSECT PARADISE Among the star attractions of the Asia Cement Ecological Park are giant stick insects and a variety of beautiful butterflies
HUALIEN
Inside Taroko
Taroko Gorge
Cozy Places To Stay
SIMPLY GORGEOUS On your way through Taroko Gorge you'll be presented with breathtaking scenery whereever you look
The Taroko Gorge is one of Taiwan’s premier draws with international tourists. The centerpiece of Taroko National Park, the gorge is a magisterial river-cut slice right through solid mountain that starts far inland and opens directly onto the Pacific – 19km of unremitting wonder. Though far smaller in scale than the Grand Canyon, it rivals the canyon’s grandeur in many ways. One key reason is that your experience with the gorge is far more intimate. Unlike the canyon, primarily looked down into from its edge, your entire experience here is looking out and up at its towering sky-seeking walls, thickly laced with marble. You do this while traveling along the twisting Central Cross-Island Highway that courses just above its bottom, in some places laid down on sections carved right out of the walls themselves, or along the many trails that begin at roadside, some heading up smaller tributary gorges. One of the extra-wondrous wonders is Swallow Grotto. Here, the opposing cliffs skyscrape so close and so high that direct sunlight only reaches the floor around mid-day. On the rock face opposite the highway are countless small holes. Many were carved out by the Liwu River long ago, when it pounded by at this level. The burrowing drill-stones creating the holes can still be seen in some. Others were carved out from within – places where underground water channels once found midair exits. Swallows long used the holes for nesting, but modern tourism has driven most of them elsewhere.
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The Tunnel of Nine Turns is an old highway section now serving as a trail. Its creation was a stupendous feat of engineering, hacked from the face of, or inside, precipitous cliff. When not inside one of the numerous tunnels, you enjoy superlative views of the boulder-strewn Liwu River, far down below in this section, and the soaring gorge walls above, just a few dozen meters from each other in spots. This is one of the best places for close observation of the gorge’s tremendous collage of faults, folds, and layering. The Buluowan Recreation Area consists of two terraces high above the Liwu R iver, surrounded by mountains on three sides. The upper terrace’s Taroko Village Hotel is introduced in the next section. On the lower are attractive wood-built facilities showcasing the culture of the local Truku (Taroko) tribe. A trail leads down toward the river from this terrace. The compelling attraction, however, is the brand-new 196m Shanyue Suspension Bridge, which shoots high across the gorge, Swallow Grotto in glorious view further inland. The plateau area was long the site of a major Truku settlement, and the bridge is in fact the second Shanyue Bridge edition. The first, built by the Japanese who ruled the island from 1895 to 1945, was demolished in the early 1940s.
SWALLOW GROTTO The opposing cliffs are so close and so high that direct sunlight only reaches the floor around mid-day
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HUALIEN
Cozy Places To Stay
Taroko Village Hotel
TAROKO VILLAGE HOTEL ( 太魯閣山月村 ) (03) 861-0111 No. 231-1, Fushi Village, Xiulin Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣秀林鄉富世村 231-1 號 ) www.tarokovillage.com
If desirous of overnighting right inside the gorge, with a little bit of luxury, you have two choices. One is the Taroko Village Hotel. The other is the Silks Place Taroko, which we present in our article on vacation hotels in Hualien. Each surrounds you with sky-climbing rock walls and stars and clouds streaming by above –and the feeling that the “real” world is far, far away. Taroko Village is a misnomer – this getaway is best described as a cabin/cottage-style inn. On the higher of the two Buluowan Recreation Area terraces, spread out around a grassy expanse in tribal-village style behind the main lobby/dining/shop building is a large cluster of indigenous-style wooden cabins. Each of the well-built, well-maintained cabins has a comfy covered porch, and the large suite-style rooms are in no way rustic; each features mattresses on raised wooden platforms in Japanese style, along with such decadent modernities as wall-mounted TVs and small yet bright and well-designed bathrooms with showers. The restaurant in the circular main reception building has large windows that let in all the visual drama of the Taroko mountain canvas. The menu is built around indigenous dishes, notably the bamboo-tube rice, shredded boar skin with garlic and, particularly delicious, the grilled boar. Do not pass up the chance to savor the distinctive-flavor traditional millet wine, served in tiny ceramic mugs shaped like wild boars, your liquid manna consumed through the snout. Each night indigenous song-and-dance shows are staged in the central grassy area, weather allowing. Something all visitors find adorable is that many of the performers are elementary-school students. All Taroko Village staff are Truku, and a number have starring roles in the shows. As a final note, be sure to walk the short, appealing Bamboo Grove Trail up behind the cabins, busy with resident macaques.
SHANYUE SUSPENSION BRIDGE Opened earlier this year, the bridge, high above the Liwu River, is the latest tourist attractions inside Taroko Gorge
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CLOUDS, MOUNTAINS, WATERS Walk around the manmade lake of this eco farm to find scenes of lyrical loveliness
East Rift Valley – Shoufeng Township Yun Shan Shuei Ecological Farm Yun Shan Shuei Ecological Farm (entry fee for day-visitors) is a key Shoufeng Township tourist attraction. Shoufeng Township, south of Hualien City, is in the farm-carpeted East Rift Valley (more on the valley in the next section). The eco-farm is on the Coastal Mountain Range side of the valley, and on sunny-bright days mountains and passerby clouds are perfectly reflected in the still lake waters. The purpose-built Villa Home is a manor-copy inn-style homestay located by the shore of the centerpiece manmade lake of the farm. There are also a number of other large homestay operations around the lake, including 88villa. In the evenings, with the day-visitors gone, you have the farm grounds to yourself. “Yun Shan Shuei” means “clouds, mountains, waters.” The expansive grounds are filled with scenes of lyrical loveliness. The loop pathway leads you past long formations of tall, stately royal palms (the farm sports about 20 palm types) and swathes of color-exultant seasonal flowering plants, and in the pine forest off the lake’s east side crystal-clear waters from the mountains run free through the trees, obeying no banks, with mists also often rolling through. Visitors traverse running-water sections on strategically placed stones or concrete blocks, one set of blocks beside a long manmade waterfall, a few feet high, that fills the forest with sonorous water music. In late autumn the pine foliage turns golden yellows and rusty reds, deeply changing the forest’s mood. The Villa Home owners are the developers of the farm. They have chosen a genteel south European atmosphere as theme for both farm and homestay. The faux manor, which has a single tall tower in the rear, features a classical Mediterranean-region red-tiled gable roof. The façade is painted a pure white. The interior is an elegant world of the plush style of trappings in which European nobility feels at home. In the first-level commons area is a dining section that overlooks the lake and a small bar area. Each of the guestrooms, fitted with upscale modern amenities, has its own distinctive design and personality. The styling for each, however, takes you back to old Europe. 16
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VILLA HOME ( 雲山水 ) (03) 865-6060 No. 18, Aly 201, Ln. 2, Sec. 2, Fengping Rd., Shoufeng Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣壽豐鄉豐坪路二段二巷 201 弄 18 號 ) www.villa18.com.tw
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Cozy Places To Stay
Rose Garden
ROSE GARDEN ( 花田小路 ) 0911-669-745 No. 128, Dongfu St., Shoufeng Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣壽豐鄉豐坪村東富街 128 號 ) www.facebook.com/RoseGardenRoad
The deeply fecund, brightly crop-colored East Rift Valley starts immediately below Hualien City, Coastal Mountain Range on one side, Central Mountain Range on the other, and runs almost a ll the way down to Taitung Cit y. Provincial Highway 9 connects the two cities through the valley, meandering side to side. The quieter County Road 193, through its northern region, achieves the difficult feat of being even more scenic. It runs along the base of the Coastal Mountain Range, a bit higher up than the 9, giving clearer views of the neat-grid farmland. A long string of well-spaced-out small farming towns and villages dots the valley’s length – this is perfect slow-drive country. In Shoufeng Township, a favorite stoppingin place for visitors who have added the Yun Shan Shuei Ecological Farm to their bucket list of Hualien experiences, is the funky Rose Garden café. This place scores high in online recommendations. Located right beside the eco-farm, it’s run by a young artist who, on entry, you’ll likely see engaged intently with a work of graphic or art. Quirky ownercreated cartoon versions of Rose Garden friends adorn the cozy interior, but even quirkier is the fact that the physical facility for this homey-comfy place is a cargo container. The cargo-container hotspot has a boisterous pastel-festooned exterior that makes it impossible to miss amidst the overwhelmingly green-hue local countryside, and sits in a corner of, yes, a rose-cultivation farm you can freely meander.
Li Chuan Aquafarm T he L i C hu a n A qu a f a r m i s producer of the “best freshwater clams in the world” – specifically, a small eastern Asia clam known in the West as the Asian/Asiatic clam, in Southeast Asia as the g ol d e n or pr o s p e r it y c l a m . This tourist-friendly operation, which uses natural spring water, p r o d u c e s 8 0 % o f Ta i w a n’s freshwater-clam liquid extract, a popular health product. You can also buy such other products as its extract tablets and shellcalcium tablets. There’s an onsite clam-celebrating museum, clam-theme DIY activities, and a large restaurant (its culinary stars the clams and farm-raised fish). But the big draw is the large wading pool – especially with kids – in which you conduct clam-digging hunts (for a fee).
