2014 North Taiwan Round Island Road Trip - Day 3 - Driving through Xue Sui (雪隧) and on Highway No 9 (苏花公路) from Yilan to Hualien

Day 3 of our (northern) round island road trip.

Apologies for the long delay between Day 2 and Day 3 of this trip report. 2015 started out very busy for me, with 3 different business trips just in the first 2 weeks alone - one of them to Hanoi, which I did a short hotel review. And then there's the huge number of photos still waiting to be processed from this Taiwan trip. Hopefully I can squeeze out the time to quickly finish up this trip report before my next holiday in May.

After a good night's sleep at Shi Fen, we woke up to a simple breakfast prepared by the min su owner and spent around 45 minutes exploring the area around the min su (which we didn't do last night because it was too late).

Shi Fen is located beside small river approximately 50m wide. To cross to the other side, there are two vehicular bridge and one pedestrian suspension bridge.

Naturally, we went on the suspension bridge, which promises awesome views.

Other than releasing lanterns, you can also write message on bamboo and hang it on the bridge. Something like the love locks in Seoul Tower.

After spending about 30 minutes taking pictures, we went back to the car and set off for the 2 hours drive to  Yi Lan (宜兰) where we our lunch stop will be.

The first part of the drive is along the curvy Provincial Road 106 to join up with Freeway 5.

At the end of the road, we joined up with Freeway number 5, which links Taipei city to Yi Lan. This freeway includes driving through Xue Sui (雪隧 lit. translation - snow tunnel), which is the longest road tunnel in Taiwan. The tunnel cuts travelling time between the Taipei metropolitan area to the eastern city of Yi Lan from 2 hours to just 30 minutes.

Entrance of the Xue Sui

Driving in the tunnels. Notice the solid white line, no changing lanes for the whole length of the tunnel. So if you're stuck behind a slow moving lorry, good luck.

After a uneventful drive, we're out of the tunnel. Not that we're complaining.

As we did not have any particular place in mind, we parked in the middle of town and proceeded on foot to hunt for food. One thing that did not miss our eyes are the many beef noodle shops around the area.

After going around 30 minutes, we settled on a small shop selling beef noodles in an alley close to National Yang Ming University Hospital.

Beef noodles costing TWD 90.

To be honest, I am not an expert in beef noodles, having had less than 10 bowls of these famous Taiwanese noodles in my life. But these are just extremely yummy. The noddles are made and cooked to the right texture (or as the taiwanese term as chewiness). The beef is not overcooked. And the best of all, is the soup. Full of beefy goodness, but not overpowering such that it turns you off.

Sometimes, small eateries like these off the beaten track serve the best food.

After lunch, we continued on the 2nd part of the drive, driving southwards on Freeway 5 to Su Ao (苏澳), where we joined up with Highway 9, also known as Su Ao Highway (苏花公路). This road is one of the best driving road in Taiwan, something equivalent to the Great Ocean Road in Australia.

Throughout the whole drive, we were hugging cliffs and mountains on one side, and sheer drop to the Pacific ocean on the other side.

View of one of the many bays we drove by.

There are many one-way tunnels, where traffic takes turn to pass through.

Some parts have wide, sweeping corners.

While there are parts with excellent view of the sea.

There are many tunnels along the way, which are cut through solid rock face.

On some of the older tunnels, drill holes used to put in dynamites can still be seen.

As you can see, we have been following this particular lorry for a good part of our journey. The road gives almost no space to overtake, plus these lorry drivers have probably the road memorised by heart such that they can - and are - driving as fast as most cars.

The queue for while waiting for our turn to enter a one-way tunnel.

This road signs shows that we're nearing Hua Lian.

The bridge that crosses over Taroko River.

The drive along Highway 9 to Hua Lian took a little over 4 hours, including a couple of stops along the way to take pictures. We also stopped at Qi Xing Tan (七星潭), a beach famous for it's natural landscape.

Entering Hua Lian.

A monument near to our accomodation. This will soon become a landmark for us to find our way back.

Our accommodation for the next 2 nights in Hua Lian is at a seaside min su called No 36 lighthouse (36号 灯塔民宿).

Again, we have nothing planned for the night other than dinner, so the min su owner recommended us to the famous Hua Lian golden triangle for dinner. The nickname is derived from the 3 roads (namely Zhong Shan Road 中山路, Zhong Hua Road 中華路 and Zhong Zheng Road 中正路) bounding the area.

Among the many shops selling clothings, shoes, accessories, snacks and the ever present bubble tea, a couple of  lao dian (老店, shops which has been operating for decades) are worth mentioning. Both of them sells steamed dumplings (小笼包), and are conveniently located next to each other.

Initially, we thought that these dumplings, costing NT$ 5 apiece, are the small variety found in Singapore. But to our surprises, each dumpling is about 6 to 7 cm in diameter, and are filled full of juicy pork.

As we were so full after eating 5 pcs each, we decided to take a short walk down to Cai Hong night market (彩虹夜市).

Of the 2 night market in Hua Lian (Nan Bing and Cai Hong), Cai Hong night market are more of the funfair games type, while Nan Bing has more foodstuff.

On arrival, we found the night market to be practically deserted, with more shopkeepers than visitors. Given the benefit of doubt that we were early (it's barely 7pm), plus it's a Monday night, and therefore the crowd (or the lack of them).

Nevertheless, we still walked one round around the night market, and soon decided to head back to our min su and have an early night in preparation of the long day tomorrow to Taroko Gorge (太鲁阁国家公园).