The bridges of Hualien County

We left Taitung at our regular 9am after a spectacular breakfast at the Sheraton buffet. First stop was the Museum of Prehistory, a very detailed exhibition of Taiwanese history and culture from the beginning of time, which took us close to 2 hours to go through.

We drove most of the day through the pineapple and tea growing area of the East Rift Valley, a widem flat valley between two distinct mountain ranges. The rivers are almost dry at the moment, so they are doing lots of maintenance work in the river beds. We stopped at a lookout on the Luye Plateau, which overlooks the valley on three directions.

Lunch was a Taiwanese bento box in the town of Chuhshang, the rice growing capital of Taiwan, followed by a detour for a short hike to see Nanan Falls. This was followed by a much longer walk in Yushan National Park, a 3km return trip to see a waterfall, which included crossing the pictured suspension bridge.

On the way to Hualien for the night we stopped at the Tropic of Cancer Marker, then Hualien Sugar Mill - a former mill site, but now only a tourist outlet that sells good ice cream!

We arrived at Hualien well after dark, booked into our hotel and headed straight to the night market for tea. They have moved this one off the streets and given it a permanent home in a park, so the lack of having to avoid scooters made it a rather sanitised affair! (it was more like sideshow alley at the royal show than a traditional Taiwanese market, with mostly games of chance and fried food stalls).Read more