CLAM DIGGING Wading through a shallow pool in search of delicious clams is fun for the whole family LI CHUAN AQUAFARM ( 立川漁場 ) 0800-007-111 / 03-865-1333 No. 45, Yuchi, Shoufeng Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣壽豐鄉魚池 45 號 ) www.lichuan.tw (Chinese)
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Cozy Places To Stay
Afternoon Resort The Afternoon Resort, in truth an inn rather than a resort, is on the south edge of the sleepy farming village of Fengtian. The Central Mountain Range is in clear and glorious view just to the west, Coastal Mountain Range same to the east. The front perimeter wall is a dramatic statement – great slabs of roughcut stone lined up on edge – paying homage to Hualien County’s iconic stone-cutting industry. The owner is enamored with all things Japanese – in the early 1900s the Japanese set up “immigrant villages” around Fengtian and elsewhere in the east, seeking to establish Japanese citizens in farming communities to ease population pressures back home – and built this R&R oasis using modern Japanese architectural design as inspiration, importing all key materials from Japan. There are two multi-floor accommodation buildings at the front of the grounds, which are surrounded by towering old trees original to the site, and a café-cum-dining pavilion
at the back. Between the two is a large pond wit h cla ssica l-st yle la ndscaping. In t he guestroom buildings, half the rooms face outward, half face the garden pond area. All of the spacious rooms are suites, with Japanese contemporary minimalist styling emphasizing light woods, tiling, and other materials. Other prominent features are the deep-soak tub and small balcony provided with each. The café-cum-dining pavilion has the look outside and inside of the type of futurelooking model pavilion you might find at a world expo. Featuring a soaring-high ceiling, it has much in the way of exposed girders and beams and liberal use of glass in the walls, allowing sunlight to stream in. A “café-in-agreenhouse-garden” theme is used, with the abundant foliage well matching the dominant white paint and blondish woods. In the rear is a greenhouse-style facility where many of the ingredients used in the dishes served are cultivated; Hualien ingredients form the core of all menu items.
JAPANESE MINIMALISM Afternoon Resort is a spacious modern inn with distinct Japanese-style design elements
AFTERNOON RESORT ( 依山午 ) 0975-737-169 No. 17, Ln. 101, Zhongshan Rd., Shoufeng Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣壽豐鄉中山路 101 巷 17 號 ) www.afternoonresort.com.tw (Chinese)
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SPACESHIP ON A HILL REVIKA is a guesthouse that looks out of this world. Enjoy superb valley views from your bright and airy guestroom
REVIKA On approach, looking uphill at it, the purpose-built REVIKA inn-style homestay looks for all the world like a Star Wars-type spaceship cruiser come to Earth. The side walls, back wall, and roof of this three-story architectural beauty are primarily exposed concrete. The façade is all glass, save for the exposed concrete support pillars and steel framing. If all curtains are raised, you can see full detail inside the lobby/dining area and every guestroom, like a dollhouse with its façade swung open. A short distance east of the aforementioned Villa Home, it is perched among foothills and farms atop a plateau right at the base of the Coastal Mountain Range, looking northward up the East Rift Valley toward Hualien City, which has the look of a scale-model set. All rooms – guestrooms and 1F lobby/dining area – face north. Both the day and night views are outstanding. “This is a place to stay put and daydream,” says the owner, a refugee from Taipei who bought this land many decades back. She gave her well-known Taipei architect carte blanche to create his homestay architecture “dream project,” her only stipulation an unobstructed north-looking valley panorama from all interior points. She had originally dreamed of a “castle with lots of wood beams,” but loves her “out of this world” hideaway as a secret getaway unique in Taiwan. The styling for the lobby/dining area is what I’ll call modern art gallery-style subdued chic. A 2F overhang on the valley side provides shade for a large, comfy patio great for breezy dining or a coffee. The styling for rooms varies, from subdued contemporary chic with a harmonious simple-color blend of dark tiling and stone, gleamingwhite porcelain, and light-hue woods to a cheerily whimsical option featuring pastel-blue painted and gleaming-white tiled walls and touches such as teddy bear and birdie pillows on the bed.
REVIKA ( 鈴の宇民宿 ) 0937-738-452 No. 18, Sec. 6, Yuemei, Yuemei Village, Shoufeng Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣壽豐鄉月眉村月眉六段 18 號 ) revika.com.tw (Chinese)
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Cozy Places To Stay
Hualien City
Echo Villa
By its address, the Echo Villa inn-style homestay is in Hualien City. But no, it is in the country, west of the urban area, the steep tree-thick slopes of the Central Mountain Range mass just steps away behind, small-plot farms before. Well, not quite before. It is in a visually incongruous densely-clustered higher-end housing development of three very short parallel streets, the Echo Villa Original on the second street, the Echo Villa Classic on the third/back street. So no farms in immediate sight, but the mountain greens fill all of the rearward-facing windows. The Original opened in 2007; we concentrate on the Classic, opened in 2019. The exterior is primarily exposed concrete. From front and rear, it has the look of a four-story stack of staggered Lego blocks, with liberal use of glass in each block. Rear-facing rooms have exterior walls of exposed steel girders and floor-to-ceiling glass panes. All rooms have outdoor seating areas. Room décor is primarily modern chic. The “Echo” in the name is an homage to the past. The higherpoint innards of a soaring valley are in partial view behind, complete with a heavenly-high waterfall. Here, Amis tribe warriors once hunted and, presumably only after success, danced and sang, their song echoing through the valley. Two good trails start behind the housing development, one heading to a low waterfall, another far up into the valley with great views over the city. The interior public spaces, also showing much exposed concrete, are filled with antiques, retro pieces, and curios. Most are Western, sourced and shipped by a friend of the owner based in the US, such as an antique cash register and electric fan from the 1940s, a retro1950s guest-use refrigerator and leather upholstered chairs, and a funky plastic 1960s mod-style seat that can be closed to form a giant egg.
ECHO VILLA Untamed nature is right outside the large windows of your guestroom when staying at the Echo Villa; you might even spot some wildlife ECHO VILLA ( 迴音谷森林民宿 ) 0965-501-333 / 0953-332-292 No. 21, Aly 168, Ln. 289, Guofu St., Hualien City ( 花蓮市國福街 289 巷 168 弄 21 號 ) echovilla.com (Chinese)
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Cozy Places To Stay
HUALIEN SNACK FOODS The city is a great place to try a wide variety of local specialties
Hualien City sits on a small plain looking at the Pacific. To the north, right where the plain ends, is the Taroko Gorge mouth and, immediately north, dramatic coastal cliffs that go on for a long distance. To the south the plain ends at the mouth of the poetically lovely East Rift Valley. Hualien has the largest indigenous population among Taiwan cities – 9,000 residents out of 101,000. Before the arrival of Han Chinese, the city’s area was the Amis tribe base area, with numerous large, palisaded villages. Beyond its indigenous-culture attractions, two key
MORE INFO For specific info on places to stay, visit: taiwanstay. net.tw. For more general info on the three main areas introduced in this article, visit these sites: www. taroko.gov.tw (Taroko National Park) and www.ervnsa.gov.tw (East Rift Valley National Scenic Area). T he re a re daily flights and re gula r rail se r vice between Taipei and Hualien. Book seats on the Puyuma Express trains, the fastest service, well in advance. Local trains will also get you very close to all destinations mentioned in this article. Car-rental locations are found at both the Hualien railway station and the airport; the Taiwan Tourism Bureau website (taiwan.net.tw) provides information on vetted car-rental groups. Scooter rentals are also available outside the station. Those not self-driving should also check out the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle service (www.taiwantrip.com.tw)
tourist draws for today’s urban center are food delic acies a nd dedic ated-pat hway c ycling outings. Outside Hualien Railway Station are numerous mingchan or “famous products” outlets selling Hualien-area processed snacks. Specially recommended are delicious Amis mochi, made with millet, a delicacy once prepared only for special ceremonies. Fluffy, chewy Chinese yam cakes are bite-sized treats made by mashing steamed sweet potato, adding egg, and baking. T he 35k m Two L a k e s Bi k e w ay r u n s from Qixingtan beach, on Hualien’s north, to countryside Liyu (Carp) Lake, at the East Rift Valley’s mouth. Along the way, at the Hualien Harbor fish market, try the fresh seafood at the Tian Mama (“Field Mother”) restaurant, or the Japanese- and Chinese-style seafood dishes at the more upscale “Chinese & Japanese Food” Restaurant in the nearby Sunward Plaza, a Tudor manor-style structure with bright pastels on a white-base façade. ENGLISH AND CHINESE Amis mochi 阿美麻糬 Buluowan Recreation Area 布洛灣遊憩區 "Chinese & Japanese Food" Restaurant 中和日食坊 Chinese yam cakes 蕃薯餅 mingchan 名產 Shanyue Suspension Bridge 山月吊橋 Sunward Plaza 向日廣場 Swallow Grotto 燕子口 Tian Mama 田媽媽 Truku tribe 太魯閣族 Tunnel of Nine Turns 九曲洞 Two Lakes Bikeway 兩潭自行車道 Yun Shan Shuei Ecological Farm 雲山水植物農場
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HUALIEN HOMES AWAY FROM HOME Places to Stay with Artsy Characters and a Warm Feel TE X T K I M W EI N ER S
P H OTOS V I S I O N, R AY C H A N G
Hualien, one of three counties along Taiwan's eastern coast, is full of gems hidden not only amidst its natural landscapes but also deep within its culture, traditions, and artistic expressions. In the county’s Hualien City as well as in its rural townships, visitors are treated to sights that amaze and inspire. From charming homestays in the mountains, in valley farming areas, and by the sea to sophisticated modern hotels in the city, Hualien has a wealth of fascinating, one-of-a kind places to stay that satisfy both first-time as well as returning visitors.
