Hualien and Taroko National Park, Taiwan
View of Taroko Gorge from Buluowan Suspension Bridge
The lowdown
Taroko National Park is a lush national park in eastern Taiwan centered around the imposing Taroko Gorge and Liwu river that act as the main artery for the various sites and hiking trails around the park.
Like most people that visit Taroko we made Hualien, a sizable eastern Taiwanese city a short high speed train ride from Taipei and public bus ride away from the national park, our home base. Within the park there are a number of hiking trails and sites that are worth a visit but are not all walkable from one another, especially if limited to only a full day in the park like us. Luckily for us, Taiwan’s amazing public transportation offers a convenient bus that takes you from Hualien bus station to all of the various sites in Taroko National Park that runs all day.
We spent our first day traveling to Hualien from Taipei via high speed rail, figuring out the train schedule and corresponding stops we wanted to make in the park the next day, and seeing what Hualien had to offer. Our next day was focused on making the most of Taroko National Park.
We stayed in a very comfortable and practical self check-in Airbnb called Travel Mind that felt more like a small apartment building than a guesthouse or hotel. Most importantly, it was a 10 minute walk from both the train station and bus station making it super convenient for our main purpose of visiting the National Park.
Hualien and Taroko National park was our first stop after Taipei and our first taste of the amazing and diverse nature experiences that exist in Taiwan.
Day 1: Hualien
Our train ride from Taipei to Hualien was the first of six high speed rail (HSR) trips during our time in Taiwan. We arrived at Taipei Central Station about 45 minutes early nervous about being able to navigate the huge network of underground walkways and malls to find the HSR section of the station and then figure out which track corresponded to our route. Much to our surprise it was very easy to find the station and line up our ticket to the corresponding track number. We had some time before our train arrived so we indulged in some Family Mart buns and onigiri. The ride on the Taroko Express 230 line was smooth and easy providing beautiful views as the tracks hugged the shoreline of the East China Sea and then cut inland through the rice paddies.
Our first impressions of Hualien after stepping outside the station were not as energizing as Taipei – it was a drab day and the city appeared to be mostly older mid-rise apartment buildings and sleepy streets.
Our first order of business was to figure out the bus for our day at Taroko National Park. Through our research we found an incredibly detailed TripAdvisor Forum post (arguably the best travel source out there) and follow-up responses on which bus to take and how to plan your stops for the day around the bus. The only uncertainty for us was that they frequently changed the bus schedule and we wanted to make sure we knew where to go when we started our day bright and early. We walked to the bus station nearby our accommodation and, with the help of the very nice bus station staff and Google Translate, got an updated schedule and clear direction on when to show up and where to stand.
All set to go for the following day we started walking towards the Dongdamen Night Market, the central night market in Hualien that is known for its mainland Chinese and aboriginal Taiwanese dishes, in addition to the usual fare. The main drag in Hualien was much more happening than our initial impressions of the city suggested with countless delicious-looking local restaurants and shops.
Dongdamen was a huge and happening night market and took place in a dedicated space that felt more like a state fair grounds in the US than the traditional street markets we were used to in Taipei. It had all the usual Taiwanese night market activities – popping balloons with hunting weapons, ring toss at bottles, etc. – and an overwhelming selection of food vendors. Most felt more like state fair items (read: fried potatoes) or meat-centric local dishes, but we did manage to find some very delicious melt-in-your mouth vegetarian chili wontons from a Chinese vendor. We devoured our dumplings as an appetizer, finished walking around the market, and then returned to the main drag in search of entrees.
We came across an American restaurant while doing some light research on restaurants in Hualien, Salt Lick, that offered deep dish pizza and had surprisingly rave reviews. We had not yet been to an American-themed restaurant on our travels and felt that as Chicagoans we had to try the international iteration of the dish that we begrudgingly accept as our own. The ambiance was nice and we found it funny that country western seemed to be the defining characteristic of “American.” Unfortunately, the deep dish pizza here required advance planning given the limited supply and long cook time. Instead, we dined on a very delicious hand-tossed thin crust pizza, a basket of fries, and a beer flight. We spent our meal in conversation with a lovely Swedish/Canadian expat couple living in Taipei with their young daughter discussing Taiwan’s strict and effective handling of COVID, Taiwan-China relations, and how Taiwan is such an amazing place to live.
