17 December 2011.
I had booked a taxi through Tiffany to bring us on a day trip to explore the sights round Hua Lien. There were several options:
1. East Rift Valley tour
Hualien city → Liyutan( Carp Lake ) → Lintianshan Forestry Culture and History Center → Hualien Sugar Factory → Mataian Wetlands → Rueisuei Hot Spring → Rueisuei Pasture → Go back Hualien city
2. East Coast tour
a.) Hualien City → Hualien Visitor Center → Nioushan Beach → Baci View Platform → Shihtiping → Yuedong → Changhong Bridge → Tropic of Cancer Landmark → Go back Hualien city
b.) Hualien City → Hualien Visitor Center → Nioushan Beach - Baci View Platform → Shihtiping → Yuedong → Changhong Bridge → Tropic of Cancer Landmark → Basiandong → Shihyusan → Sansiantai → Go back Hualien city
3. East Rift Valley + Rueigang Hwy ( pass through Coast Mountains )+ East Coast
We had chosen option 2b that would take us along the famous scenic Highway 11 that link Hua Lien to Taitung along the beautiful east coast of Taiwan.
Mr Lim, a taxi driver working with Tiffany, picked us up at 9 AM from the Oceanbnb minsu after we had a simple breakfast of burger (that tasted like Ramly burger found in West Malaysia) and fresh fruits. He made a detour to bring us to the Hua Lien train station to us to collect our train tickets that I had booked via the Internet. Along the way, I noticed that the side walks of Hua Lien is mostly paved with marble! Marble is an expensive building material but this place has plenty of it. In fact, the whole mountain!
After collecting our tickets, we drove past the site that was the Hua Lien Nanbin night market before entering Highway 11. First stop was the Farglory Hotel, located high up on the Coastal Mountain. There is a lookout point just outside the hotel lobby where we could view the East Rift Valley below and the Taiwan Central Mountain further inland.
Mr Lim then brought us through the hotel lobby to where we could view the Pacific Ocean, on the other side of the Coastal Mountain. Farglory is a luxury hotel and the rate for a room for two with the ocean view could buy 3 nights stay for 4 persons at our minsu. In the lobby, there is a large carving of a flower, with dolphins below, and is carved from a single piece of huge marble.
This hotel sort of reminded me of the Lotte Hotel in Jeju island. The Farglory Ocean Park is located below the hotel. Also next to the hotel, on the mountain top, is a military base, with air defence systems. This is a perfect place to locate air defence weapon systems with the 360 degree all round coverage.
Mr Lim then drove us to the Hua Lien Visitor Center which is located close to the Ocean Park. At the car park of the visitor center, there is an pavilion where we can view Hualien city in the distant and uninterrupted view of the vast Pacific Ocean.
From there, it was a short drive to the Hualien Henan Temple. There is a golden statue of Guanyin in the back of the temple. It was made by the famous sculptor, Yang Ying-feng. Students would come to touch the feet of the GuanYin to get blessings for them to do well in examinations. So, we made a small donation at the temple and have the only student in our group to touch the Guanyin’s feet.
Mr Lim is a good guide and provided us with a lot of interesting information related to Hua Lien. Here, he told us about the Shan-Su (山蘇) vegetable, the Special Mountain Vegetable that we ate yesterday for lunch and dinner. The surprise – this vegetable is actually the Bird Nest Fern! A fern commonly found in South East Asia and grows wild on tree tops. Only the very young shoots are eaten and they must be cooked shortly after harvesting. Hence they are also called fei ji (Aeroplane) vegetable since they are air-flown into Taipei to be served in speciality restaurants.
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