Fulong & Jinguashi, Taiwan Part I

*LATEST* Taiwan Itinerary Year 2012 – 9 Days around Taipei, Taitung, Green Island, Kaohsiung, Jiufen

For our full trip itinerary, please click here.

For our travelogue, please click here or here. I’ve completed the itinerary from our June 2009 trip, and now I’m going to do some add ons (from our August 2009 trip) for your easy reference and the following post is part of it (linked under + North East Coast. 🙂

From Jiufen, we traveled along the north east coast to Jinguashi. Mr Hsu, the Jiufen B&B owner took the freeway and we enjoyed the scenery along the coast line.

Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) Fulong Station. During summer, Fulong Town can get really crowded because tourist would gather here to enjoy the sun and surf at Fulong Beach.

Getting here:

1. Take the THSR to Taipei Station, continue by train to Fulong Railway Station.

2. Take the train to Taipei Railway Station, continue by Kuo-kuang Bus (bound for Yilan, Luodong) to Fulong stop.

3. Take the train to Keelung Railway Station, continue by Keelung Bus to Fulong stop.

We made a pit stop at Xiang Ye, famous for its bento box meal. Saw the word “TVBS”, it was endorsed for some TV show. Since bento box meal is a specialty of the town, there were many more lunch box stores around but we were told that Xiang Ye has got the best!

The little box (NT55) is stuffed with food-very delicous braised three layerd pork, rice, cabbage and a braised egg.

One cool thing in Fulong is the Longmen Suspension Bridge. It  connects Fulong Beach to the Longmen Campground.  Longmen Campground is a world-class camping area with riverside and coastal scenery, a picturesque suspension bridge and riverside park.

Guess what we did? We enjoyed a delicious bento box lunch while gazing over a picturesque view of Fulong Beach.

With Mr Hsu and the TV crew.

Fulong Beach 福隆海水浴場 is well known for its golden sands but the coast line is moving shoreward and the sands were diminishing as time goes by. Apart from that, the Hohaiyan Rock Festival (貢寮國際海洋音樂祭) has been held here for 3 to 5 days in the summer annually. Normally, it takes place in mid-July, so please remember to mark your calendar!

Bye Bye Fulong! We got onto the car and continued our road trip to Jinguashi.

We were moving along the North East Coastline of Taiwan as we go from Jiufen to Jinguashi.

We were fortunate enough to see the famous Nanya Rock Formations, including sea-eroded platforms, mushroom rocks, honeycomb rocks, and tofu rocks. The patterned stone topography of Nanya, unique in Taiwan, was formed through the weathering of the sandstone that lines the shore. The oxidation of iron ore within the striations of the stone has given it a beautiful striped pattern. (Information from http://www.havefuntravel.tw/)

Beautiful! No PS, but insanely gorgeous pristine sea and great blue yonder.

Next up: Gold Ecological Park (黃金博物園區), Jinguashi. One of the highlight of out trip!