Touring Taiwan (formerly KS to Taipei via Provin. 1)

[Nuit]

I liked your description of Taiwan driving

It is a game of asphyxiating someone’s space.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt is that touring is not a breezy leisure ride. It’s as serious a cycling discipline as much as road racing, mountain biking, etc., is. Though you are not put under racing pressure, there are still pressures such as the need for alimentation, shelter and adequate supplies. You could circumvent these by having a support crew, but that is another type of touring which I’m not into

exactly...

Still, glad you enjoyed yourself and well done, you persevered and rode from K-Town to Taipei. Next time, come back and ride the east coast, it's (mostly) flatter over here .

[ludahai]

I liked your description of Taiwan driving

It is a game of asphyxiating someone’s space.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt is that touring is not a breezy leisure ride. It’s as serious a cycling discipline as much as road racing, mountain biking, etc., is. Though you are not put under racing pressure, there are still pressures such as the need for alimentation, shelter and adequate supplies. You could circumvent these by having a support crew, but that is another type of touring which I’m not into

exactly...

Still, glad you enjoyed yourself and well done, you persevered and rode from K-Town to Taipei. Next time, come back and ride the east coast, it's (mostly) flatter over here .

Doing the tour around the country is something I definately would like to do in the not to distance future. Multi-day riding is something that I would love to do and know it would be very different from racing (either in a straight-up cycle race or a long-distance triathlon). Glad you enjoyed the ride...

[Mucha Man]

I enjoyed the writeup but you really took some awful routes. For example, the west coast. Just kidding but coming from Hsinchu there are bike only lanes from the high speed rail all the way back to Taipei via Shimen reservoir. It's a really beautiful quiet route.

But next time do the east coast. No planning required. Just go. Wide bike and scooter only shoulders on major roads, and lots of quiet county roads that run paralell.

Oh, and by the end of 2012, maybe a bit later, Taiwan should have two round the island bike-only paths to take. No worries about traffic.

Glad to see the Lonely Planet helped you. When you were in Taian Hot Springs though you should have gone to one of the non-nude outdoor springs with multiple pools.

[csisfun]

Hahahaha...

Yes, the bike route is pretty bad because I don't really know much about the west coast. Unfortunately Hsinchu was horrible, and all I wanted to do is to get out of it. Taian... well... it was fun. Pronunciation Lady was very interesting as was Guo Rong. Too bad I didn't want to spend some more to go to the Japanese Officer's hot spring.

Taiwan driving... well... very unique. It's a mix of right of way and right of might and "I came first!".

[CTaitung]

I enjoyed the writeup but you really took some awful routes. For example, the west coast. Just kidding but coming from Hsinchu there are bike only lanes from the high speed rail all the way back to Taipei via Shimen reservoir. It's a really beautiful quiet route.

Oh, and by the end of 2012, maybe a bit later, Taiwan should have two round the island bike-only paths to take. No worries about traffic.

I've seen you mention before these bike-only paths from Taipei out to Shimen reservoir (and now onto Hsinchu). Any weblinks showing directions for the bike paths?

Also, you note about those 2 round-Taiwan bike-only paths by end-2012. Does the gov't or some other website show those paths yet as they now may be nearing their completion?

Are there other nearly-complete round-Taiwan bike-only paths with some spots not yet connected (in which case it would just be a matter of riding between the unconnected bike paths by some paved roads?

Thanks much for any help as you can probably see where this is leading.

[Mucha Man]

I have serious doubts they will get it all done by the end of this year, not least because the new highway from Hualian to Yilan won't be ready for 4 years or so. Also I know that they are encountering a few snags getting locals in coastal areas to agree to the paths going through. But if you look at what they did around Fulong you'll be very impressed. Beautiful 25km or so running on a raised section beside the highway. Also the left bank of the Danshui, along the Sanchung-Luzhou area is looking nice with new parks and landscaped areas. This was a really run down dirty area before.

But lots of bullshit is coming out of the government on this. The sports council said that the coastal route from Bali to Taoyuan/Hsinchu was ready last fall but a Forumosan poster tried it 2 months ago and found it was still unfinished and very rough in parts.

You can definitely go as far south as the reservoir (or just before it really). This is easy. Just get on the bike paths in Taipei (along the Danshui) and ride south. If you are on the right bank of the Danshui cross over to the left at some point and continue to the end. You can't get lost.

[CTaitung]

You can definitely go as far south as the reservoir (or just before it really). This is easy. Just get on the bike paths in Taipei (along the Danshui) and ride south. If you are on the right bank of the Danshui cross over to the left at some point and continue to the end. You can't get lost.

Appreciate this. I live around the right bank near Gung-Guan, so have pretty much stayed on this side all the way up and down from Hsin-tien (Xindian) to Danshui.
Good to know I only need to cross one of the bridges over to the left bank.

Feiren presented a good route along the western foothills on small roads, but gave directions from south to north. If I'm correct, the north to south route would be from Ximen along the 118 to Miaoli and then take 124 to 3, on to Zhuolan and then there take Pinglin Road to 21, and then 147/131 in Nantou, the 149 from Zhudong in Jiayi, and then 172 and 175 in Tainan. [Did i reverse it correctly? Cheers!]

[Feiren]

Yes that's basically it.