Photo by Pochang Peng
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O
ften hailed as one of the most enchanting cities in Taiwan, Hualien is a growing urban enclave that fills up a small plain tucked alongside the majestic mountains of the mighty Central Mountain Range. Just a few hours by car or express train from Taipei, the city – and the county it is part of – is now more accessible to visitors than ever thanks to the recent addition of alternative inland highway sections (through many tunnels) parallel to the winding coastal highway (connecting Yilan and Hualien counties). In addition to its rich history, culture, and dazzling natural beauty, Hualien is also wellknown for its outstanding established and young up-and-coming artists. With their ingenuity and creativity being expressed in paintings, crafts, music, and sculpture, and infused with both indigenous and Han Chinese influences, Hualien is experiencing something of an artistic revolution. From the central city area to the breathtaking coastline to the pastoral scenery of the East Rift Valley, a wide array of unique homestays, hotels, restaurants, cafés, museums, and other attractions offer something for every visitor to enjoy.
Adagio
ENJOY SLOWLY Adagio is a modern guesthouse in a superb location with a warm atmosphere and many touches of indigenous culture ADAGIO SHIHTIPING ( 緩慢石梯坪 ) 0971-566-188 No. 123, Shitiwan, Fengbin Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣豐濱鄉石梯灣 123 號 ) www.theadagio.com.tw
Located right by the gorgeous Pacif ic shoreline, adjacent to the Shitiping recreation area, Adagio combines modern accommodation and style with indigenous cultural elements in providing a uniquely relaxing boutique inn experience. In music, an “adagio” is defined as a movement, passage, or composition played at a slow tempo. Fittingly, everything in this design B&B encourages guests to unwind and enjoy their stay at a slow tempo. Showcasing beautiful views of the Pacific through its sea-facing windows, Adagio aims at being part of the flow of nature itself. A simple architectural design was used to blend the building into the surrounding mountain and ocean scenery. Guests stay in airy, inviting rooms decorated with natural stone and wood materials that ref lect the natural elements of the landscape, bringing the feel of the outdoors inside. Perfect for stargazing and watching the sunrise, Adagio invites its guests to experience the beauty of the Pacific coast through day and night. Ava ilable in the inn’s gif t shop a re various work s of indigenous art and handmade items such as soaps, mugs, and handbags. A sprawling art exhibit on the first floor features the work of local artists, and all items for sale are the work of local craftsmen. The walls in the common areas are decorated with dozens of paintings and wooden art installations, giving them a fun, playful vibe. Dining at Adagio, you enjoy local cuisine made with ingredients such as wild vegetables, flying fish, salted pork, and sweet potatoes, cooked in the style of the indigenous Amis tribe. The menu is changed according to season. A short drive south from the inn is Jingpu village, where visitors can experience traditional indigenous culture. The village is located on the southern bank of the Xiuguluan River, right where the river flows into the ocean. The most prominent scenic feature here is Shiqiu Island, a tiny speck of land sitting right in the river mouth.
Tip Shitiping and Jingpu can be reached from Hualien Railway Station by taking buses 1140 or 1145 bound for Jingpu. The homestay is a five-minute walk from the North Shitiping bus stop. If you drive yourself, follow the coastal Provincial Highway No. 11 to Shitiping (64km marker).
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Homestay Accommodation FENGLIN If looking for a sleepy town in a rural setting with a rich history, Fenglin is the perfect place to visit
Fangshuh If you want to get lost in the beauty of the slow-paced life of the East Rift Valley, look no further than Fenglin Township, where you can stay at Fangshuh, a gorgeous place consisting of a lodge, a café, and a campground. Located just to the east of Fenglin town, Fangshuh is surrounded by farm fields with the rugged peaks of the Central Mountain Range clearly seen in the distance. Once a farm, the property was used to process tobacco in the old days, the leaves being dried under the high ceilings of purpose-built houses. Fangshuh's restaurant is decorated in the style of the Japanese colonial era (1895~1945), paying homage to the property’s history as a tobacco-processing site during that period. The food served is local Hakka cuisine (the Japanese brought experienced tobacco-farming Hakka over from Taiwan’s west side), including mouthwatering congee with fresh vegetables, omelet with carrots, and pork floss. In the café, adjacent to the restaurant, reside a sweet and friendly group of furry friends comprised of the resident dogs and cats, who eagerly greet guests and will accompany you while you sip your coffee. The coffee beans are roasted on site with great care, resulting in a uniquely delicious brew that will have you asking for another cup. If you're staying the night, whether it be camping or staying in one of the lodge buildings, Fangshuh provides all the amenities to make your time here pleasant. The rooms are comfortable and homey, with plenty of outdoor space to relax and enjoy. During your stay, select a DIY class to learn how to make lei cha or “ground tea,” a Hakka specialty, put together some Hakka handmade mochi (glutinous rice balls), or dye cloth using traditional methods.
Fenglin Hakka Cultural Museum The Fenglin Hakka Cultural Museum is a must-visit for those interested in the history and culture of the Hakka people. In Taiwan, the Hakka number around 4.6 million people, around 20% of the population. Fenglin is one of the oldest settlements of Hakka in Hualien; the first residents were incentivized by the Japanese government to move here in the early 20th century. Today, the majority of Fenglin’s population is still Hakka, with remains of colonial-era buildings still visible in the township. The Hakka people's contributions to Taiwanese history, as well as their origins in the province of Guangdong and other parts of China, are covered in great detail here. Visitors can trace their migration, take a look at traditional farming tools, marvel at bamboo-weaving displays, and enjoy informational videos in a multimedia room. With informative and captivating exhibits, every f loor of the museum provides an opportunity to learn something new and gain a new appreciation for the Hakka culture.
Fenglin Principal Dream Factory Across from the Fenglin Hakka Cultural Museum is the interestingly named Fenglin Principal Dream Factory. Originally the residence of the community chief, the Japanese-style wooden structure has been turned into a unique museum honoring residents of Fenglin, who have an unusual tendency to become school principals. Around 90 residents born here have gone on to take the top job at various schools around the island – leading to the nickname “hometown of school heads” for Fenglin. The Dream Factory cheerfully celebrates these principals' dedication to their students and to the future of education in Taiwan. Free guided tours, led by a retired school principal, are available from 8:30am to 12 noon and again from 1:30pm to 5pm. 24
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Homestay Accommodation
Tip To get to Fenglin, take a train; Fangshuh, the Hakka Cultural Museum, and the Principal Dream Factory are all within walking distance from the railway station. From Hualien Railway Station you can also take Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus No. 303 (Hualien Route) and get off at the Fenglin Station bus stop. If selfdriving, take Provincial Highway No. 9; Fenglin is about 30km south of Hualien City. FANGSHUH ( 芳草古樹花園民宿 ) (03) 876-0437 No. 71, Zhonghe Rd., Fenglin Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣鳳林鎮中和路 71號 ) fangshuh.com.tw/?id=593227 FENGLIN HAKKA CULTURAL MUSEUM ( 鳳林客家文物館 ) (03) 876-2625 No. 164, Zhonghua Rd., Fenglin Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣鳳林鎮中華路164 號 ) FENGLIN PRINCIPAL DREAM FACTORY ( 校長夢工廠 ) (03) 876-4779 No. 16, Minsheng St., Fenglin Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣鳳林鎮民生街 16 號 )
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Homestay Accommodation
Café Shouwa
Zhi Nan
Café Shouwa
LIMING BLACK TEA ( 黎明紅茶 ) (03) 835-6883 No. 185, Nanjing St., Hualien City, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣花蓮市南京街 185 號 ) www.facebook.com/dawntea
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ZHI NAN ( 痣男 ) No. 75, Mingyi St., Hualien City, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣花蓮市明義街 75 號 ) https://goo.gl/pdBSYu
THE LEAF INN ( 葉宿文旅 ) (03) 822-2899 No. 55, Minsheng Rd., Hualien City, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣花蓮市民生路 55 號 ) www.theleafinn.com
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Homestay Accommodation
The Leaf Inn
Tip The Leaf Inn is reachable by car or through a taxi pickup from the railway station, which the hotel provides to guests free of charge.
The Leaf Inn
The Leaf Inn
Zhi Nan
CAFÉ SHOUWA ( 昭和 58 咖啡 ) (03) 822-2899 No. 306, Chenggong St., Hualien City, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣花蓮市成功街 306 號 ) https://www.facebook.com/shouwa58
Tucked away on the outskirts of Hualien City, The Leaf Inn's backstory is as unique as the inn itself. Long abandoned, the inn’s buildings were originally a port authority dormitory complex, used to accommodate employees working at the nearby harbor. Sitting empty for more than thirty years, the site had been all but forgotten before it was bought and converted into The Leaf Inn. The structures have now gained new purpose as a hip, modern hangout spot where you can stay for the night, grab a bite to eat or drink, view works of art, or gather with friends to enjoy live music. Inside the main building are three floors of twelve rooms each, the rooms decorated with one-of-a-kind designs by different artists. Behind the main building is a converted grain warehouse filled with restored furniture and sundry items reappropriated for use as furniture, including a former warehouse door that now serves as a dining table. The split-level café is open and airy, with a modern industrial feel that pays homage to the warehouse's original purpose. On the first level is a revolving art-exhibit space featuring innovative works from Taiwanese artists. Handmade crafts, bags, postcards, and more can also be purchased here. The second level is used to host live events featuring local musicians on Saturdays from 8 to 10pm. The café is open from 2 to 10pm. After taking in the history and art of The Leaf Inn, the harbor and the sea are just a quick hop across the street, providing the best of both Hualien's urban areas and proximity to the coastline.
