HUALIEN surprised us! (5 things to do in Taiwan's most beautiful city!)

Hello from Hualien, Taiwan! if you don't know this is a city on the east coast of the island about two hours train ride from Taipei and it's known for its nature so, it's just so beautiful here we've actually been here for a few days and we have gotten to explore it and it's just gorgeous it has some of the most beautiful spots we've ever seen, honestly this has to be one  of the most beautiful places we've ever visited anyways, the city itself is really cool and has like a nice relaxed Vibe and there's some other cool stuff to do here too so we're gonna take you with us around the city and tell you about some of the best things to do here in Hualien! really quick though we want to show you around our Airbnb so this is our Hualien Airbnb I believe it was about $33 a night I'm not positive, but I'll put it in the bottom once I figure it out and I'm editing this anyways um it's also only about a 10 minute walk from the train station which is super nice so it's a great location it has two full beds which is so awesome I love having like that extra space to lounge around it's just really nice and it has a workspace which is covered in all my stuff because we've been working really hard on the videos for you and over on this side of the room we have a reverse osmosis filter which is really cool because I don't think the water  is potable in Hualien refrigerator washer which is really nice to have in Taiwan and finally our own bathroom which is really nice... like pretty great anyways are you ready to go get a  snack and go walk around the city? yeah let's go! okay so little change in plans I know we said we were gonna go see the city but we remembered that we had to do some tax stuff and that pretty much took all day and it's our last day here now and we decided Well we can go see the city or we could go back to Taroko Gorge and tell you about the stuff we did and hopefully have a little bit of time to show you a little bit of the city and catch the night market later which we should because the buses leave early but uh, anyways we're going to start on the shakadong trail today and show you Taroko Gorge I mean we're starting with the Highlight that's kind of cool the Shakadang Trail is just outside of the visitor center just follow the signs yeah you can't miss them uh a  kilometer it says head towards the tunnel yeah eventually you'll get to like a arm that goes left and if you go left that's where the trail is there's also a sign so it's pretty easy the color of the water is insane so Taroko national park has tons of  trails to choose from and a lot of them are super accessible from public transit we decided to do the Shakadang today because it's pretty easy and it's supposed to  be super cool and uh we're here.... and it's amazing it's just beautiful blue water there's like this Trail kind of cut into the Cliffside that we're walking down super popular lots of people on it not a lot of elevation gain so it's really easy definitely much easier  than the is it Zulu Zuliu how do you say it? Zuilu zwilu Trail I keep forgetting the name I don't know Zhuilu old trail that we needed permits for and we'll show you  that right now okay we just made it to the big destination in Hualien we are at Taroko Gorge National Park and we decided to do the [still struggling with the name of the trail] Zhuilu Old Trail or ancient Trail there's a couple of different names for it anyways uh, you do need permits to do this particular Trail we applied for them several weeks ago and we were in a waiting list of like 50 people so definitely apply early if you want to do this one there are a lot of trails that you don't need  permits for though yeah we'll put the link for the permitting process below it's it's really easy though you just fill it out online takes like five minutes okay and then when you get here you  need a copy of it [the permit] which can be on your phone and it's 200 per person and of course your passports as well which they check but it's pretty easy took about five minutes to check in yeah and if you're wondering how to get here uh you can take a bus and we learned this morning that you  need to reserve those in advance we did not get on the bus but we did meet some fellow Travelers  that we split a cab with so we were very lucky one thousand dollars and the cab is affordable too it was a thousand for six of us to go out here so about you know uh 150 Taiwanese dollars per person yeah not bad at all so we made it! we're stoked let's go! I'm wishing I wish we had been able  to stop and get the helmets they suggest wearing helmets for Rock Falls, OH we just started the trail and it is so beautiful Crystal Clear Blue Water giant mountains are surrounding you there's Wildlife you can hear so many bugs and birds this is incredible it's gonna be hard to finish in time yeah we're gonna like want to stop [to take pictures] oh get that shot it's all easy from here isn't it? yeah are we on the flat part finally? there's a lot of uphill! I look at that scary Bridge you get to  walk across! it's a big drop, but not too bad I read online that this was a trail used  originally used by the