Our trip to Hualien got off to a promising start. We successfully navigated Taiwan’s bullet train system (which is as smooth and shiny as you’d hope) and even managed to pick a hostel just a stone’s throw from the station. We then got some mystery lunch, with a pot luck point at the mandarin menu, I think it was braised beef with beef jelly and cinnamon, it was tasty so no complaints here. So far, so good.
Then things got… a little bumpier. We had come to Hualien mainly to visit Taroko National Park, famous for its jaw-dropping gorge and dramatic hiking trails. But thanks to our method of booking *an entire month of travel* in a single caffeine-fueled afternoon back in the Philippines, we hadn’t caught one small detail: Most of the park is still closed because of earthquake damage from last year.
This was, of course, not mentioned on the park’s website. Or by our hostel. Or by anyone until we were sat there pulling our hair out, wondering why there were no buses, no tours, and only confused shrugs from the locals.
We spent most of the afternoon desperately trying to figure out a Plan B. After a lot of Googling and spiraling into minor despair, we found a taxi tour suggested by another stranded tourist online. We were saved! (Sort of.)
With that sorted, we went out to the night market to drown our sorrows in street food, which frankly is always a solid strategy. It was brilliant—an absolute feast for the senses. At one point we even saw a whole crocodile displayed on ice, which neither of us was quite brave enough to order. (Maybe next time.)Instead, we started with soup dumplings, and *wow*. Life-changing. Steamed parcels of pork and veggies, each filled with a tiny explosion of savory broth. So good we even learned the Mandarin word for “delicious” just to thank the vendor properly—who was delighted by our mangled pronunciation.
Next stop: iced tea. I went for passion fruit flavor, and it was every bit as amazing as you’d expect something containing more sugar than a small country to be. Then we watched a fun local performance where guys with giant puppet costumes strapped to their backs chased squealing children around. Good wholesome fun.
Feeling brave, we moved on to mystery meat skewers. Despite the very helpful English menu, none of the actual skewers were labeled, so it was a bit of a lottery. I just picked two that looked safe and hoped for the best. I was tempted by “chicken butts” (apparently the tailbone meat), but Grace, who’s tried them before, warned me they’re usually quite tough and dry. So I stuck with my mystery picks. The stall owner, clearly used to nervous tourists, kindly double-checked with me: I’d chosen duck and belly pork—perfect! Both were delicious.
While eating, we ended up chatting with a couple of other westerners at the stall—two digital nomads in their late thirties. We haven’t seen many other western tourists around here, so when you do spot one, it’s pretty common to say hello. After a nice chat, we said our goodbyes and went off to look for more food… but unfortunately, the market closed at 9pm. Good thing we were already pretty full!
The next day was our big “tour” of Taroko National Park… and it was, well, not exactly what we’d hoped. What was supposed to be an eight-hour day ended up being four hours of being dropped at random locations and posing awkwardly for photos.
Our first two stops were “beautiful beaches”—which is a tough sell after the Philippines! Honestly, even compared to UK beaches, they weren’t anything special. That said, there were some amazing art sculptures made from driftwood washed ashore, which were very cool to see. Next, we visited a well-maintained garden, a scenic viewpoint (this one was actually quite pretty), and then… a tiny local library, where the staff looked very confused about why we were there. After that: an ice cream shop, then a photography shop—none of which seemed like actual tourist attractions.
Finally, some more genuine sightseeing: a small historic church and a fish factory, which at least had a little museum showing how they catch and dry the fish.
At last, we made it to Taroko National Park itself—only to find out officially that it was mostly closed due to earthquake damage. Still, we got to see the iconic entry gate and tunnel, and we explored the visitor center, where a documentary was playing about the earthquake and its impact. It was in Mandarin, but we could get the gist from the footage, and it was striking to see the extent of the destruction.
After that, we visited a small recreation of a Japanese village, where we learned a little about Taiwan’s history under Japanese occupation—thanks mostly to some quick Wikipedia reading on our phones. Then it was back to the hostel for a chilled-out afternoon.
In the evening, we went out for dinner—some delicious fried rice and salt-and-pepper chicken— and admired some truly questionable English on the restaurant’s wallpaper, before heading back to pack up for our early morning train to Taipei.
I’ll tell you all about it soon! Love, Alice x