| Page Views: 1,801 Last Visit to Taiwan: May, 2005 | Round Taiwan Adventure trip - 01 - 11 May 2005 by shane_02 - last update: Sep 15, 2005 |
Facts and Figures Official Name Republic of China (Taiwan) Population 23,614,000 Capital City Taipei (2.7 mil) metro (7.9 mil) Languages Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Official Currency New Taiwan Dollar Religions Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist, others Land Area 32,260 sq km (12,456 sq miles) Latitude/Longitude 25º 02N, 121º 45E |
| My Taiwan Adventure Route |
Touring Taiwan By Car
If you looked into the map, the blue line indicates the route we took by train from Taipei to Tsin Cheng. Dark blue line indicates the route we drove in Taiwan and Red line indicated the return route we took by train back to Taipei.
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| Trek to Yushan (Jade Mountain) |
My Taiwan Adventure
Its a short 11 days trip to Republic of China (Taiwan) but one that is memorable and will always remains deep in my heart.
Upon arriving at Chiang Kai Shiek Airport from Singapore at 5.30pm by Jetstar Airlines, I took airport bus from airport to Taipei Railway Station to meet my another 2 friends who had arrived in Taiwan earlier. Together we board the 8.30pm train to Tsin Cheng. Arriving Tsin Cheng at 12.15am. A whole days is spend on the journey from Singapore to Tsin Cheng. Spend the first night at Tsin Cheng.
Early in the morning, we gather some informations about the surroundings for any places of interest to visit. Actually, we did not have an itenery on hand. Our intention at that time was to tour Toroko National Park and Hua Lien. However, we took the advice of the hotel owner to rent a car because its cheaper and more convenient. But as we drove in deeper and deeper into Toroko National Park, little did we expect that we will be touring all over Taiwan by car. A new adventure begins......
Over the days on the road, we would stop at any places of interest, trek any trails that we came across, enjoying hotsprings at 2 hotpring destinations, trekking water falls to even trying to trek up YuShan, Taiwan tallest mountain standing at 3997m high. Seems fun? Yeah.....but considering that all the treks are without any local guides.
I will share a little on the Yushan trek. This is a very daring and adventurous trek. We did not actually plan to trek Yushan, hence, we did not bring along any mountaineering equipments. Neither did we engage with local guides. However, we did report ourselves to the local police and also inform the hotel owners. Our only equipments are a backpack with some snacks and street shoes. A little joke to share but its a true joke. One of my friends actually trekked Yushan on sandals and instead if carrying backpack, he actually carried his belongings in plastic bags. The sight really shocked me and my other friend but we just proceed with the trek.
Temperature is around 15 degrees at DongPu, one of the starting trekking points to trek Yushan but rarely being used by trekkers as its further away and took longer time to ascend. The path on the ascend was narrow and steep and along the cliff and needed to cross some 25 makeshift bridges which were pretty dangerous considering if one of us slipped off while crossing the bridge. We managed to trek up to the first waterfall (forgotten the name) in about 4 hours and to the second waterfall (forgotten the name too) in about another 3 hours but failed the reached the Base Camp which has about 10km trek to go and maybe about 2-4 more hours of trek. Temperature here had already dropped to below 10 degrees. By this time, we had already crossed about 4 mountains. The maximum height we ascended was about 1800m before we started our descend at 3pm. We sprinted our way on the descend as night falls nears and manage to reach DongPu at 6.30pm. Just nice........
We proceeded to Alisan on the 7th day and this was the place where disaster struck us. All 3 of us were diagnosed with food poisoning, the sandwhich which we bought on the way to catch sunrise. For the rest of the journey, its like we had to stop every now and then to take turns to go to the toilet. We recovered from the diarrheoa until a few days after our arrival back in Singapore. For myself, I had high fever and diarrheoa at the same time. Temperature dropped to 5 degrees at night. I was shivering even with 3 thick blankets and 3 layer of cothings. I really had to endure the pain from the diarrheoa as i am too cold to take off my clothes to go to toilet. What a memory.........
Despite the diarrheoa and fever, we still endured the remaining 4 days and continue driving down to Chiayi, Kaoshiung, Kenting, Taitung and Hualien. From Hualien we took train back to Taipei before catching the flight back to Singapore the following day.
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| In A Nutshell: | "An Unforgettable Memory" |
shane_02's Taiwan Travel Tips
| Overview | Things to Do
Tips: 3 - Photos: 15 | | | | Restaurants | Hotels & Accommodations | | | | Nightlife | Off The Beaten Path | | | | Tourist Traps | Warnings Or Dangers | | | Transportation
Tips: 3 - Photos: 6 | Local Customs | | | | Packing Lists | Shopping | | | | Sports Travel | General Tips |
 Comments for shane_02 about Taiwan | | | | |
volopolo Wed Aug 12, 2009 09:28 UTC
Great information! Taiwan is in my travel plans!!! Hope to be there one day!! | Boulder_Mike Wed Mar 5, 2008 17:56 UTC
Excellent picture and Yushan story! I'm thinking of climbing Yushan this spring. I'll be sure to avoid the sandwiches! | hassan_abu Fri May 4, 2007 02:51 UTC
Beautiful pics of a beautiful country. Have a Beautiful Birthday too.. Cheers, Abu | mim95 Sun Oct 30, 2005 18:18 UTC
Great adventure in Taiwan! Much more convenient to go on your own. I was limited to bus or walk on the Central Cross Island Hwy!! |
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