indigenous people   of Taiwan as like a hunting trail  and they've widened it since yeah   Alan just informed me this is an out and back I thought it was a loop it used to have another section of the trail that continued past here but it is no longer in service so when you get to the end you see a bunch of people eating lunch it's  time to turn around Yep this is it okay let's go! oh that hike was beautiful it took about three hours it wasn't too bad actually a little scary at the edges if you are actually afraid of heights I probably would skip that one but if you're like okay with it or if you're used to hiking it's probably great and have good knees and have good knees my knees kind of hurt after that yeah yeah but felt pretty safe for the most part so I'd recommend it it's fun! it was so amazing having friends! beautiful hike uh now we're gonna head over to the next spot [swallow grotto] I think this has to be one of the most beautiful  places we've ever visited definitely it's stunning just amazing yeah taiwan's got a lot to offer absolutely it's fantastic did we mention that only 97 people a day get  to do that trail uh 96 or something on the weekdays yeah it's more on the weekend it's like 190 not very many people get to do that trail they limit who goes in and they have that cut off time and all that stuff anyways something else cool that we did here was we did a hike out to I don't remember the name of the beach Qixingtan yeah I am not going to remember the names of  these you know we also went to Qixingtan Beach while we were here which you can ride a bike to or take the  same 310 bus that takes you out to Taroko Gorge it stops on the way and once you get out there it's  this big long miles long or kilometers long uh Pebble Beach you can't swim in it because the  currents are dangerous but it's beautiful it's right at the foothills of some massive mountains actually the mountains we're in right now and an Air Force Base so there's like fighter jets like  taking off constantly if you are into that sort of thing and you know it makes for a relaxing day at  the beach but definitely take the public transit or ride your bike we walked out there and it  took us all day it is a super long walk yeah but the bike paths are super well developed  and you'd probably be there in 30 minutes but that that's worth a cool day trip also and  there's also a cool Little Town out there to check out it's small but I mean it takes like literally  a few minutes yeah they got it got some hotels, and a Family Mart, a temple with lots of cats... and stuff so you know, it's it's worth a day trip if you got extra time uh we also went up to Liyu Lake which  you could take another bus up to and it takes 30 minutes to an hour depending on the bus you take it's the 1139c and the 303 tour shuttle a little 11 39 right okay I wanted to make sure I say that  correctly we recommend the tourist shuttle it's a lot faster and the 1139 was very, very local so local that the driver was smoking the whole time and we had originally gone on that one and had to get off because we were like dying but anyways the lake is beautiful it has some Lakeside activities including a like a hiking circuit that we're gonna go ahead and do and check out and see what's on it yeah I hope we find a snake I've been like dying to find a snake in Taiwan that would be pretty cool yeah. there are supposed to be a lot of them so let's go A beautiful Lake. it's like a crater up in the mountains in the subtropical rainforest and we saw snakes and monkeys and uh what else a really cute kitty cat And cute cats and we got destroyed by biting midges so sand flies and I don't remember what they call them here there's another name it's like Formosa... something but they're very itchy I'm still uh oh they're kind of going away today but just covered in bites they're horrible but very much so worth it uh there's you know  a lot to check out just bring bug spray yes and then where else did we go uh there's also  to the south of the city a peninsula that sticks out into the ocean it's a retired military base really great little day trip and best of all you can get there by well-developed bike trails our Airbnb came with bicycles so we're gonna take them up the river I think and over by the coastline and explore that a little bit their little whale bollards are so cool! this is the literal  coolest I don't know... playground toy I've ever seen yeah I know I know that's not fair I know it's not fair! where was my zipline roller coaster thing when I grew up it's about an hour bike ride outside of  town on some very nice bike paths and it's a retired Naval base and we're in the part that's not the Naval Base it's just some Chinese temples and guys hanging  around drinking tea but it's very relaxed and beautiful there's some hiking trails  that go up on a bluff overlooking the ocean and if you go on another road over  there there is a series of old bunkers I said we were going to skip the military bunkers  and stuff but they're worth coming to the one at the very end of the trail you can walk up to the roof and it's still in good enough condition you can stand on it and get a panoramic  360 degree view of Hualien and