Julia's Taipei to Kending Ride
I've recently returned from Taiwan after a 4 day, 550km tour from Taipei to Kending along the east coast. A great experience, here is how it went...
I met Humphrey Wilson recently at a talk at the HKRYC; he cycled from the UK to HK 6 years ago. He has since moved to HK and set up his own cycle touring company, Mad Dogs. When he invited me to join his ride from Taipei to Kenting, I jumped at the opportunity.
There was one slight issue, I had just moved to ShiJiaZhuang (Hebei, China) and didn’t have a bike.
Well I had this old thing ---------------------->
but I couldn’t really see it getting me out of Taipei! (Thankfully I have since upgraded!)
I had a search and found out about the Giant hiring scheme. It’s not very well advertised and most of the info is in Chinese, but the Giant shops in Taiwan have this scheme whereby you can hire a decent touring bike and return it to another Giant shop anywhere on the Island. It is very reasonable, 1200NTD for the first 3 days and 200/day thereafter, they also come equipped with panniers and a pump. However I ended up hiring a bike through Humphrey’s contacts which worked out a lot better logistically, but if anyone were looking to do a cycle holiday, Taiwan is a very easy, cycle friendly place to do so.
I arrived in Taipei and had a day there before meeting up with Humphrey, Philippe and Cyrille. It felt strange but refreshing to be in a city that spoke Mandarin, yet seemed so different to where I had just come from. I kept trying to speak Cantonese as I didn’t feel like I was in China (I know “it’s not”!) and HK was the next nearest place I could relate it to. I spent the day wondering around the Zhongzhen district, I needed to get a lightweight windbreaker as had left mine in HK. I struck lucky as I walked around a corner to find a whole street worth of outdoor shops! I then proceeded to go into every hardwear shop I came across – they have such cool stuff!
The city of Taipei quickly slipped away as we headed off on Friday morning. We began our climb up into the mountains and I slowly got into a rhythm. I grew to really enjoy the climbs for I knew that the way down would be a lot of fun! It was not long before I spotted Cyrille in a 7-eleven, these 7-eleven coffee stops fast became our daily ritual. We reached the east coast and started heading south. We came to a crossroads and saw one road heading up the hill and one going straight, our laziness took the better of us and thought “meh lets go straight”. We ended up cycling through the Nan Fang Ao fishing harbour, which was lovely to see and a worthwhile detour, but when all of a sudden the sea was on our right-hand side and we were heading north we realised we were on the wrong road! We managed to get back onto route no. 9 and began the final two ascents to Na’nao. The last 20km of the first day I found pretty tough, it was a pretty steep climb, it had been a good 8 hours and my legs were beginning to seize up, but I knew that there was little further to go so just had to keep pedalling!
The following day we had a short climb out of Na’nao until we reached the cliffside road, the view looking out on the horizon was breath taking as the sun penetrated the clouds. I had not seen the sea so blue in a long time! At Hualien we left the sea and picked up the quiet road 193. It was a beautiful road that took us in to the East Rift Valley. It was fantastic to see so many other cyclists on the road as well.
I was chatting to Cyrille in a 7-eleven(!) and telling him about how the only thing that really hurts are my wrists and he said “don’t worry, it took me a long time to get used to it too, but you’ll wake up one day and with no feeling in your fingers and it won’t hurt any more”… so that’s something to look forward to!
On day three after a great second day my body was starting to get used to being in a saddle all day, it would take a short while to adjust in the mornings but once we set off I was fine. I decided that I would take the long route up through the mountains on road 东23 rather than the straight, flat coastal road to Taitung. I didn’t realise how much climbing was involved and there were times it felt like it was never going to end! It was a great morale boost when onlookers from their homes and the roadside would shout ‘加油’ (add oil) and cheer, especially going up those hills. The view at the top was definitely worth the effort and it was cool to cycle through some old aboriginal villages to see all the monkeys.
In the morning of the final day I was aching from the hard ride the day before, but it was the last day so I couldn’t hold up. The last day was our longest ride, 160km. We had a good breakfast and set off at half 6. Eight hours of riding seems like a long time at the start but the stunning views of the ocean and countryside make the time and the miles zip by and it’s incredible the distances you can cover before you’ve even had lunch. When I eventually reached the lighthouse on the southern tip of the island, I knew I was almost in Kending! It was a great feeling when I finally made it to the finish line and had my celebratory beer.
Although it was a very short trip, I really felt that I was able to take in a lot of the Island’s beautiful scenery and witness places and amazing views that you would otherwise miss, were I travelling by car or train. What I loved was that every day was different; the route that we took allowed us to take in many different angles of the Taiwanese landscape and ways of life, from the fishing villages to the mountain tribes. We ate some great food and met some very friendly and helpful people. I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and would really recommend cycling in Taiwan. Many thanks to Humphrey for making it all happen, and to Cyrille and Phillippe for being such a laugh – missing those 7-eleven coffee breaks!
