Gorgeous View of the East Rift Valley as approached from Highway 64 off the coast (about 2 hours north of Taidong).Here are the rest of the photos from our east coast trip last weekend, in sort-of order!
A delicious salad at the well-known cafe in Matayan, near Hualien Sugar Factory. While the fish was good, it was not as good as the flying fish stir fried with wild boar that we had further south. The roast salty pork was basically pork fat (tasty pork fat, but pork fat nonetheless) so while I thought it was a good enough dinner, for the fame that this restaurant gets, it should have been better than "good". It should have been great. And while the salad was great...fresh, delicious, flavorful - the rest of the food was just OK.
Adorable fat dog at a restaurant on the east coast, in one of those tiny nowhere towns that has one real restaurant, some shacks and a convenience store.
Absolutely stunningly tasty dried flying fish and wild boar stir fry at the restaurant with the resident fat dog.
Above Taroko Gorge, further inland from Tianxiang. We didn't continue onward because the view was totally obscured from this point on.
...though the clouds were gorgeous.
Taroko Gorge
Swallow Grotto
Swallow Grotto
Taroko Gorge
And finally, after leaving the gorge at about 4pm, we drove over the Qingshui cliffs not long before sunset, in rather bad weather conditions. This view is visible from a portion of the old Su'ao Highway that is now closed to traffic, but open (you can park and walk there) to walkers. It's about 800 meters with stunning views in both directions.
As you can see, the cliffs do plunge straight into the blue Pacific. This is not hte only stretch of east coast like this: further north, between Nanfangao and Su'ao, more cliffs rise in a similar fashion, with identically terrifying roads perched high above the surf. They're not as famous but just as stunning.
The Qingshui Cliffs - check out that road!
Wheeee!
