Hualien

Hualien(II)
2009.7.6

That day we slept in till 7 o'clock. After breakfast we started our journey at 8 o'clock. For not traveling on the same way two times, we first went to see Sha Lau culture(aboriginal culture) on the County Highway 193.

380 years ago, Sha Lau was a wild place. Da Du Yi(噠渡伊), who was the leader of aboriginal peoples' ancester, led his people to develope this place. In that period, they dug many wells at different places. To memory their ancensters' spirit, people set up a memorial. And this is the best saved well.

The people in the village made some decorations beside the road. Moreover, they also decorated their post box, and the drawings of each family were different.

There is a prison which is called Hualien Tzu Chiang prison(自強外役監獄) on County Highway 193. I saw many prisoners cleaned the road and set up the garden. This prison is for the prisoners who commited minor sins, helping them to learn some skills to service our society. Moreover, learnig new skills can help them not to commit sins after going out the prison.

After visiting Sha Lau culture, we rode to the coast on Guangfeng Highway. While we were on the Guangfeng Highway, we saw an eagle rushing down in front of us. It was very special, as if it showed its skill of hunting for us(Or does it want to hunt us? haha). When we arrived the coast, we ate at 7-11 to avoid the situation of finding no restaurants along the coastline.

The river at Fengbin township

Afterwards we rode on the northwards direction along the coast. The first scene we saw was Qinbuzhizi Cliffs(親不知子斷崖)

Before the Huatong Highway was built, the cliffs between Jici to Xinshe were the main road to connet the village nearby to the others. Because the road was narrow on the steep cliffs, it was dangerous to walk on it. Legend has it that a Yami mother had her child on her back and walked on the road. She was too nervous to walk on it and found her child was lost when she passed the cliff. Thus, people call this cliff "Qinbuzhizi Cliffs"(親不知子斷崖) by the story, means the cliff was very dangerous, though parent and children could not help each other on the cliff.

Then we went to Baci Gazebo(芭崎瞭望台). We saw a mountain(Mt. Dashihbi) on the way to Baci Gazebo, which I didn't know while planning travel. I'd like to climb the mountain because it looked not so high. However, my friend felt so tired to climb the mountain, so I climbed it along. In addition to seeing the gorgeous view of the coast and the ocean, I saw human-face spider hunting a snapping beetle on the mountain and a lot of beautiful swallowtails.

The way we rode on.

The hill, which we were heading to later, is called Baci Gazebo.

The beautiful human-face spider in Mt. Dashihbi.

She was eating Snapping Beetle. I also found there were two red and small spiders on the web though I didn't take pictures of them. Afterwards, I saw someone said they were male spider and Argyrodes miniaceu(red-abdomen spider) on the website.

Broken wing Swallowtail

Then we got to the Baci Gazebo.

The view was looking from Baci Gazebo. The small hill at the outermost is Mt. Da Shih Bi.

Next stop was Fanshuliao Park. I couldn't use the internet so I could not figure out  why the legend there was called "Yi Yung Cheng Lin"(遺勇成林).

Fanshuliao Park. It was pity that I didn't take a picture of bamboo forest in the legend. Legend has it that in the past, the Amis (an aboriginal tribe in Taiwan),which worship the heros, made a rule: man who could vault over the gorge by bamboo would be chosen as the leader of Amis. Therefore, many strong Amis young men tried to vault over the gorge one after another, hoping to be the leader. The bamboo left after the pole vault grew into bamboo forest several years ago and the legend spread. The name of the legend was called "Yi Yung Cheng Lin"(遺勇成林)

Afterwards we went to Nioushan(cow mountain). I didn't have a computer in the military while planing the travel, so I didn't know there was a pebble beach. Thus, we didn't know how to get there then.

The beach in the center is called Nioushan(cow mountain) Huting. I heard that there was very beautiful later. We didn't know that time so we didn't go down to the beach.

If you want to see the beautiful scenes there, you can click on
http://forestlife.info/Onair/097.htm

Next stop in the north was Farglory Ocean Park. This man-made amusement park was not the purpose of our trip, so we just looked around outside the amusement park. We also went to the hotel they built on the peak of the mountain. The views on the Hetain mountain was quite nice because the coast line and the East Rift Valley could be seen there.

Farglory Hotel. It locates on the top of Mt. Hetain, so it can be seen in the other side also.(Ji An town)

Clear blue Pacific Ocean

The time was about 13:00. We were exhausted for playing half a day under the burning hot sun, so we took a nap and cooled our body at the traveling center nearby. I also looked the introduction of Hualien there.

After taking a nap we started to ride to Hualien city. We came in Hualien city and then came out soon on the southwards direction to Dong Hwa University which I had heard that it is a beautiful university for a long time in Shoufong township. We walked on round-the-campus road, visiting their beautiful lake and elegnat dorms.

Then we went to Promised Land. It is a very high class hotel and the introduction of the hotel in brochure was amazingly beautiful. Taking a visit there should pay some money, so we didn't go in.

On the road to Promised Land(理想大地), I saw the sunlight glittered from the leak of clouds, and it looked like the God will appear soon. Ha~

Hualien River under the Yuemei Bridge.

The river was so clear, let me leave there reluctantly.

The stone under the water could be seen clearly.

That day we lived at the youth hostal in Hualien City. Seemed like the youth hostal must be inexpensive, but I didn't think so. We spent 450 TWD for one night. The room put a lot of bunk beds just like the ones in the military and we felt it was not so clear. We didn't think it was worth 450 TWD in youth hostal. Chun-Bo was very hungry that night, so we went to a fondue restaurant. Though I told him there was a very famous Tzu Chiang night market nearby, we still decide to eat fondue because the small portion of meal in night market could not let us full. After dinner I took him to visit the night market and told him what foods were delicious(I had been there when I was sent training in military in Hualien before.)

Tomorrow we were going to see the sunrise again, so we went to sleep early.

If you want to see more pictures about Hualien,
click on: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=141727&id=697191847&l=29e5957910