This weekend my biking buddy Drew and I headed through the mountains of central Taiwan to enjoy the stunning beauty of the Alishan region, where tea farms and mountain peaks combine to truly transcendent riding. Come below the fold for more on biking in one of the most beautiful areas of one of the best places to ride in the world. WARNING: Photo intensive!
A couple of weeks ago Drew, the owner of the popular blog Taiwan in Cycles, and I had done a century ride through the tea and coffee district in central Taiwan. This long ride convinced us that an overnight ride down to the Alishan district might be both feasible and fun. I've borrowed some shots from that previous ride just to give you all a taste. Here's a Google map of the route.
Drew shoots a temple gate on 149. Behind it he found the graves of local aborigines, killed fighting for Japan in the Imperial Japanese Army in WWII. After the KMT occupied Taiwan in 1945, many of these sturdy fighters were shipped off to China to be expended as shock troops in the civil war raging there.
We began on Saturday in the central Taiwan city of Taichung, home to a million people. Fittingly enough, the area around Taichung is home to some of the most important bike makers in the world, a hive of huge makers like Giant and Merida, and smaller OEM firms like Trigon and Maxway.
Your future afternoon drink?
We first rolled south down 3, a four-lane men-at-work road lined small factories, repair shops, furniture stores, and gas stations, then turned onto 149, which rises through the low altitude tea districts of central Taiwan.
Stopping for fuel at McDees
Taking a photo break on 149
The road rises steadily but gently as it follows a river through the foothills of the central mountain range.
Setting out tea leaves to dry
One of the great things about 149 is that it is not a tourist route and thus one can enjoy interacting with people going about their daily business. Taiwanese always treat cyclists with great warmth and friendliness.
Drew consults a map
Betel nut trees, whose nuts are an ubiquitous local stimulant, line the roads and cover the hills throughout these mountains
Refueling
Like hobbits, cyclists need that second breakfast, so we stopped at this noodle and lunch buffet diner in a small hamlet deep in the tea district.
Lunch set out and ready for local consumption
Switchback on 149B
After brunch, we turned onto 149B. This turned out to be a hard climb up 8-13% grades from 300 meters up to about 900 meters.
View north from 149B
149B climbs along river gorges, offering excellent views.
Route 149B rounds a bluff
A river gorge along 149B
We climbed steadily upward, pushing to make Caoling, the resort town that was the first day's destination. The road followed the gorge around and crossed the exposed face on the far side, climbing up through 8-13% grades until it reached a tunnel through to the other side of the ridge.
Looking back down the gorge
A farm overlooks the gorge
Caoling town
Finally, we made it through the tunnel to the resort town of Caoling. The overcast broke and the sun shone brilliantly.
Our hotel room
We found our "spa" hotel, napped, ate, napped some more, ate some more, then crashed to the sound of bad horror movies on the local cable channel.
The house of the owner of the hotel
In the morning we breakfasted at the hotel, whose dining room was located above it in a traditional house. Here the owners are drying food in the early morning sun.
The opposite of overcast
A local shop
In the morning only a couple of shops were open. We stocked up on snacks; restaurants are few and far between on the steep mountain roads above Caoling.
A glorious morning in the Alishan area
Mountain roads crawl along a peak
Caoling town seen from below
Our route called for us to descend a couple of hundred meters to the river, then climb to 1750 meters along 149 and 169 before falling to 1500 meters to the crowded tourist mecca of Fenchihu, where there is a famous railway dating from the Japanese colonial period that takes tourists up to Alishan, Mt. Ali, for the spectacular views at the top of the peak.
Another grind of 13% grades, 15 kms or so of them
Gravel operations in the riverbed
Taiwan is very similar to Japan in that it was historically a one-party state whose local politicians were controlled by patronage networks fed and watered by flows of funds from the central government for construction. To fuel this massive, endless demand for concrete, Taiwan's rivers are constantly mined for gravel.
With the roads often wiped out by landslides, repair vehicles are common. In many places the road had been restored after yeoman work by road crews, but pavement had yet to be replaced.
Our first taste of the day's magnificent views
A reminder of the unstable, steep slopes of Taiwan
Farms in the area grow mostly tea and betel nut
Tea farms and massive peaks
The higher we rose, the more beautiful it became.
Drew stops to take pictures
Alishan
Drew, a superb climber, strikes a jaunty pose
We had prepared for cooler weather but the bike gods were merciful and we had a glorious sunny day. Drew laughed to think of all our friends back in the States: "Here we are 1500 meters up a mountain in Dec, in shirtsleeves."
A land contoured in tea
Locals admiring the view on their way to buy some of the area's famed tea
Clouds off to the east
Fencihu
We reached Fencihu around 1:30, having climbed up to 1750 meters at the top of 169. Here we stopped for some delicious coffee made fresh from locally-grown beans. Exhausted from the tough riding, way too hard for my pudgy self (I walked much of the hard part), I jokingly called for a three liter barrel of coffee. "What for?" laughed the owner. "Do you want to take a shower?"
Drew waits for the coffee to arrive
A sausage and meat vendor
Fenchihu seen against the peaks
We rolled down from Fencihu, our spirits renewed by rest and coffee. We reached a major east-west route into the mountains, Rte 18, but it was a madhouse of buses and tourist traffic. A friend had suggested we take a smaller road, 159A, back to the medium sized city of Chiayi where we planned to catch the train.
159A
159A is one of the most blissful experiences you can have biking, not so much a beautiful road as a meditative poem on beauty in the shape of a road.
Curve on 159A
It falls some 1300 meters through betel nut farms, soaring peaks, deep river gorges, clawing its way across desolation, running along stunning rock faces. An amazing experience.
Peaks and farms along 159A
I didn't take many pictures, it was too lovely for that.
159A vanishing into the distance
The outskirts of Chiayi city
At last we left the mountains and descended into the perpetual haze that blankets Taiwan's plains. Soon we found ourselves at the train station in Chiayi, fighting the crowds to put our bikes on the train. It had been an exhilarating, uplifting ride whose joy still lingers.
Hope to see you on a Taiwan road soon!
Vorkosigan
REF:
Drew's superb pictures and write up, with much of cycling interest.
My write up with pix on my blog.