Select Places to Visit in Hualien City Hualien Harbor, constructed in the 1930s, was used in the past to export sugar and served as an entry point for domestic cargo. In modern times, the harbor has become a port of call for cruise ships and a launch point for whale-watching tours. It also plays an important role in the shipping of gravel, cement, and marble. Visitors can indulge in various types of seafood at the harborside seafood market. Qixingtan (lit. Seven Star Lake) was originally the name of a lake, shaped like the Big Dipper, which was located at the site today occupied by the Hualien Airport. It now refers to the beautiful crescent-shaped pebble beach bay northeast of the airport. This is a great place to watch the sunrise and go for long bicycle rides. Tucked away in the winding alleys of central Hualien is the Gouziwei Street neighborhood, an area that invites visitors to take a step back in time. Popular here is Liming Black Tea, a vintage-style breakfast shop offering Taiwanese early-morning favorites like toast, egg pie, and turnip cake, plus a wide range of teas. For lunch, stop off in Zhi Nan, a quaint restaurant styled as an oldschool tailor's shop, serving simple but delicious fare: pork bowl with rice and a runny egg, accompanied by cucumbers and carrot soup. Also head to Café Shouwa, known for unique Japanese-style desserts. With a record player and 1950s-style décor, diners can enjoy light and sweet Japanese-style cakes, pies, and matcha in a retro atmosphere. ENGLISH AND CHINESE Amis tribe 阿美族 East Rift Valley 花東縱谷 Fenglin Township 鳳林鎮 Gouziwei Street neighborhood 溝仔尾街區 Hualien Harbor 花蓮港
Jingpu 靜浦 lei cha 擂茶 Qixingtan 七星潭 Shiqiu Island 獅球嶼 Shitiping 石梯坪
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Vacation
LUXURY VACATION Stays in Hualien
A Trio of Its Best Big Hotels/Resorts in Beautiful Settings TE X T R I C K C H A R E T T E
P H OTOS A SK A C H I, V I S I O N
If looking to plop yourself down in the lap of luxury with amenities and extracurricular activities galore while on a multi-day exploration of Hualien County’s splendiferous natural and manmade scenic pleasures, your “decadent” desires can be accommodated. We here present three of the region’s premier large-scale accommodation destinations – one hotel and two resorts.
TOP IN TAROKO There are not many hotels in Taiwan that can compete with the Silks Place Taroko when it comes to location and luxury
Photo courtesy by Silks Place Taroko
H
ualien County is a nature-lover’s enchantress, a place light in humans; light verging on non-existent in light pollution, making for brilliant night skies; light in road traffic, with quiet, open roads; heavy on easy-grade dedicated bike paths and bike lanes on roads; heavy on man-created pastoral beauties; and heavy on Mother Nature-sculpted mountain vistas. In our main feature article we took you into the long, deep, spiritually stirring Taroko Gorge, to Hualien City, a small urban center of relaxed palm-shaded vibe on the Pacific coast, and into the East Rift Valley, a region picture-framed by two mountain chains with a f loor painted different bright colors aplenty by different ripening crops calling out for harvest. While roaming about in that article we introduced you to a number of creative homestay/ inn places of accommodation. This article is dedicated to the “big guns,” big places of big personality with extra-big rooms and extra-big menus of out-of-guestroom experiences to rest – or pump up – your soul. As you wish!
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Silks Place Taroko Location, location, location! It would be hard to say which other top-tier hotel/resort in Taiwan has a better one – though I may be biased, since I enjoy the wondrous Taroko Gorge so very much. Right in the bottom of the gorge, in the crook where the Liwu River and a key tributary meld, the riverbed strewn with massive boulders. The 7-story-high classical Chinesestyle Tianfeng Pagoda stands imperially high atop a bluff facing the hotel. Macaques come down this bluff many mornings for a river drink, sometimes making their way across the Liwu to inspect guestroom balconies. This is Taroko National Park’s sole 5-star accommodation facility. Public areas and guestrooms are primarily stylish contemporary in styling (some guestrooms have Japanese personality), with subdued earth tones and heavy use of dark and blonde woods. Rooms are large, and look out either toward the river areas or into the central courtyard. Many have balconies. Your available out-of-room experiences are far too numerous to list, but here are my personal favorites (lucky me, I’ve stayed here three times). I won’t spend time describing the expected 5-star facilities such as the superb restaurants, fitness center, kids’ recreation center, heated indoor swimming pool, sauna facility, spa ....
HUALIEN
Vacation
On the roof top a re outdoor pool a nd whirlpool facilities that are especially enjoyable on warm summer nights under the stars. Beside these is a spacious wood-built deck, with plush seating, where a bonf ire and indigenousmusic entertainment is provided weeknights. Beside it is a drinks kiosk providing liquid tasties such as cocktails and, in cooler weather, warming, silkily delicious mulled wine made with Hualien-grown fruits (there are nonalcoholic drinks as well). After your live deck entertainment, relax on a grassy-lawn section elsewhere on the roof taking in a flick at the outdoor cinema. On weekend evenings the live entertainment happens elsewhere, the first session in the lobby featuring classical Chinese music, the second in the central courtyard, with spirited indigenous song-and-dance by local Truku tribe members. Finally, don’t miss the morning 1-hour guided walks, either to the temple beside the aforementioned pagoda or to an old Catholic church seen atop another bluff behind the hotel. For-fee hiking and half-day (morn/aft) or fullday scenic tours are also offered.
Photo courtesy by Silks Place Taroko
SILKS PLACE TAROKO ( 太魯閣晶英酒店 ) (03) 869-1155 No. 18, Tianxiang Rd., Xiulin Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣秀林鄉天祥路 18 號 ) taroko.silksplace.com
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HUALIEN
Vacation
Promisedland Resort & Lagoon What the owner of this idyllic getaway oasis east of the farming town of Shoufeng has done is, by design, bring a slice of genteel Spanish Mediterranean villa living to the East Rift Valley. The series of buildings lined up alongside a self-created lagoon with waterways forming a rough “OOO” pattern all look like Spanish villas. Their design was inspired by Gaudi’s architectural art, with strong Moorish flourishes such as domes and towers, exterior arched corridors, and exterior/interior mosaic tiling. The lagoon is alive with zesty-colored birdlife by day, frog choirs by night. The Promisedland owner, who is Christian, indeed thought of the Promised Land when he bought this land long ago, and the fecund East Rift Valley does indeed strike the visitor as a land of milk and honey. The sprawling grounds are lush with palm trees and other exotic foliage. Each accommodation building contains numerous large rooms, each entered from the outward side and featuring glass patio doors (with patios, naturally) that look inward, over the lagoon. Guestrooms are stately, with Spanish-style tiling of different harmonious colors/patterns used, cream-colored stucco walls, and appealing antique rosewood furnishings, most imported from Spain, that evoke Spanish castle interiors. All feature appealing Spanishmade “treasure chests” that set you to daydreaming of globetrekking swashbuckling adventure in the days of sail.
A PIECE OF PARADISE One of the best resort hotels on the island, Promisedland attracts vacationers with Spanish-style architecture and a wide variety of recreation options
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M y f a v e o u t- o f- r o o m activities here? BT W, I’ve stayed six times, four with my Promisedland-enamored Taiwanese in-laws, who I introduced to the resort. Where to begin …. Take a leisurely lagoon guided boat ride, learning about the resort, lagoon biolife, and more. Soak in the soul-soothing on the oasis-emulating spa/outdoor pool island. Rent bicycles, up to bikes for four, and meander the inviting surrounding countryside. Catch a film in the juniorsized drive-in movie theater (guests only), which comes complete with snack bar. In the large recreation area opposite the accommodation complex, ta ke an indigenous-theme bamboo-raft tour on the lagoon here with a guide from the region’s Amis tribe. In the gracefully redesigned former horse stables, enjoy DIY activities such as making mini-pizzas (stone oven used) and craft-dyeing using local plant life. At night, enjoy the live folk-music shows at the “in-stable” Lakeside Bar, lagoon on one side, aquafarm pond on the other.
