Three days in Hualien: a marble gorge, with the Pacific at the end of the street

Two nights on the east coast: the old railway yard and the night market on arrival, a full day in Taroko Gorge, and a pebble beach before the train back.

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Length
3 days, 2 nights
Where you stay
Hualien
Places
6 across 3 days
OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap

Taiwan's east coast is where the island stops being flat. The central mountains run down to the Pacific in a wall, and at Hualien a river has cut a gorge through solid marble, nearly twenty kilometres of it, in places barely wide enough for a road.

That gorge is the reason almost everybody comes, and it deserves a full day rather than the coach tour half day most people give it. The town itself is small, low, and slower than anywhere on the west coast, with a large indigenous population and a night market that reflects it.

One warning worth taking seriously. Taroko sits on an active fault, earthquakes close trails and roads with no notice, and parts of the park have been shut for long periods after the last one. Check what is open before you plan the day around a particular walk.

Highlights

  • The Swallow Grotto, where the gorge narrows until the two marble walls are almost touching over the road
  • The Eternal Spring Shrine, a pavilion perched on the cliff with a waterfall running out from underneath it
  • The Shakadang Trail, four kilometres of ledge chipped out of the cliff just above a jade green river
  • Indigenous stalls at Dongdamen night market, with wild boar sausage and millet wine
  • Qixingtan, a crescent of coloured pebbles with the mountains behind and nothing but ocean in front

Where to stay

Hualien, two nights

Stay in Hualien town rather than at the park. The town has the restaurants, the night market and the station, and the gorge entrance is only about twenty five minutes away by road.

The alternative is Tianxiang, halfway up the gorge, which has one large hotel and total silence after dark. It suits a second visit, or anyone planning to be on a trail at seven in the morning.

Day by day

Day 1 in Hualien

A narrow gauge railway yard, a pine garden, and dinner

Hualien is a small town and the first afternoon is for getting a sense of it rather than ticking things off. The old railway workshops in the middle survive as a small museum to the narrow gauge line that once ran the length of the east coast.

Ten minutes away, a Japanese officers' villa sits in a garden of pines above the harbour. It was built during the occupation, used as an observation post, and is now a quiet gallery with a good view over the water.

Then the night market, which is where the town actually is in the evening. The back lane is given over to indigenous vendors and is the reason to come.

  1. 15:30

    Hualien Railway Culture Park

    Culture

    The old narrow gauge railway yard in the middle of town, kept as an open air museum with rolling stock, workshops and the original station buildings. Small, free and a good twenty minutes.

  2. 17:00

    Pine Garden

    Other

    A Japanese military building of the occupation years, set in a garden of sixty three pines on a rise above the harbour, now used for exhibitions. Go for the trees and the view rather than what is hanging on the walls.

  3. 19:00

    Dongdamen Night Market

    Other

    Hualien's night market, smaller than the Taipei ones and more interesting for it. The back lane belongs to indigenous stallholders: wild boar sausage, mountain vegetables, sticky rice in bamboo and millet wine.

With more time: The Cultural and Creative Industries Park, a former winery of twenty six warehouses five minutes from the station, hosts craft markets and live music most weekends.

Day 2 in Hualien

Taroko Gorge, all of it, all day

Leave by seven. The gorge road climbs west from the coast and the first stop is barely fifteen minutes past the entrance arch, so an early start buys you an hour of it to yourself.

The order that works is west along the road, stopping as you go, and then back down. The shrine over the waterfall comes first, then the narrowest section where the cliffs almost meet over the road, and then the trail that runs along a ledge above the water.

Everything here is marble. The river has cut through a mountain of it, and where the rock is wet it is grey and white and banded, and the water below is a colour that photographs badly and is genuinely that green.

Take a picnic. There is one small settlement halfway up with food, and otherwise nothing between the entrance and the top.

  1. 08:00

    The Eternal Spring Shrine

    Visit

    A small pavilion built into the cliff over a spring that falls straight into the river, put up for the workers who died building the cross island highway. A steep stair behind it climbs to a bell tower with the gorge below.

  2. 10:30

    Swallow Grotto

    Visit

    The narrowest and most spectacular stretch, where the road runs under an overhang and the marble walls close to a few metres apart. A short walk of about a kilometre and twenty minutes, with helmets handed out for the rockfall. Check it is open before you go.

