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Trips, photos > Round Taiwan > Introduction Cross-Island Highway Two years ago, before I came to Taiwan, I was reading the Lonely Planet guidebook. A passage that caught my attention concerned the Central Cross-Island Highway, which traversed the mighty Central Mountain Range and connected the crowded, built-up west with the sparsely-populated east coast; "Virtually every kilometre of this highway offers a stunning view of lush forests and towering mountain peaks, and should not be missed if you have the time." I resolved to travel this route when I had the opportunity. When I had been in Taiwan for a few months, I found out that the section of highway between Guguan {Kukuan/Kukwan} and Lishan had been badly damaged in the September 1999 earthquake and had not yet been repaired. Disappointed, I gave up thoughts of this road for the time being and when I visited my friend on the east coast in Chinese New Year 2002, flew one way and took the train round north Taiwan on the return journey. Some months later, I discovered that there was an alternative cross-island route which ran far south of the west part of the original one, bypassing the broken section, rising to become Taiwan's highest public road on the 3000 metre-plus Hehuan mountain and joining the original route some way east of that. This sounded like a more than adequate substitute for the original route, but the problem of transport remained. Nobody I talked to knew of any public bus service that would go the whole distance and while people said that it would probably be possible to use connecting services, nobody could find a timetable or further details. I didn't feel like chancing it and, busy with work and an expanding social life, my cross-Taiwan touring plans were put on the back burner again.
Motorcycling I had been enthusiastic about motorcycles for ever; my father and brother both had bikes but I never got round to getting one in the UK; since I lived in a city centre I didn't really need one and couldn't justify the expense and complication. In Taiwan, however, motorcycling seemed not merely possible but necessary and while I was put off by the idea of having to take the Taiwanese motorcycle licence test, I eventually bit the bullet, took the test and bought a solid second-hand 150cc motorcycle in fair condition. I started making small excursions into the nearby hills straightaway, and gradually lengthened these. My friend Don who'd arrived in Taiwan around the same time as me had had a 600cc sport bike in the States and was eager to return to biking. He bought a new 125cc motorcycle and we sometimes went on rides in the surrounding countryside and mountains together. One of our more ambitious rides had been up the 2000 metre-plus Dashueshan (Daxueshan). We had intended to start in the morning but this didn't happen and we finally set off at 1pm. About an hour into the journey, we stopped for gas. On being told our destination, the attendant looked worried. "It will be cold up there," she said, "and it will be dark by the time you get there." "Oh no," we assured her, "we are used to the cold in our home countries and we have good motorcycles so it will not take long." After a while, we started up the mountain proper. The foliage was changing and as we gained height the temperature dropped. I had a T-shirt, a sweater and a jacket on; Don only a T-shirt and jacket, and by the time we reached the top of the road he was shivering. We looked at the magnificent views for a short while until the sun dropped over the horizon. We were cold and it was dark.
A little more experienced now, we had been planning a big trip for some time. I had hung on to the cross-island idea and as we planned, we realised that were we to have time to enjoy our surroundings the trip would take four days, and that if we took four days we might as well take a week, and that in a week we could travel a large part of the way round Taiwan. A date was set and finally arrived, and we set off. Go to the next page: 1_Taizhong-Tainan |
(map section used with kind
permission of Courtney Donovan Smith from www.taiwanfun.com)