HUALIEN
Vacation
PROMISEDLAND RESORT ( 花蓮理想大地渡假飯店 ) (03) 865-6789 No. 1, Lixiang Rd., Gonghe Village, Shoufeng Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣壽豐鄉共和村理想路 1 號 ) www.plcresort.com.tw
Photo courtesy by Promisedland Resort & Lagoon
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HUALIEN
Vacation
Grand Cosmos Resort Ruisui This big spring-chicken hot-spring resort complex was hatched in 2019. Located deep in the East Rift Valley, nearing its halfway-point south from Hualien City, it’s in the Ruisui Hot Springs resort area, tight against the Central Mountain Range base. You spot its bold castle-architecture features, dominating the landscape, long, long before you reach your destination – there are no taller buildings in this area, and its only visual competitors are the local low peaks. Ruisui’s development as a hot-spring resort destination was launched by the Japanese in 1909. Its iron-rich waters are similar in quality to those of Japan’s famed Arima Onsen, which dates back to Japan’s classical period. The complex is centered on two tall, imposing structures, the Castle and the Mansion, designed in southern European style. In the Castle you enter a plush – and massive – lobby that rivals those of elite European resorts, rich with marbles and other polished stones, a grand Austrian-crystal chandelier, and terrific glass walling (27m-high ceiling, highest among Taiwan hotels/resorts). The buildings are home to the guestrooms, restaurants, and a wide array of other guest-use facilities. These and other complex structures are aligned to form a medieval European town lookalike; there is even a Chapel building between the Castle and Mansion. COSMOS CASTLE A posh palace in the East Rift Valley, the Grand Cosmos is one of the most luxurious resort hotels in Taiwan
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Also among these other buildings are the standalone Family Villas. These are petfriendly, and overlook the choice-overflowing Water Park, which is friendly to kids and adults alike. The standalone Grand Villas are at the other end of the complex, in a quiet area, each equipped with a private backyard and swimming pool. The interiors for rooms/ villas are primarily European modern chic, and all sport a hot-spring spa bathroom. The highlights among the other myriad out-of-room experiences, at least as far as this writer is concerned, must launch with the Water Park, which bubbles over with indoor and outdoor options. Inside are water-jet massage pools, a thrillingly large water slide, and a 25m, seven-lane lap pool. Outside are hot-spring pools, hot-stone plate resting beds and, for the kids, fountains and water-playground facilities. Beyond this, neither kids nor frolicloving adults should miss out on the electric-kart track or pass on the games room, where the best fun is had with the classic and modern arcade games. GRAND COSMOS RESORT RUISUI ( 瑞穗天合國際觀光酒店 ) (03) 887-6000 No. 368, Sec. 2, Wenquan Rd., Ruisui Township, Hualien County ( 花蓮縣瑞穗鄉溫泉路二段 368 號 ) www.grandcosmos.com.tw
MORE INFO For more info on vacationing in the region, visit the websites of the Taroko National Park (www.taroko. gov.tw), the East Rift Valley National S c e ni c A re a (w w w.e r v- n s a .g ov. tw), and the Taiwan Tourism Bureau (taiwan.net.tw).
ENGLISH AND CHINESE Amis tribe 阿美族 Ruisui Hot Springs 瑞穗溫泉 Tianfeng Pagoda 天峯塔 Truku tribe 太魯閣族
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FOOD
Coffee Or Tea
The Great Taiwan Coffee & Tea War
Bean Challenging Long-Supreme Leaf for Islanders’ Love TE X T R I C K C H A R E T T E
P H OTOS R AY C H A N G, V I S I O N
Tea, glorious tea! No coffee, glorious coffee! A battle of the daily staple beverages has been raging in Taiwan the past decade-plus, a titanic struggle for the hearts and minds of the people. Tea has sat proudly on the throne for centuries. The upstart coffee waded ashore from places foreign (i.e., Starbucks from the US) in the 1990s. Which is winning? Which has the most legitimate claim to being the preferred daily beverage staple of Taiwan’s inhabitants? Read on!
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FOOD
W
ell, we’ve misled you a bit. There’s no clear winner yet, and we’re calling it a dual monarchy. Tea reigned supreme, unchallenged, for centuries after being transplanted from China during the Qing Dynasty. Then, in the 1990s, everything changed. Starbucks launched the palate-preference challenge, and since then chain upon chain has sprung up. The major convenience-store chains, riding the new wave, have become major go-to spots for java satisfaction. And as palates have become ever more sophisticated demand has been for ever more sophisticated taste experiences, and today the excitement is all about specialty coffees.
COFFEE
Taiwan Coffee Bytes
Coffee Or Tea
Tea has fought back. The younger generation turned to coffee in the search for something new, and a new generation of tea people has seen this and responded in kind. New teahouses have shaken off stodgy traditions, and now serve up upscale trendy. And tea leaf is being used in innovative new ways, with a key trend being tea beverages, with bubble tea for a while now, and now inventive hand-shaken tea-based drinks featuring local fruits, with an explosion of bright, chic tea-drink shops.
TEA
Taiwan Tea Bytes
Highest concentration of cafés in the world
People consume about 40,000 tons of tea leaf each year
Over 3,500 cafés (about 25% in Taipei)
Over 1 billion “hand-shaken” tea drinks are sold each year, including about 100 million pearl milk tea servings (stacked together, they’d equal 1,700 Mt. Everests)
People drink about 2.85 billion cups of coffee a year, about 130 cups per per son/year (Japan about 370, South Korea about 350) People buy about 600 million take-out coffees a year (stacked together, the cups would be as tall as 130,000 Taipei 101 towers) Coffee market is growing about 20% annually
Tea imports triple exports, but export unit prices average 4.7 times higher Annual expor ts are about 10,000 tons, about 40% Oolong and Baozhong teas, with China the biggest buyer Annual impor ts are about 30,000 tons, mostly black tea from Vietnam and Sri Lanka
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FOOD
Coffee Or Tea
Tea in Taiwan During Taiwan’s imperia l era, Han Chinese immigrants brought tea plants from their home areas in China’s Fujian Prov i nc e . Si g n i f ic a nt c om merc i a l production only began in the latter 1800s, however, when Western trading f i r m s enc ou r a g e d pro duc t ion a nd exported Taiwan’s tea to points abroad. Local production long remained mainly for export, and it was only in the 1970s that the island’s tea aficionados began to develop an appreciation for homegrown of feri ng s. Hig h-mou nt a i n Oolong teas are most highly valued; other teas produced are green tea, Baozhong tea, Oolong tea, Tie Kuanyin (Iron Goddess) tea, and black tea. In the face of the coffee challenge, i n novat ion ha s perc olated, most ly introduced by the younger generation, e a ger for f u sion a nd novelt y. T he traditional, quaint teahouse has been thrown over for more modern, trendy places, some of these special-theme teahouses, many ser ving innovative “tea cuisine”; i.e., culinary creations
proprietors feel perfectly match their tea offerings, many dishes with tea in some form as ingredient. Marketing-savvy operators of long-in-business teashops are taking over from older generations and introducing new ideas such as DIY tea experiences. And the tea-beverage shop market has exploded, especially what are called “tea shake outlets,” with both chain and self-owned boutique options.
HAND-SHAKE TEA In recent years cold tea drinks sold at small teashops have become extremely popular with young consumers
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FOOD
Coffee Or Tea
TEA TRADITIONS If you want to learn more about the traditional ways of appreciating fine tea, head to teahouses in Taipei's Dadaocheng neighborhood
Where to Learn More About Tea In Taipei, perhaps the best area to learn more about tea is the Dadaocheng neighborhood. In the 1800s this was a thriving riverport, and a key launch point for trading firms’ tea leaf headed overseas. The area is today home to many tea-related businesses with long histories. South St. Delight is on the second floor of a renovated heritage shophouse. This is a teahouse of quiet, elegant décor that serves teas matched with lighter foods. Its specialty is pairing premium teas with mouthwatering finger snacks, the tea you order coming with a specific array of traditionalstyle snacks – such as mung-bean pastries and longan jelly. Sin Hong Choon is in a renovated three-floor Japanesestyle business building. It now serves as a tea shop, museum, and cultural-education hub. Visitors to the traditional-style shop area, decked out with a 1930s look and stuffed with tea memorabilia, can sample and buy leaf. In the preserved work rooms you can learn about Taiwan’s tea trade history. Ing Lok Tshun Hong Formosa Tea is a teahouse taking you back to Taiwan in the 1920s, with a fusion of Japanese and Western elements. Paying homage to the goods that brought Dadaocheng its great monetary and cultural wealth from the late 1800s through much of the 20th century, on display and for sale here are the best of Taiwan’s teas and other specialty products.
SOUTH ST. DELIGHT ( 南街得意 ) (02) 2552-1367 No. 67, Sec. 1, Dihua St., Datong Dist., Taipei City ( 台北市大同區迪化街 1 段 67 號 ) SIN HONG CHOON ( 新芳春茶行 ) 02-2550-4141 No. 309, Minsheng W. Rd., Datong Dist., Taipei City ( 台北市大同區民生西路 309 號 ) ING LOK TSHUN HONG FORMOSA TEA ( 永樂春風茶館 ) (02) 2552-6482 No. 82, Sec. 1, Dihua St., Datong Dist., Taipei City ( 台北市大同區迪化街 1 段 82 號 )
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FOOD
Coffee Or Tea
Coffee in Taiwan During the 1895~1945 Japanese colonial period coffee plants were cultivated in Yunlin County’s low-mountain region of Gukeng, the bean primarily exported to Japan. After the Japanese departure all plants were torn out and the land used for tea. With the introduction of Starbucks in the 1990s coffee burst from its niche-market status and coffee production by small-batch cultivators was successfully restarted in locations around Taiwan. Not long ago the big café trend was to experience how coffee was prepared before you – brewed-on-order, cold drip coffee specialists, etc. The major trend now
is specialty coffee. Taiwan has become an international player of note in the specialty coffee sector. The term “specialty coffee” denotes the highest available grade of coffee, generally referring to the entire supply chain and using single origin coffee beans. Opening one’s own café is now a popular option among Taiwan’s younger generation, living as one’s own boss and using premises as a clear ref lection of personalit y and life beliefs. The popularity of using single origin coffees is a demonstration of this generation’s deepening eco-consciousness.