Day 2: Taroko National Park
We rose bright and early and headed to the bus station to assume our position in line for the 7:40am 310 bus to Taroko National Park. We were already impressed that a bus such as this one ran at all but were even more impressed when we boarded a public bus with assigned, plush coach bus seating. 45 minutes later, we arrived at our first stop and our day of exploration began!
Stop 1 – Shakadang Trail: Our first stop in the park was a popular hiking trail carved into the Taroko Gorge rock face hugging the Liwu river – the Shakadang Trail. It was a brisk 5km trail that doubles back midway in. We hopped off the bus and descended a flight of steps onto the trailhead from a beautiful bright red suspension bridge over the river that offered a neat contrast against the greenery and gray sky. The trail itself was awesome – it felt like walking through a rock wave with a view of the large boulder-ridden Liwu river against a seemingly infinite wall of bright green foliage on the other side. It was a bit crowded at first, but our pace allowed us to separate from the crowd until we had the path to ourselves. The coolest part was the color of the Liwu river water – it was a mystical blue-green that was so clear you could pick out each rock on the river floor
Stop 2 – Taroko Visitor Center: This stop was unintentional and in the opposite direction of our remaining stops. The bus runs every hour and we just missed it so we decided to continue our Shakadang Trail hike until it turned into another trail that connects the Shakadang trailhead to the Taroko Visitor Center. This trail was also nice and included an interesting and “fun” stretch through the road tunnel. When the next bus finally arrived there, we hopped on and rode it to Buluowan
Stop 3 – Buluowan: Buluowan felt like its own section of the park with a dedicated visitor’s center, restaurant, and a few hiking trails and sites. We started by walking to the epic pedestrian suspension bridge sitting 550ft off the base of the gorge and Liwu river. The views from the middle of the suspension bridge were awesome and provided a true “birds-eye” view of the river and many layers of the vast gorge. It also sat directly above a dilapidated abandoned road that ran along the river adding a neat element to the view. After slowly making our way across the suspension bridge and back, we broke for lunch in the visitor’s center. It was a modest family-run operation that served up a delicious helping of 12 freshly steamed dumplings accompanied by tea and apple slices. It felt like a children’s set meal in the fall. After a nice dumpling break, we headed back out to walk the lower terrace trail which was a casual wood plank path that meandered out to another viewpoint of the gorge and back
Instead of heading back to the bus stop we followed our handy TripAdvisor Forum’s advice and took a steep, stepped downhill trail from Buluowan called the Ida Trail down to the road at the base of the gorge and river. Once at the bottom we followed the road through an uncomfortably long tunnel that seemed to distort our sense of time and reality until we finally emerged out at the other side at our next stop – Swallow’s Grotto
Stop 4 – Swallow’s Grotto: Swallow’s Grotto is a narrow, curvy section of the gorge that gets its name from the porous holes in the morphed rock wall used by the Swallow birds. The pedestrian path and road run in parallel through huge blown out sections of the gorge rock wall with some sections closed and some exposed. It felt similar to the Shakadang trail except that the rock wave was large enough to fit tourist buses. It was neat to walk inside the gorge wall and peak out onto the beautiful porous section of the gorge and Liwu river below. Unbeknownst to us, at this point the park recommends you wear construction hard hats to protect your head from falling rocks, so we looked a bit like we were riding our bikes without helmets
Stop 5 – Changchun (Eternal Spring) Shrine: Our last stop was the Eternal Spring Shrine which is a modest Buddhist temple nestled in the forest across a vast stretch of the Liwu river only accessible by walking through a blown out cave trail. From a distance the temple looked quite beautiful perched above a small waterfall flowing into the river. Up close it was nice but not as exciting as many of the other temples we came across in Taiwan. Unfortunately, we watched the bus pass us by right before we reached the bus stop. Fortunately, we struck up a conversation with a lovely couple from Kansas City, Vicky and Bryan, who met and married over COVID and were back in Taiwan to visit Vicky’s family for the first time and see the country. When the bus finally came we shared the ride back as bus companions
A full day of exploring under our belts, we resorted to a lower key evening and circled back to a hip, fast casual BYO bowls place on the main stretch of Hualien, Jam. It was a nice break from the strong flavors of Taiwanese food and a focus on fresh veggies. Afterwards, we decided to track down a bubble tea before heading back to our accommodation. While walking away from the bubble tea window with our bubble teas in-hand we ran into our friends from the park, Vicky and Bryan, and shared the walk home.
Taroko National Park was beautiful and the perfect start to a nature-focused stretch in Eastern and Southern Taiwan. Up next, Green Island!
