Bicycling Taiwan

My first international bike tour would happen in the fitting locale of Taiwan, back in March. The nation captured my heart after two months there in 2023. I’d reunite with Ellen who I met there for a month together after our epic journeys in Australia, Singapore and Thailand. Besides these personal allures, Taiwan has taken great strides to market itself as a global destination for cycling, and I’m pleased to say, surpassed my expectations. It’s splendid for a tour of about 1,000 km length, with options for extending the length or increasing the difficulty by adding trips into the mountainous interior or outlying islands.

It had been three months since I’d seen Ellen last, as I left Taipei for Tokyo on my way home. It had been a bit rough of a separation for us in that interim but we had recently found a new peace and great excitement in reuniting. She had found new work after her break traveling with me, but in the advent of my trip, walked away from it. It didn’t quite match her desires anyway, and she’s pretty adaptable and confident in those pursuits. This worked for me, as I otherwise would have been biking around the island alone for half my time in Taiwan, and her company elevated the trip into something truly memorable.

I timed my travel so I’d have about a month with Ellen before a following month in Japan riding bikes with Claire and hanging out in Tokyo, which I’ll touch on next chapter. It was an equitable distribution of time around Claire’s teacher breaks and proper weather for biking in both nations. Even in March, it was already feeling almost too hot in the Southern reaches. By April, most of Japan would be above freezing at night. I was solid preparing for three seasons with my cycling gear.

With the bike ride taking about two weeks, we had some flex time on when to start and how to tackle the route. Ellen had a half marathon in Tainan scheduled right after my arrival, so I got over my jet lag there for the first week, after dropping off my boxed bicycle at her home in Taipei. We had a fun few days hanging out together in Tainan before she met me in Australia last year; this week was a fun callback for us. Afterwards, we went back to Taipei, staying one more night while I reassembled my bike, then set out the next morning for our Taiwan spanning adventure from and ending there.

We’d make a counter-clockwise route of the island on our route. This is the most common way to cycle Taiwan, starting from Taipei like us, and pushing through the developed and populous western shore until passing Kaohsiung in the south and venturing into the more rugged, rural east. Ellen had actually done this journey once already, but as part of a guided group that handled all supplies, logistics and lodging. This would be a different journey with just us, a tent and no set itinerary. Ellen only owned a lightweight road bike, without the carrying capacity of my trusted Surly steel, so she still got some of the logistics handled by me carrying the bulk of our weight in my panniers.

Our first day was a seemingly short trip to the city of Taoyuan. Taipei is such a great city for biking that it was no problem finding safe passage for most of the day out along river bike paths. We had actually made it further than Taoyuan by dusk, but I encouraged Ellen midday to reach out to any of her friends she would want to see or spend a night with, and we wound up backtracking to her friend Yi Liao’s place. It was fun to get Ellen in the vibe of getting help from friends on an adventure, and as its been for me in the USA, most of her peers we would meet traveling were excited to see her and help if they could.

After a night there, we rode another 50 kilometers down to Hsinchu with another friend of hers, Yuan Cheng on his day off. Those first couple days were some of my favorites as we dropped in on these touristic “Old Streets”, where vehicle traffic is minimal and a lot of different street food vendors set up. As a vegan, chun su (純素食), I’m mostly shut out of the street food, but in Taiwan, it’s quite easy to find options, especially fried tofu in its notorious “stinky” variety, where the tofu is deep fried after fermentation.

After saying goodbye to Yuan Cheng, we passed through Hsinchu and camped for the first time hidden away off the road on a coastal bike path. We never set a specific goal each day, but as the day wound on, I would look for opportune camping spots on Street View or hotels, depending on how we were feeling on further distance and comfort needs. Things like wanting a shower or laundry, or rainy weather, would push me quickly towards hotels or homestays. On this trip I was hoping to do about two days camping for every one night in a hotel.

How would I do that research? Well, we’d stop several times a day at convenience stores (or “konbini”, as a loan word from Japanese) like 7-11 or FamilyMart. Each morning would typically start with beelining for one and my morning coffee, or Da Re Mei, as Ellen taught me, for a large hot Americano. Anyway, in a place like Taiwan, the konbini fills a valuable “little bit of everything” role, people buy snacks, get drinks, dine in on cheap food or even pay bills there, often with wi-fi and charging spots. I’d often do my camping and route research there, but we’d also look up places to eat su, and we could always just get some frozen food or soups that were veggie friendly! I came to really love the konbini life during my time in Asia this last year, and sorely lament their absence back in America.

We had a few more encounters dropping in on Ellen’s friends as we went ever southwards. In Houlong we saw Chen, an old schoolmate into farming and rural social work. The next day, we met Paul for dinner, an outdoors pal from Hong Kong, in the city of Taichung. Together, they had recently hiked Yushan, the highest peak in Taiwan at 12,000 ft. It was raining all that day in Taichung, so we had a short day, biking in drenched, and dried off at a hotel. We also did a little bit of sightseeing, some gear changes for Ellen, laundry and I repaired my leaky sleeping pad, all with a steady rain.