Master Roasters The young owner of Oasis Coffee Roasters,, a hipster operation in Taipei’s cosmopolitan Da’an District, sees his gathering spot as a rest station, an oasis, for busy urbanites. Hence the “oasis”-evoking logo, the waves of a life-giving oasis-spring pool in the desert forming an energizing sun. Oasis is a key representative of Taipei’s ever-more-refined coffee culture. The owner closely studied the novel methods of World Barista Championship winners, experimenting with the roasting and extraction methods/apparatus used by world-renowned masters. Oasis uses light roasting, with a strong preference for Nordic light roasting, believing it better preserves a bean’s natural flavors (floral, fruity, nutty, natural sweetness, etc.). The purity and cleanliness of its coffees is deliberately reflected in its bricks-and-mortar look. The café’s striking façade is bright galvanized steel cladding, with large windows allowing purifying sunlight to stream inside. The interior is minimalist, with much use of white and light-hue birch wood, in Scandinavian style, and strategic use of “outdoor” items such as steel sheeting and streetlamp-shaped wall lamps. Oasis is ultra-fastidious about its bean selection. The owner scours the planet for the finest specialty coffee bean, sourcing from both Taiwan and abroad, doing its own roasting for many in-house. But something that sets it apart from even the best of other island café roasters is its carrying of a wide range of beans from other roast masters. The Oasis owner has superb relations with other Taiwan café roasters, and stocks roasts from such renowned elite local operators as Rufous Coffee, The Normal, and Group 19. Another unique Oasis initiative is its close relations with Taiwan coffee growers. For example, it is now working with farmers in Hualien County in a campaign replacing eco-harmful betel-nut trees with coffee plants, which better preserve the soil. Most of the farmers involved are indigenous.
OASIS COFFEE ROASTERS (02) 2755-6769 No. 7-3, Ln. 199, Sec. 4, Xinyi Rd., Da'an Dist, Taipei City (台北市大安區信義路四段 199 巷 7-3 號 )
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SPECIAL ROASTS Young entrepreneurs around Taiwan are taking coffee culture to new heights with quality cafés opening up in rapid succession
FOOD
Coffee Or Tea
Chain Operations
CONVENIENT COFFEE If you want to get an idea of how popular coffee drinking has become in Taiwan in recent years, just look around; places selling freshly brewed coffee are almost everywhere
Though the fresh-brew coffee business is flourishing in Taiwan, and upscale boutique joints have a loyal following looking to please their palates ever more and are willing to pay more sophisticated prices for the experience, it appears that the coffee-trend dividends are increasingly weighted toward brands selling affordable cups of java – of good quality, however. The winners in the increasingly competitive coffee-market competition of late are the four major convenience-store chains: 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Hi-Life, and OK mart. These operators have been expanding the size of many outlets to create more pleasant sit-down areas while maintaining their significantly lower product prices, enticing people to spend time on the premises rather than encourage quick-thru traffic, in the traditional manner for such chains. Fresh-cup sales for the four major chains now total a whopping 900-plus million cups annually. You won’t get an award-winning cappuccino or latte at one of 7-Eleven’s bright and airy City Café operations or FamilyMart’s Let's Café gathering spots, but the description “That’s high quality for my low outlay!” applies. This has put tremendous pressure on the pricier café chains, notably familiar older operators such as Starbucks and Mr. Brown, which have been closing outlets. Younger homegrown chains have also been muscling in on the older players’ turf. Perhaps most notable among these are Cama, Louisa, and 85°C. Local brand Louisa scored a major triumph a g a inst goliat h Sta rbuck s back in 2019 when Tsutaya Bookstore, the upscale Japanese chain, dumped their longtime partner from the US in favor of Louisa for its f lagship Taipei CITYLINK operation. Tsutaya makes in-store café reading a central draw at all its locations. ENGLISH AND CHINESE Da'an District 大安區 Dadaocheng 大稻埕 Gukeng 古坑 TR AVEL IN TAIWAN
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TE X T & P H OTOS A S K A C H I, V I S I O N
CYCLING IN THE VALLEY The East Rift Valley is perfect for bicycling: mostly flat, low traffic volume, and rural scenery with spectacular mountain backdrops.
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CYCLING IN TAIWAN
Hualien & Taitung
Among the many popular areas for bicycling around Taiwan, the East Rift Valley and the East Coast most certainly make a bicyclist’s heart beat faster, both in terms of pre-visit anticipation and on-the-ground excitement. ealizing the dream of circling the island of Taiwan using a bicycle is high on the list of local and foreign cycling enthusiasts. Many opt for the well-marked and easy-to-follow Cycling Route No. 1, most completing the ride in less than two weeks. A loop around the island has the benefit of presenting cyclists with a wide range of splendid sights and scenic locations. If you don’t want to circle the whole island, and would rather focus on those parts especially rich in terms of pristine environment with high mountains seen in the distance and/or the ocean right by your side, spend some time in the marvelous eastern region of Taiwan, specifically Hualien and Taitung. Looking at a topographic map of Taiwan, you will quickly see that in the east there is the Coastal Mountain Range along the coast and the East Rift Valley on the west side of the range. Two highways connect Hualien and Taitung cities; Provincial
Highway No. 9 (through the valley) and No. 11 (hugging the coast). There are a few minor roads connecting the two and there is also County Road No. 193, which runs parallel to the 9 in the Hualien part of the valley. You have quite a few options when it comes to route planning. Ride, for example, the whole length of the valley and then back along the coast (or the other way round), cycle exclusively in the valley or along the coast (or combine the two areas by taking one of the connecting roads), or follow the 193, a great alternative to the main highway, with less traffic and more shade trees. The valley is more convenient in terms of public transport thanks to the trunk railway line that runs its length. If you plan to only cycle parts of the valley, you can easily move about, taking your bike onto local trains. You can also rent bikes near the starting point of some of the well-known dedicated bikeways, for example at Yuli in Hualien and and Chishang in Taitung.
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RICE BASKET The East Rift Valley is where some of Taiwan's best rice is grown. For cyclists, the best time to ride along the paddy fields is when the stalks are a golden brown, shortly before harvest
Yufu Bikeway Yuli Railway Station Xiuguluan River
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Antong Station
Hualien County 9
Dongli Station
This is a very popular bikeway built on the railbed of a decommissioned railway line. “Yufu” is short for Yuli-Fuli, the two southernmost townships of Hualien County. The bikeway starts close to Yuli Railway Station, where you’ll find bike-rental shops providing both self-pedaled and e-powered bikes. The bikeway starts about 300m south of the railway station. After briefly riding parallel to the main railway line, you’ll soon turn southeast, following the original path trains would take in the past. Two kilometers from the railway station you’ll arrive at a long, straight bridge that crosses the Xiuguluan River, and you’ll find the answer to why the old railway route was abandoned. After crossing about two-thirds of the bridge there’s a point indicating the fault line that runs by directly below, dividing the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate. The ongoing tectonic movements of these plates put a constant strain on the railway bridge, and in 1989 it was decided to re-route the railway line, keeping it on the western side of the river. Good news for bicyclists; the beds of old railway lines make excellent foundations for bikeways. The Yufu Bikeway is a very enjoyable ride through the enchanting East Rift Valley countryside, past rice paddies and rapeseed fields. About 5km from Yuli Railway Station you’ll come to a platform, the only remains of the tiny former Antong Station. (Note: Antong is known for its hot springs, and if you follow Highway No. 30 uphill for about 2km from the station you’ ll come to a number of excellent hot-spring establishments.) The Yufu Bikeway ends at the next former station, Dongli (about 10km from Yuli Railway Station), a great spot to take a rest (there is a café inside the former station building) and recharge before starting the return leg to Yuli.
Bridge across Xiuguluan River
CYCLING IN TAIWAN
Hualien & Taitung
Taitung City to Sanxiantai Taitung is a small city in the southeast with a laidback vibe and strong indigenous-culture presence. It’s the logical starting point for exploring the East Coast from the south. The stretch from the city all the way up to Sanxiantai, a major tourist attraction (about 50km one way), is regarded as especially scenic and attractive. Just to the north of the city you come to the fascinating sandstone rock formations of Xiaoyeliu (“Little Yeliu”), the smaller counterpart to the much more famous “Big” Yehliu Geopark on the North Coast. Less than 2km further you can make a stop at the Jialulan seaside park. This is a great spot for taking a good look at the coast further north, prominently featuring the impressive mountains of the coastal range. With the highway running close along the shore in this area, you can easily stop at numerous small beaches (sand and pebble) along the way, including Shanyuan and Jiamuzi. Before reaching the village of Dulan, make sure to turn left just off the highway and take a look at the Water Running Upward sight, a small channel in which the water appears as if defying gravity. In recent years, Dulan has become a hotspot for visitors and new residents seeking immersion in the relaxing ways of this small community in close proximity to excellent surf beaches.