  3. 13:00

    Shakadang Trail

    Other

    A path cut into the rock a few metres above a blue-green river, running about four kilometres in each way with no climbing to speak of. Turn around whenever you like; the first kilometre already gives you the best of it.

With more time: Zhuilu Old Trail is the serious one, a ledge cut in a cliff seven hundred metres above the road with a drop on one side, and it needs a permit applied for online well in advance.

Day 3 in Hualien

Pebbles, and the Pacific

Qixingtan is fifteen minutes north of town, a long crescent of grey and white pebbles with the mountains falling into the sea at both ends. There is no sand and the shelf drops away steeply, so it is a place to walk rather than to swim.

Go early. Sunrise here comes straight out of the ocean with the mountains at your back, and it is the single best hour on the east coast.

The airport and Xincheng station are both on this side of town, so it works before either an afternoon flight or the train back to Taipei.

  1. 06:00

    Qixingtan Beach

    Nature

    A crescent bay of coloured pebbles north of the town, backed by mountains and facing open ocean, with a cycle path running along it. Beautiful, and not for swimming: the shelf drops fast and the current is strong.

With more time: If you have a full day rather than a morning, the coast road south towards Taitung is one of the best drives in Asia, past rice terraces that run down to the sea.

Before you go

Getting there and around

Trains from Taipei take two to three hours down the east coast and the fast ones sell out days ahead, particularly at weekends and holidays. Book as soon as your dates are set.

There is no railway into the gorge. The options are a scooter if you hold the right licence, a rented car, a taxi hired by the half day, or the Taroko shuttle bus, which runs a loop from Hualien station and takes a day pass.

In town, everything is walkable or a short bike ride. Bicycles are cheap to rent and the coastal path north is flat.

Taroko practicalities

The park is free to enter and open all year. Some of the best trails need a permit applied for online in advance, including Zhuilu Old Trail, whose famous stretch is a metre wide with a rope on one side and a very long drop on the other.

Rockfall is a real risk and helmets are handed out at some trailheads. Wear them. Landslides close sections regularly and the closures are posted at the visitor centre at the park entrance.

Start early. The coach parties from Taipei arrive between ten and eleven and leave by three, so the first and last hours are the quiet ones.

When to come

October to April is the settled season, warm and mostly dry, with clear light in the gorge. Winter here is mild.

Typhoons between July and October close the roads and the trails, sometimes for weeks. Summer is also hot and humid at sea level.

Spring brings mist into the gorge, which is atmospheric and ruins the photographs. Take your pick.

The gorge is one of those places that survives the photographs. Standing at the bottom of a marble slot with a road tunnelled through the wall above you and a green river underneath is not something a picture manages.

What the pictures also leave out is how quickly it empties. The coaches are gone by three, and by four you can stand on a bridge in the middle of it with nobody else in sight.

Or make it a longer trip

These trips pass through here on the way somewhere else.

Make it your trip

Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.

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Common questions

Can I visit Taroko Gorge as a day trip from Taipei?
You can, and it is a poor use of the gorge. The train is two to three hours each way, which leaves about four hours in the park, all of them in the middle of the day when every coach is there. Two nights in Hualien costs you one extra night and roughly doubles the time in the gorge.
How do I get around Taroko Gorge?
The Taroko shuttle bus loops from Hualien station with a day pass and is the easiest option without a licence. A taxi hired for half a day costs more and lets you set the order. Scooters need an international licence that most visitors do not carry, and hire shops do check.
Are the trails open?
Check before you go. Taroko sits on an active fault and earthquakes and typhoons close trails and sections of road regularly, sometimes for months. The park's own site and the visitor centre at the entrance carry the current list, and it changes.
How do I get to Hualien?
By train from Taipei down the east coast, two to three hours depending on the service. Reserved seats on the fast trains sell out days ahead at weekends and holidays, so book early. There are also short flights, and driving the coast road from Taipei takes about four hours and is worth it in itself.
Can I change this plan?
Yes. Copy it into the planner, add a night to walk one of the longer trails, or extend south along the coast towards Taitung.