look at that I wasn't going to do it but Alan was like come on come on let's just go let's just go look and I was like fine I know but I'm  glad I did because this is cool it's very cool there's lots of swallows out too mm-hmm it's a relaxing place to see oh it's so beautiful I wish we found this sooner yeah I recommend it I recommend this over the other spot even yeah definitely and we're  the only ones here no not a tourist in sight it was only about like 30 kilometers round  trip which is about 16 and a half miles um it's doable it's doable yeah so pretty much  everything at Hualien is just super accessible do be cautious of the buses because they stop  running pretty early and they have pretty limited I don't know bus times so there's just not that  many people out here but tons of bike paths tons of walking paths tons of public transit supposedly  that's kind of a holdover from like the Japanese colonial era I guess in Japan they put a really  huge emphasis on making nature and like natural spaces accessible to cities so I think they even  made this national park right yeah they did yeah so it's pretty cool aspect of Hualien, and I guess when you get down to the end of this Trail there's an Aboriginal settlement where there's food stalls oh that's pretty cool yeah just in case you didn't this is the end of the trail already no I think  there's a little bit further okay to go but it's an option here nice yeah maybe we should try  something is it Aboriginal food or is it just run by I guess you'll have to see for yourself thank  you licorice tea coffee coffee sounds really nice mulberry juice, winter melon I know you can't go swimming here but  wow it looks like I'd be great to swim in made it you ready to go  back into town yeah let's go word back from the hike took a quick break  to clean up take a shower now we're going to go down to the dongdamen Night  Market yep and we're gonna walk along this River that's just so beautiful it cuts  through like the town perfectly and ends up at a park right by the night market it's  perfect it also has a great walking path much quieter than the city we made it to dongdamen Night Market  finally yeah it's right back here and the place is huge it's got four streets and  is in a very large purpose-built area it's street food style but not quite street  food because there's actually lots of little restaurants have like water and stuff so yeah it's like the most organized seafood market we've seen for sure definitely so  let's go see what we can find let's go so something also cool about this night  market that we haven't seen of the other ones is they have a lot of live music so they  have these little chairs they set out where you can go eat and watch performers which I think is  pretty neat and as you can tell it's pretty nice it's huge it can really accommodate  like all the people a lot of them get really crowded but this one not  so much at least that we've seen um hey let's just eat that again yeah they  have stinky tofu fries oh no thanks so one of my favorite things in all of Taiwan are scallion pancakes and they have these ones that are deep fried I've been excited to try it they look super bad for you but super delicious oh my God it's unbelievably delicious smelling I   uh I wasn't expecting to egg on it I don't know if you guys saw that but he cracked an egg and deep fried it so there's a whole deep fried egg in there it uh it got coated with some sort of  soy sauce and chili sauce I don't know well you need to order another one oh yeah we need to order another one this one this is one of the most fantastic  things I've ever eaten really oh yeah like it's so Savory and spicy and fragrantly  spicy too it's got like a Thai chili or something in there that you can really  smell kind of cake with it oh my God I don't know if you've ever  like fried up like a wonton   it has that nice crispy texture that  looks really chewy on the inside it's like they poached the egg in the fryer oil  too it's soft in the middle so it has a yolk still oh yeah and you know it's across the way from this   our xiaolongbao guy this guy makes the cheapest  we've ever seen and we're about to go eat some okay thank you if you've seen any of our other  videos yet you've probably heard of xiaolongbao it I love them very hot I am obsessed with these things they're  made on these little like bamboo steamers and this restaurant in particular has the awesome  most awesome I love this guy he's so friendly they're not usually a street food item though I think you can kind of see why but he makes it work oh yeah he's so nice I love that guy oh it is really hot oh God they're so delicious it's like a ginger  pork fat soup it's exploding in your mouth these have to be terrible for you it's just one of  those things like I don't care yeah I love them so much I just don't care find something  else we should throw those out real quick um do you want to try the coffin toast I read that  it's good you have to try it here uh curry chicken curry chicken yes okay okay oh my God I'm so  excited to try this I don't know what coffin toast was before today we read about what to  try here and it was a recommended specialty and it's like