COASTAL SIGHTS Along the coastal highway north of Taitung City there is no shortage of scenic attractions, with the grand Pacific Ocean almost always in full view Sanxiantai
Jialulan
Jinzun Recreation Area
Sanxiantai Chenggong 11 23
Taitung County
East Coast National Scenic Area Administration
Chenggong's fishing harbor Dulan Sugar Factory
Donghe Old Bridge Donghe Jinzun Fishing Harbor Jinzun Recreation Area
Dulan Water Running Upward Jiamuzi
Pacific Ocean
Shanyuan Jialulan Xiaoyeliu
Taitung City
ENGLISH AND CHINESE Antong 安通 Chenggong 成功 Chishang 池上 Coastal Mountain Range 海岸山脈 Cycling Route No. 1 環島 1 號線 Donghe 東河 Dongli 東里 Dulan 都蘭 East Rift Valley 花東縱谷 Fuli 富里
Guanshan 關山 Jialulan 加路蘭 Jiamuzi 加母子 Jinzun 金樽 Mawuku 馬武窟 Sanxiantai 三仙台 Shanyuan 杉原 Water Running Upward 水往上流 Xiaoyeliu 小野柳 Xiuguluan 秀姑巒 Yuli 玉里
The next stop ideal for a rest is the Jinzun Recreation Area, where there is a café with outdoor seating, perched on a high point, perfect for taking in the grand Pacific panorama. In the distance you can spot Jinzun Fishing Harbor, known as one of Taiwan’s best surfing locations. Next up is the village of Donghe, where you should try the yummy steamed buns. When crossing the Donghe Bridge just to the north of the village make sure to look left to see the Donghe Old Bridge and, beyond the bridge, the huge white boulders scattered in the riverbed of the Mawuku River. Finally, you’ll enter Chenggong Township, home to the East Coast National Scenic Area Administration headquarters facility, the grounds of which are the venue for the annual Taiwan East Coast Land Arts Festival. Next, check out Chenggong town’s fishing harbor for excellent seafood dining. The final highlight of this recommended route is scenic Sanxiantai, a small offshore island connected to the mainland by a photogenic multiple-arch pedestrian bridge.
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BIKING FUN
Round The Island
The Basics Most riders who plan to start in Taipei will consider riding counter-clockwise. There are good reasons for this. The western half of the island is mostly f lat, giving lessexperienced riders a few days of easy riding to get used to traveling a long distance each day. The first major hilly section does not come before you are about a week into the ride. Many will also opt for the west side first to keep the more scenic east side for the latter stages. While anti-clockwise seems a good choice, seasonal winds should be taken into consideration. During the summer, southwestern winds will mean plenty of headwind on your way south, so it might make sense to head down the East Coast first, where the winds are largely blocked by the mountain ranges. In the winter months, however, the northeastern monsoon winds are a good reason for considering an anti-clockwise approach.
Taiwan being a mostly subtropical island, the main concern for many riders is the heat and the rain. Autumn, a time when the high temperatures of the summer have given way to much more pleasant ones, is generally considered the best season for outdoor activities including cycling. Summer can be very hot, especially in the south, so staying hydrated and sun-protected is key. Since there is also the chance of typhoons sweeping across the island in late summer through early autumn, cyclists should always keep a close eye on the weather forecast.
Things To Consider Before Circling Taiwan TE X T & P H OTOS V I S I O N
Circling the island on a bicycle is a feat accomplished by many dedicated cyclists these days. Some find it easy, some find it challenging. Depending on your level of fitness and your desired level of comfort during the ride, the way to approach it might vary significantly.
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Due to the high popularity of round-island cycle touring, many hotels, hostels, and homestays (B&Bs) along the main routes cater to cyclists. When searching for places to stay on the Taiwan Tourism Bureau’s website (taiwanstay.net.tw), narrow your search down by checking “Bike friendly hotel.”
Many chain convenience stores and all police stations along the way offer basic services for cyclists. You also want to map out Giant and Merida service-stop locations along your route. You can search for service stations on this webpage: taiwanbike.taiwan.net.tw/TransferInfo/SupplyStation (Chinese).
If you plan to purchase or rent a bike for this trip, consulting bike shops catering to round-the-island riders is highly recommended (see article on page 46). The bike will be your best friend for around two weeks, and you want to make sure that it fits your personal requirements well to minimize discomfort and avoid injuries.
BIKING FUN Old Caoling Tunnel on Northeast Coast
Dongshan River in Yilan County
Round The Island Cycling along the North Coast
Photo courtesy of N. C.& Guanyinshan NSA Brown Avenue in Taitung County
Cycling Route No. 1
Dong'ao Bay in Yilan County
Visit www.taiwanon2wheels.com to f ind a helpf u l sample itinerary of a round-the-island bicycling trip following Cycling Route No. 1. Time for completion is 12 days, at an average speed of 20km/h and riding around 100km a day.
The route is mostly f lat along the western half of the island. It becomes hilly once you make your way across the Hengchun Peninsula in the far south. The road through the East Rift Valley (Hualien/Taitung) is mostly flat again. North of Hualien City the Su-Hua Highway runs along steep cliff faces and comes with some narrow tunnels. This stretch is therefore considered by many as too dangerous for cyclists and taking a local train between Hualien City and the town of Su’ao is recommended.
Tamsui River
Sun Moon Lake
There are quite a few options for detours, including the Sun Moon Lake and Alishan areas. In the far south consider riding all the way to the southernmost tip of the island, in the far north riding the coastal highway between the beach-resort village of Fulong in the east and the town of Tamsui in the west. If you have time for just one detour, definitely make it Taroko Gorge, one of our world’s true natural and scenic wonders. ENGLISH AND CHINESE Cycling Route No. 1 環島 1 號線 Hengchun Peninsula 恆春半島 Su'ao 蘇澳 Su-Hua Highway 蘇花公路 Sun Moon Lake 日月潭 Tamsui 淡水 Taroko Gorge 太魯閣峽谷
MORE INFO
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LOCAL LIFESTYLE
Alec Gates & Alex Bryant
s e k i B n o g n i s k t s a r i s Wo Cycling Enthu
TE X T OWA I N M C K I M M P H OTOS R AY C H A N G, V I S I O N
Two
s a x e T from
ALEC GATES
ALEX BRYANT
BIKE GEEKS Ask Alec and Alex anything about bikes and you'll certainly get a satisfying answer
Completing a circuit of the island on a bicycle (known as a huandao; lit., “around/circle i sland”) has long been considered one of Taiwan's must-dos. In the last decade or so, however, and thanks in large part to wellspent government investment in developing the island's biking infrastructure, the cycling culture in Taiwan has blossomed far beyond an entry on a national bucket list. And with its stunning mountain roads and sometimes-chaotic-butalways-exhilarating city riding, Taiwan is now 46
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considered an exciting destination for lovers of the velocipede. Alec Gates and Alex Bryant are two such enthusiasts. Hailing from Texas, the t wo own Taipei Bike Works, a cycling shop tucked alongside a park in Taipei's Dadaocheng neighborhood. The shop is a hard-won passion project for the t wo ent repreneurs, who have carved out a niche for themselves in Taiwan's flourishing cycling industry.
LOCAL LIFESTYLE
G
ates was the first of the pair to move to Taiwan. In 2015, he, Bryant, and a mutual friend undertook an epic tour of the island on scooters. “When we got back I jokingly said, ‘I am going to move there’,” Gates says. And a year later, that’s exactly what he did. Over the next few years, in addition to his work as an English teacher, he began giving cycling tours of the city to visiting friends, making savvy use of Taipei’s YouBike bike-rental service to provide the necessary wheels. Seeing the potential for a tour business, he asked Bryant if he would be interested in helping him develop this side gig into something more concrete. And so Bryant, too, moved to Taiwan. Together, they established the business, rented a small storefront, bought a fleet of bikes, and began officially running full- and halfday tours of Taipei. The tours take in Taipei’s bustling, historic Dadaocheng neighborhood; Taipei’s youth fashion district, Ximending; and some of the city’s major landmarks, such as Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, before ending with a long stretch in one of Taipei’s scenic riverside parks.)
Alec Gates & Alex Bryant
Business was booming – and then 2020 arrived. “We were doing tours, we had built up our online presence, we were on several guide books, we had bloggers ready to go, and then the virus hit and there were no tourists anymore,” Gates says. However, rather than throw in the towel, the two spotted an opportunity to diversify. Gates had worked in a bike shop for several years while in college, and had already begun to turn his hand to maintenance in order to keep the pair’s fleet of touring bikes in good shape. Bryant, too, is naturally mechanically minded – a keen motorcycle hobbyist with a past career stint at Lexus before relocating to Taiwan. “People would do a tour and ride with us and then ask if they could keep using their bike for the rest of their stay,” Bryant says. “We were also working on our own bikes, and our friends would come by with their bikes and have us tinker with them. So when the pandemic hit, it was an obvious transition to start up a bike shop.” In the spring of 2020 the two moved to their current location in Dadaocheng, right at the heart of their city-tour route.
Servicing Bikes For now, tours are postponed until Taiwan opens up to tourists again, and the business is focused solely on mechanical matters. When asked what services they provide, Gates reels off a long list: “We do rentals; we’ll build wheels for you; we’ll fix anything you bring to us; you get in an accident and chip the paint, we’ll strip your bike, respray it, it’ll look like it came from the factory again; we do a full service, where we break down the bike and put it back together again so it feels fresh; we do complete bicycle imports; we do used-bike sales, used parts, restorations; we do custom builds; we source hard-to-find parts….” A nd while there are cha llenges to sourcing parts in Taiwan (having to work with more than 40 distributors rather than three as is the case with the US, for example), one factor certainly makes up for any hardship: Taiwan (and the city of Taichung in particular) is home to an overwhelming percentage of t he world ’s bike ma nu facturing, includ ing juggernauts Giant and Merida. And being so close to the industry’s forge has its perks. As an example, Bryant points to a pair of wheel rims hanging from the ceiling: “The company that makes those is in Kaohsiung. They import the raw metal and make their proprietary alloy right in their factory. And then they provide their rims to all the other manufacturers. But we can buy rims directly from them, before they get a label slapped on. So if someone wants a high-quality rim, we can provide it to them, w it hout a l a bel, but for perhaps ha lf t he norma l price. That way we're able to save the customer quite a bit of money.”