As we went southwards, we passed counties like Nantou, Yunlin, Chiayi before entering the rural parts of Tainan and Kaohsiung cities. The sights varied between rolling green hills and heavy industry, especially near Hsinchu and Taichung. Towards the interior, hazy mountains towering up and sprawling agricultural sites surrounding most roads outside of towns. Most iconic in my mind would be the rice paddies with narrow roads paved above crossing them that were a welcome, if tricky path to follow on Maps. I used Google’s cycling algorithm to plan routes, which was overall a coup of technological advancement to cruise our way around. It did lead to a couple dead ends and odd diversions, but thankfully we didn’t stray too far off course on those rare dead ends.

Past Kaohsiung and the massive Buddhist complex of Fo Guang Shan, we were entering the rustic stretches of Taiwan in Pingtung county, its southernmost prefecture on the island. Ironically from there, and along the eastern shore, traffic is actually significantly concentrated onto bigger highways due to the challenges of the rugged landscape; the cycling winds up a little bit worse where those are the only option. It’s still fairly safe riding with sizable shoulders though compared to most American roads.

The southeast corner of Taiwan definitely was the most remote place we visited, within Kenting National Park. After touching base at the Eluanbi lighthouse that marks the island’s southernmost point, I personally had my hardest day schlepping up and around the remote jungled hills in punishing heat and humidity. The hours long gap between konbini was the closest thing to hardship I felt on this ride! At least there was a fun downhill ride out into Taitung’s furthest exurbs.

Probably the single most alluring stretch of cycling would be the days between Taitung and Hualien, the two small cities on the eastern shore, and the agricultural zone between them. I love how mystical the mountain interior appears here, with sharper peaks and low elevation clouds often caught on the mountains in distinct contrast. Fortunately, I was a week departed from Taiwan when the earthquake struck here in April. Elementally, Taiwan is a wild place!

It might be those eastern highways that it dawned on me how friendly the Taiwanese were to us on bicycle. Of course it helps cycling with a local, but a lot of people were very eager to hear the story of our journey, find out my origin or help out. Plenty of people passing by gave us the exuberant cheer of jiayou (加油), which sort of translates to “keep going”. I had so many positive, random encounters that it’s a struggle to list them all, and I felt like biking around that my heart was totally full each day. A lot of them I got cool photos of or with too, and it makes me wish that the same casual friendliness was as widespread on my American bike trip.

Leaving Hualien north was one of the most challenging days, as we took on the Su Hua Highway. This stretch is defined by winding cliffside roads and tunnels bored through where the mountains would not yield. It’s often not advised to touring cyclists because of these tunnels and the high density of traffic. In fact, we are recommended to just take a train between Hualien and Yilan, which is what Ellen did her first time around. Though there were a few hair raising sections, if one takes the mean average of the day’s ride, this section was actually a highlight of the journey due to the obsolete, scenic stretches of highway that were empty and tranquil. The steep elevation gains balanced out that otherwise zen state of mind.

Once in Yilan, things smoothed out again as we touched on the easternmost point of Taiwan. Fun fact, it’s nearly the northernmost point as well. On that point, I was fine settling the island ride with those two markers with sparing time left, and return through Keelung. Of course, the alluring mountaintop town of Jiufen was one of the last touristic things I had yet to visit, so we bolted that on the final day. Ellen got to be my tour guide for showing me the cute town that inspired “Spirited Away”, with the only cost being one last grueling ascent on the fully loaded bike.

After that morning in Jiufen, we had just a few hours remaining of cycling to make it back into Taipei through its northeast along the Keelung River. That feeling of seeing Taipei 101 tower over the skyline, hitting the riverside bike paths, and knowing we were about done was elating. Once we crossed the Dazhi Bridge, where I spent my first day in Taiwan last year watching dragon boats, we could truly consider the journey done.

After one last weekend spent visiting a lot of my favorite spots in Taipei from the previous year, it was time to bid goodbye again. Ellen would be back to work and the other parts of her active life here, and me, off to Japan for more bike riding with Claire. Although this journey was as epic as our past trips abroad, we ultimately had to part ways emotionally this time after leaving. We each wanted a bit different than what the other was ready to offer, and the distance and time gaps just felt a bit too mighty given those circumstances. Taiwan and Ellen will always have a piece of my heart though, and the intensity of our adventures will live in my mind forever.

Separating person and place, Taiwan is just so great to visit and too underrated compared to the mightier cultural export of Korea and Japan, or the wilder allure of Southeast Asia. There are friendly vibes everywhere, it’s pretty affordable, the cuisine is great (& for me, decently vegan friendly). It’s a sort of sunny Eden to a dark shadow of mainland China’s bellicosity, but I have to say that all this time picking up fragments of Mandarin and absorbing Chinese culture, makes me more curious as to how China actually looks and behaves. Perhaps I’ll bring my bike there too one day, but for now, if anyone’s looking to bicycle tour in Asia, Taiwan’s the spot.