Day 2 of our trip to Taiwan consists of a total of 4 destinations. First to Wushi Harbor for Yilan Whale Watching, then to Shifen Waterfall, then to releasing sky lanterns at Shifen old street, then finally to Jiufen Old Street for dinner before heading back to our accomodation at La Cle Hotel. All our destinations primarily revolve around the Northeast of Taiwan, that being Yilan County, New Taipei City and Taipei City. This’ll be a long one
Note: This is an excerpt from THIS post, hence the Day count
Read to know more about our 7D6N trip to Taiwan and the other days we stayed 🙂
Destination 1 – Wushi Harbor
A 20 minute drive from our previous accomodation at Yunoyado Onsen Hotel, Wushi Harbor is located in the Toucheng Township of Yilan County. The waterfront seems to be used for both fishing, docking of boats and our purpose, whale watching (we did not use this package, browse at your own risk). Unlike Singapore, Taiwan’s waters are far more alive. Consisting of whales, dolphins and random massive uninhabited islands like the lovingly named 龟山岛 (Turtle Mountain island), this trip out to sea provides a high likelihood of spotting marine life and admiring Taiwan’s scenery.
Wushi Harbor is also conveniently located near another landmark of Yilan County we wont be visiting, Lanyang Museum, resembling the shape of a toppled building. The reasons behind its construction and architecture belong to this Wikipedia Article. On to the whale watching!
Okay. Hear me out here. If there’s one thing I hate more than inconsiderate pedestrians taking public transport, it’s disappointing people. Unfortunately, I will have you disappoint you today by clarifying that all we gained from our whale watching adventure was motion sickness. This also means I, the motion sick man in question, was asleep for the entire boat ride…
Uhmmm… enjoy the photos?
Destination 2 – Shifen Waterfall
No worries, no doubt about results when it comes to this, waterfall ain’t disappearing anytime soon
An hour or so drive from Wushi Harbor, Shifen Waterfall is located in the Pingxi District of New Taipei City. No idea why there’s two Taipei cities, but I’ll go on a long monologue cum history lesson about that some other time. I won’t bore you just yet (The Benevolence!). Getting back on track, the waterfalls’ total height is 20 metres (66 ft) and 40 metres (130 ft) in width, making it the broadest waterfall in Taiwan which I didn’t know until I checked this very handy Wikipedia Article which I will give credit for because I appreciate.
Where we parked, we had to cross a bridge and a small village before reaching the waterfall itself. Its a rather straightforward destination, interesting simply because the only thing we have remotely close to this is Jewel Changi Airport 🙁
Destination 3 – Shifen Old Street
A literal walking distance away from Shifen Waterfall, Shifen Old Street is (obviously) also located in the Pingxi District of New Taipei City. Effectively in the Old Street is a train track which, mind you, is still in service. While we were there, we had a train pass by. However, when there are no trains, the train tracks of Shifen Old Street flood with people releasing lanterns skyward.
Once used as a signaling system for those living and working in the railroad industry, the train tracks being use to transport coal in the past, visitors today paint their wishes with calligraphy before releasing the lanterns into the sky as described by this wonderful website. This action is not allowed in Singapore because we’re the fun-killing country (joke). But, in Taiwan, the action of releasing sky lanterns is to send the wishes and messages to God. It has many different symbolisms in different parts of the world, but know that this is what it means in Taiwan. A rather beautiful and meaningful gesture.
I know I chose to not go on a monologue before this, but I will now. On the plane to Taiwan, I was reading the 3rd edition of a book series called 天官赐福 (TGCF for short). It has an animation on Netflix and the books are all available in English. The thing about this is, in the book, there’s a section where the many different gods (or Heavenly Officials) watch as their followers release lanterns in the name of them. Our protagonist, one of the many Heavenly Officials but one who’s fallen far out of favour of both Heaven and the world below, is expected to receive none. However, rather miraculously, a grand 3 thousand lanterns are released in his name
A rather convoluted explanation on my part, for which I apologise. But, in the book, the symbolism and meaning behind this series of events is very strong. It’s a pretty beautiful scene and one constantly associated with the series. You can imagine my excitement when I realised I’d be seeing sky lanterns…
Destination 4 – Jiufen Old Street
A 45 or so minute drive from Shifen Old Street, we now reach Jiufen Old Street located in the Ruifang District of New Taipei City. Its effectively like Raohe Street Night Market which we visited last night, a narrow path with food and stores on both sides. That, and a whole lot of people.
The reason for this is due to the reputation Jiufen and this street specifically has. If you ask avid travellers what they think represents Taiwan in one location, if they don’t say Taipei 101, they’ll likely answer Jiufen. As a result, this is the most crowded location we and you will visit in your trip to Taiwan. It is PACKED. Thankfully, similarly to Raohe, there will be restaurants to the side of the road, one of which we ate at
I suppose little space means little photos. Nice little visit
Accomodation – La Cle Hotel
Contrary to the pitch dark night in the last photo, we actually finished up with the night market at about 8pm or so. An hour or so drive from Jiufen Old Street is our accomodation for the night, La Cle Hotel in the Luzhou District of New Taipei City. To my knowledge taken from Agoda (another adult-frequented website), we stayed in the Classic Room Twin.
According to my reading on the hotel, it seems like a large one with a lot of amenities. For the night we slept in it, it was pretty comfortable and the breakfast was great. Bar that, we didnt really get to do anything or use any of the facilities. Hencewise, please refer to other sources if you wish to stay at the hotel longer than we did.
Conclusion – Sights of the North
Day 2 was one of the more loaded days that we’ll have in Taiwan albeit fun. A running theme I found pretty common was being exhausted by the time we got back to our hotel. Its probably because we usually did so much during the waking hours of the day. Jiufen Old Street was a bit frustrating due to the crowds and the Whale Watching was a total failure. However, the day was still fun nonetheless.
Make sure to refer to the post link HERE to have a look at the other days we stayed during our 7D6N trip to Taiwan. That’s all from me, make sure to drink your food and eat your water.