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Alec Gates & Alex Bryant
Where to Cycle As well as offering tours and cycling-hardware services, the two are also happy to offer advice on how to get the best out of Taiwan’s vast network of bike routes. “There are so many places to go!” says Bryant. “It really depends on what you want. Some people just want a nice, pleasant short bike ride, and Taipei’s riverside parks are awesome for that. Some of our customers are into touring, and of course we recommend doing a huandao. But even that isn’t a straightforward thing.” Though it is possible to complete a circle of the island by following the signposted route, cyclists who do this will inevitably miss out on some of the island’s more characterful cycling. “You can go on the government-recommended route and follow the signs the entire way, but you’re going be riding along the side of main roads most of the way, and it may not be the most pleasant experience,” Bryant says. “So we try to encourage people to veer off the established huandao route and explore some of the routes in urban areas, which have really started to open up in recent years. There’s a great one for example in Taichung – the Houfeng Bikeway, and there are many options similar to that. So if you’re going around Taiwan, and you have the time, we really recommend you take advantage of the infrastructure that's been built for bikes in the cities.”
TAKING BIKING TO NEW HEIGHTS Taipei Bike Works is just one of many bike shops in Taiwan offering high-quality bike services and contributing to the island's superb cycling-friendly environment
Gates, on the other hand, is more interested in promoting Taiwan's mountain routes. “I’ve cycled quite a few of the routes in Yangmingshan and Maokong” – two areas easily reachable from central Taipei – “and recorded them on the Strava fitnesstracking app. So if someone comes into the store who is interested in climbing, they can go through my routes and load them to their phone.” One route that Gates particularly loves is the Buddha Hand route in the Yangmingshan National Park area, which dips in and out of the park over a distance of 140km, mimicking the shape of a giant hand – though beginners will need to build up their stamina on some of Gates’s less-arduous routes before attempting this challenging trek! TAIPEI BIKE WORKS/TAIPEI BIKE TOURS 0982-277-996 No. 9, Ln. 70, Sec. 2, Chongqing N. Rd., Datong Dist., Taipei City ( 台北市大同區重慶北路二段 70 巷 9 號 ) www.taipeibiketours.com ENGLISH AND CHINESE Dadaocheng 大稻埕 Houfeng Bikeway 后豐鐵馬道 huandao 環島 Maokong 貓空 Ximending 西門町 Yangmingshan 陽明山
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CAESAR PARK TAIPEI
Taipei 台 北
台北凱撒大飯店
Northern Taiwan
THE GRAND HOTEL
NO. OF ROOMS: 478 ROOM RATES:
Eastern Taiwan
CAESAR PARK TAIPEI ECL AT HOTELS
COLD & HOT SPRING RESORT SUAO
GLORIA PRINCE HOTEL Taipei PACIFIC BUSINESS HOTEL
＊ Hotel list in alphabetical order from Northern to Southern Taiwan.
NT$ NT$ NT$ NT$ NT$ NT$
8,500 9,500 11,000 13,000 14,000 18,000
DESK PERSONNEL SPEAK: English, Japanese, Chinese
RESTAURANTS: 2F Checkers, 3F Dynasty Restaurant
ROOM RATES: NT$12,500-NT$38,000 DESK PERSONNEL SPEAK: Japanese, English, Chinese FACILITIES: Eclat Lounge, mechanical parking space, meeting rooms AWARDS: 2020 DESTIN ASIAN Reader’s Choice Award 2019 Michelin Guide Preferred Hotel 2020 Hotels.com Loved by Guest Award
e-Lounge, Banquet, Meeting Room, GYM, SPA, Roof Garden, Free Wi-Fi,Room Service, Laundry, Luggage Storage, Valet parking service
No. 38, Sec. 1, Zhongxiao W. Rd., Taipei City 台 北 市 忠 孝 西 路 一 段 38號 Tel: +886 -2-2311-5151 Fax: +886 -2-2331-9944 E-mail: info_tpe@caesarpark.com
No. 370, Sec. 1, Dunhua S. Rd., Daan District, Taipei City 台北市大安區敦化南路 一段370 號 Tel: +886-2-2784-8888 Fax: +886-2-2784-7888 E-mail: taipei@eclathotels.com
taipei.caesarpark.com.tw
www.eclathotels.com
PACIFIC BUSINESS HOTEL
THE GRAND HOTEL
華泰 王子大 飯 店
太平洋商旅
圓山大飯店
Taipei 台 北
Taipei 台 北
COLD & HOT SPRING RESORT SUAO
瓏 山 林 蘇 澳 冷 熱 泉 度 假 飯 店 Yilan 宜 蘭
NO. OF ROOMS: 220
NO. OF ROOMS: 105
NO. OF ROOMS: 500 (Suites: 57)
NO. OF ROOMS: 153
ROOM RATES: Single / Deluxe / Executive NT$ Suite NT$
ROOM RATES: Boutique Business Junior Family Executive
ROOM RATES: Single/DBL Suite
ROOM RATES:
6,000- 8,500 9,500-20,000
DESK PERSONNEL SPEAK: English, Japanese, Chinese RESTAURANTS: L’IDIOT RESTAURANT (Western), CHIOU HWA RESTAURANT (Chinese) SPECIAL FEATURES: Coffee Shop, Fitness Center, Business Center, Meeting and Banquet Facilities,Laundry Service, Non-smoking Floor, Parking Lot, Airport Transfer Service
Room Room Room Room Room
NT$ 7,600 NT$ 8,400 NT$ 9,400 NT$ 13,000 NT$ 10,000
DESK PERSONNEL SPEAK: Chinese, English, Japanese
RESTAURANTS/FACILITIES: Ju-Yi Restaurant, Gym, Laundromat (no coins needed) and Lounge
SPECIAL FEATURES: Free high-speed Wi-Fi, compass and praying mat, crib, luggage storage, city tourist information, business center, balcony, free parking lot, airport shuttle service (fee), meeting room & instant office (for rental)
Taipei 台 北
SPECIAL FEATURES:
GLORIA PRINCE HOTEL Taipei
Taipei 台 北
台北怡亨酒店
NO. OF ROOMS: 60
Superior Room Deluxe Room Superior Double Double Metro Room Metropolis Room Station Suite
(All rates are subject to 10% service charge.)
Visitors to Taiwan have a wide range of choice when it comes to accommodation. From five-star luxury hotels that meet the highest international standards, to affordable business hotels, to hot-spring and beach resort hotels, to privately-run homestays located in the countryside there is a place to stay that satisfies every traveler’s needs. What all hotels of Taiwan — small and big, expensive and affordable — have in common is that serve and hospitality are always of the highest standards. The room rates in the following list have been checked for each hotel, but are subject to change without notice. Room rates at the hotels apply.
ECLAT HOTELS
NT$ 8,800-15,800 NT$ 22,000-36,000
(All rates are subject to 10% service charge.)
DESK PERSONNEL SPEAK: English, French, Spanish, and Japanese RESTAURANTS: Western, Cantonese, Northern China Style Dumplings, tea house, coffee shop, steak house SPECIAL FEATURES: Grand Ballroom, conference rooms for 399 people, 10 breakout rooms, business center, fitness center, sauna, Olympic-size swimming pool, tennis courts, billiards
Japanese Style Room (Single Spring Bath) Japanese Style Room (Dual Spring Bath) Japanese Style Suite (Dual Spring Bath) Western Style Double Room (Single Spring Bath) Western Style Quadruple Room (Single Spring Bath) Western Style Double Room (Dual Spring Bath) Western Style Quadruple Room (Dual Spring Bath) Western Style Suite (Dual Spring Bath) Japanese Deluxe Suite (Single Spring Bath)
NT$7,200 NT$7,700 NT$12,200 NT$8,500 NT$15,600 NT$8,500 NT$15,600 NT$14,600 NT$21,800
DESK PERSONNEL SPEAK: Japanese, English, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Cantonese
FACILITIES:
Private spring house, outdoor cold/hot spring area, outdoor/ indoor swimming pool, indoor water massage area, top-floor scenic outdoor hot-spring pool; light-meal restaurant and bar, restaurant, executive meeting room, high-ceiling banquet hall; recreation center (gym, children’s game room, Internet area), spa, shopping arcade, multimedia classroom.Provided inside guestrooms: AVEDA toiletry set, EVIAN mineral water (1500ml), RSL slippers, DVD and stereo set (DVDs and CDs not provided), English Wedgewood tea bags and Japanese tea bags, coffee capsules, bathrobe, unlimited Internet access, safe
No. 369, Linsen N. Rd., Zhongshan Dist., Taipei City 台北市林森北 路369號 Tel: +886-2-2581-8111 Fax: +886-2-2581-5811
11F, No. 495, Guangfu S. Rd., Xinyi Dist., Taipei City 台 北 市 信 義 區 光 復 南 路 4 9 5 號 11 樓 Tel: +886-2-8780-8000 Fax: +886-2-8780-5000 E-mail: pbc.taipei@msa.hinet.net
No. 1, Chung Shan N. Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei City 台 北 市 中 山 北 路 4 段1號 Tel: +886-2-2886-8888 Fax: +886-2-2885-2885
No. 301, Zhongyuan Rd., Su’ao Township, Yilan County 宜 蘭 縣 蘇 澳 鎮中原 路3 01號 Tel: +886-3-996-6666 Fax: +886-3-996-6000
www.gloriahotel.com
www.businesscenter.com.tw
www.grand-hotel.org
www.rslhotel.com
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