Taiwan Part 4 - The Eastern Coast

The last chunk of the trip I took was to the eastern coast of Taiwan. The eastern coast has a much higher indigenous population, and is less traveled by tourists than the western coast. I traveled through two cities on the east coast: Taitung - which is fairly off the beaten track - and Hualien - which is the biggest city on the east coast. Both stops were worth it, although Hualien is much more tourist-accessible, and Taitung is really only interesting if you're a history nerd. I enjoyed myself but if that's not your jam, might not be worth the trek. And with that here is the great and my idiosyncratic favs of Eastern Taiwan. 

The Great 
Taroko Gorge
Probably the most famous national part in Taiwan, Taroko National Park surrounds a river that has carved an extremely deep, winding gorge in marble stone of the mountainous area. The area is dotted with hiking trails, view points, several temples, and a small town. The park is only partially open - it was heavily damaged due to an earthquake in April 2024, followed that fall by typhoon damage. But even visiting the parts that were open to the public were fantastic. You can only get here by car – so a small-group tour is a good way to go to visit. I went with Island Life Taiwan, and the guide was from one of the indigenous in the area tribes and was fantastic and super funny. Highly recommend even if you can only see a fraction of it.

 Hualien Night Market
I am not normally a night market person – partially because I’m a vegetarian – but the Hualien Night Market is very cool and worth visiting if you’re in the city. It’s fairly large, broken into four overall segments, with a wide variety of options and even plenty of vegetarian options. It’s busy but not overwhelmingly so and fun to just walk around. My policy with night markets is that I have to try three things. I had stinky tofu fries (a much milder version of stinky tofu cut, fried, and served like French fries), some sort of taro-cheese ball thing, and what was literally the best thing I ate in all of Taiwan – a deep fried scallion pancake with egg. They crack an egg into the oil while they begin frying the pancake and the egg ends up connected to the pancake and also deep fried. The thing is then brushed with some kind of sauce and then eaten hot. Literally the best thing I ate in Taiwan.

Idiosyncratic Favorite
Peinan Site Park
If I can see an archeological site in a country, I will. So for Taiwan, that site was the Peinan Site Park in Taitung. It is the largest pre-historic settlement site in Taiwan. The Beinan culture was active in the area for several millennia, peaking in 1500 BCE – 300 BCE. The park is fairly large and contains several excavation areas, recreations of buildings, a monolith, and an exhibition hall. One of the main things to see are the slate coffins which are both shown in the exhibition hall and under one of the outdoor viewing platforms. Most of the jade objects excavated from the site are in the Museum of Pre-History (see below). The site is fairly accessible – it’s a 10-minute walk from the train station and there are signs.

For the Nerds
The National Museum of Pre-History
This is a fantastic museum that you will need to be really motivated to get to. It's not just in Taitung, it's outside Taitung, near basically no where. There are maybe three buses that stop there in a day, and a couple trains that go to the stop near to the museum. Once you get there though - it is phenomenal. The museum's bottom floor is devoted to pre-history covering from the very first people roughly 30,000 years ago up until roughly 1500 CE when the Dutch, Spanish, and Chinese started settling there. The whole thing is beautifully displayed with excellent English signage. The best section though, was the Beinan culture jade ornaments, many of which were from the archeological sites. I had a fantastic time – that said, if you aren’t super interested in history, might not be worth the trek, and if you have to choose between this and the Peinan Site Park, I’d chose the park.

Overall Conclusion
As you can tell from this very long series, I really enjoyed my time in Taiwan. It was a good mix of cities, history, and nature. And Taiwan’s museum game is A+. My only note is the museums do a lot of dioramas and some can be a little creepy. I took a slow and relaxed pace but if you want to be more efficient, you do not need a full two weeks to see the island thoroughly. I didn’t see everything, but I’m don’t feel like I missed anything important and doubt I’ll go back. Any trip must include Alishan, Tainan, the Taroko Gorge, and the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Those are the absolute musts. If you do go – be safe as the world is extra chaotic at the moment and Taiwan’s position can be precarious at times. But if you do make it – I’m sure you’ll have a great time.