really really good looking yeah  we haven't seen it anywhere else in Taiwan yeah nowhere else they take a thick piece of toast coat it in the egg deep fry it then like do a little bit of surgery to open it up create a  little hidden chamber inside just take a liberal amount of butter in there and then stuff it pull  your stuffing in our case curry chicken and it looks like he put some cabbage or something in  it too it seems like something to just kind of eat like a sandwich I don't know why I expected  to eat it with uh chopsticks do you like coffin toast? oh yeah I love coffin toast this  is like inappropriately delicious it's so good I... I just keep saying that like this is the best  thing I've had you know and it's it's amazing tell us something about Taiwanese food it's magical I know I don't know how Taiwan doesn't have a higher profile but the curry in there best Japanese Curry tastes like SMB Curry like the name brand curry powder off the shelf deep fried bread... is like  French toast but even better kind of tastes like a donut almost and then there's like a liberal  amount of cheese and butter God this looks yummy I wonder where they got the idea for  this toast I love the Japanese filling it's so good it goes with it so well I'm surprised this is not popular in Japan to be honest it seems like something they would like have it  seems like something everybody would like but I meant like especially like I feel like in Japan  so much of your food they like prep and just kind of like eat it quickly you know what I  mean? I feel like this really fulfills that all right we're gonna finish that up and then get the next thing I totally enjoy it like there's somebody  at almost every little booth playing a game rice and bamboo rice in bamboo yeah yeah um yeah what not what I was expecting so something at this  night market that we haven't seen any of the other ones is an Aboriginal food section so the native  people here have their own section to serve I guess their own traditional dishes and they do  a lot of boar and fish and some other plants we decided to try this uh rice and bamboo that's what  it was called it's literally a bamboo stick and I have no idea how they prep it looks like there's  a little hole in the bottom s So maybe you can steam it I don't know but it was like cooked in the  whole stock and he had to smack it against a rock to split it open and then he was showing us how  to open it split it open and eat the rice out oh tube rice a tube of rice it's  interesting the bamboo seems to have left like a film on it you see  that? do you know what flavor it is it just bam - rice and bamboo one of the ones  had shrimp I think he said black pepper okay it's um no it is different to me but  it's a little chewier like the texture of the rice is really good I do yeah I mean in the presentation that's so cool and we can take it  home too so we can lose some more room to eat more at the night market because it's just rice it's a little grassy for the bamboo I think the  aftertaste is maybe a slight slight grassiness but the texture is excellent It's like sticky  rice in here yeah it's exactly like when you get grilled rice and banana leaf like Thailand it's just like coconut milk and stuff yeah yeah just with other fillings should be  fantastic yeah that film is interesting I think it's just uh what happens when  the rice dehydrates on it interesting I want to save room for dessert so uh I think that rice actually made us  pretty full but there is one more thing we're going to try to show you guys it's  not at the night market but it's a just something we love here and we just want  to show it off because if you ever hear it it's totally worth trying but we gotta  walk and see if it's even available today I didn't know it counted how many people  came that's kind of cool how does it know? like we came through the back... you know what  I mean? yeah well it doesn't count us but here oh the head they're walking  back and forth yeah I know the camera that's interesting yes it's enormous okay so if you've seen anywhere stuff before or  you know us at all you know we love Family Mart and did you know Family Mart makes ice cream and  it's really really good this is milk flavor and chocolate I had a green tea with me phenomenal chocolate was also great and it's just so thick and creamy and delicious and how much does it  cost it's only a 45 per cone so a little bit over a dollar and it's so delicious like  every time we come here there's a million people out like he has ice cream two girls  there having ice cream o ver there had an ice cream and it's out a lot of the time because  people just love the ice cream all right but hope you enjoyed the video thanks  for watching see you in the next one

Channel: IfWeGoTo

Views: 138,369

Keywords: Hualien, Hualien Taiwan, Hualien Taiwan vlog, things to do Hualien, top spots Hualien, Hualien Taiwan guide, Hualien guide, Taroko Gorge, Taroko, Taroko Gorge national park, Taroko national park, Hualien itinerary, Hualien vlog, Taroko Gorge vlog, dongdamen night market, Hualien night market, hualein

Id: L4X-GlJbpFs

Length: 28min 9sec (1689 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 22 2023