Depending on the hat you’re wearing, and who you’re talking to, and where, you might describe this place as Taiwan, Taiwan Province of China, Chinese Taipei, or the Republic of China. Any of those terms will annoy some of the people some of the time; occasionally leading to major problems if you mix it up in a professional context. This can happen even when you’re a “China Hand” – I once gawped as a foreign diplomat in the People’s Republic of China cluelessly thanked his host for the “warm welcome to the Republic of China”. Oops. So Heaven help the average person who gets caught in that little trap. Perhaps the best solution is to refer to the city name – “I’m visiting Taipei” – and if discussing it outside of the physical territory in question, dodge words like “country” or “province” and say “what a lovely…place”. It’s not unlike the useful word Australians use when we’ve forgotten someone’s name. “Hi there…mate!”
Because that place is lovely, and it’s beautiful, and full of lovely people, and, so it turned out for us one Lunar New Year (see what I did there, mate?), it has fantastic cycling too.
At Lunar New Year 2018, we flew from Beijing via Dalian to Taipei. It was our third visit to that city – once a 2007 quickie weekend trip from the also-lovely city of Kong Kong; another time around Christmas in 2009 visiting some good friends. This time, we’d decided to ride bikes between Hualien and Taitung, two towns on the eastern seaboard about 180 kilometers apart.
 Flying with kids |
 Hebei Road Trip |
 Chengde |
We saw our friends again in Taipei and enjoyed its lovely mix of the cultural influences that shaped it over the decades. Each time we go, it seems to have a thriving city life featuring fantastic night markets offering delicious food (including cho doufu or stinky tofu which is actually really good despite the number of disgusted westerners who turn their nose up at it but in almost the same breath will go on and on about the cheese in France).
Story continues after pictures of delicious street food.
The Cantonese term “soh gai” – “street sweeping”, the delightful pastime of drifting around at night munching on street snacks – might technically apply to Mong Kok in Hong Kong, but the notion worked equally well in Taipei.
I’d arranged the Lunar New Year trip via Facebook with the Giant bike shop in Hualien. It couldn’t have been easier: when we arrived by train and walked to the store, there were two really nice Giant touring bikes waiting for us, complete with panniers and a trailer for the kid. In fact, it was a lot harder getting the train tickets to Hualien – a huge hat tip to our good friend in Taipei, SC, a local who knew how to navigate the complicated and quickly-sold-out ticket system there.
Hualien had just a week before been hit by a big earthquake. Many people had subsequently cancelled their trips, and people asked if we planned to do the same. After checking things online, it seemed there was no reason to do this. Apart from anything else, the local residents were losing lots of money from all those cancelled trips, for no reason. Indeed, we were among the only guests at every hotel we stayed in, and the owners all lamented the cancellations they’d faced.
The eastern coast was very rugged, and incredibly lush. It was also easy and beautiful riding – nice smooth roads with dedicated bike lanes. The first day was a short warm up ride, though we didn’t even make it out of town before stopping for dumplings! About 13 kilometers from town, we found our first hotel.
Over the next few days we quickly slotted into a great routine – breakfast, a nice fast ride until lunch in some small hamlet, another fast ride to the hotel and a big dinner with cold beers. There was a big pass to get over about half way along, but the rest of the route was nice, undulating coastal road where we could regularly cruise at over 20 km/h. Most days we covered between 45 and 65 kilometers.
The kid suffered a bit in that trailer, though. For one, it was low to the ground and lacking suspension, so it was a hard ride. Second, when she fell asleep, there wasn’t much head support, so she probably barely escaped a whiplash injury as she bobble-headed her way through the afternoon slump. Third, she was so low to the ground she could barely see anything; as we admired the beautiful coastal views, she just saw grass whizzing by. And when we arrived, in my case often barely able to walk after towing that thing about 60 kilometers, she was full of beans with energy to burn.
But there were upsides for her, too. We visited some beaches – including one near Taitung where the waves churned softball sized rocks around, as Yon found to her discomfort when trying to swim there. As a cute three year-old, she got a lot of nice attention from the people running the hotels, and there was always plenty to eat. Still, we agreed we wouldn’t do another long distance bike tour until she was big enough to join us on her own bike.
Story wraps up after the pictures.
On our last day we were in a bit of a rush to make sure we made the pre-booked train. Missing it would have caused real problems, because it was such a busy time of year to travel from Taitung up to Taipei. We raced the last kilometers into Taitung and found the Giant shop. We were able to return the bikes there, then walk around the block to the train station – so simple and convenient.
So while we won’t do something like this again until the kid’s a bit bigger, I’ve already taught her to ride her own little bike. In a few years, we’ll hit the road again, all three of us on our own wheels.
