It is possible to go around Taiwan by train in one day. That statement clarifies two things: the train service here is good, and Taiwan is not a very big place.

Like many travelers I have too often tried to see too many places in too short of a time. Luckily, I got older and have slowed down a bit. During the last ten to fifteen years, I have gotten a lot better in hanging around places a couple of days longer than I actually “need to”.

For my two weeks on the fairly small island of Taiwan, I opted for a week in Taipei and one week on the east coast.

Taking the train along the Taiwanese East Coast has been on my to-do-list since I watched an episode of “The world´s most scenic railway journeys”. That particular episode was about a local train from Hualien to Yilan on the east coast of  Taiwan. The series itself was aired during the pandemic which made it come across a lot more interesting than it was. But it was about travel – when we couldn’t do it!

But I am as much a sucker for a beautiful train ride as any other traveler, so I thought why not. So on my fourth day here, I found myself on a morning train to Taitung. Just in time for lunch, I was there. Taitung turned out to be a pleasant surprise; easy to navigate, no real sights so the town was mine to walk.

A few days later I headed back north to Hualien, also on the coast. The train took an hour and forty five minutes, all of which was spent in the East Rift Valley. As the name suggests, it was a continuous green setting with rice paddies, villages and towns, framed by the mountains on both sides.

Hualien was as lovely as Taitung, although a bit different in tempo. When I tried to walk as slowly as the people tended to do there, I almost fell over. Not sure if my age had anything to do with that, though. And just as in Taitung, the former train station area had been turned into a Centre of Art and culture. The old railroad still visible but now turned into a pedestrian street.

The part of the railway from Hualien and an hour or so north was as spectacular as promised. I tried to capture some of it camera but it really didn´t make it justice. At all. Let´s just say that riding the train, with the Pacific on one side and a mountain drop on the other side, was a lovely feeling.

Back in Taipei, I managed to survive a week without any serious mistakes. The metro is by far the easiest way to get around. And as most big cities, Taipei is a city with different parts when it comes to style, tempo and life. In short, my week in Taipei has meant nightly walks, airplane watching, bumming around on the Metro, finding good beer and water and snack shopping at a Family Mart or a 7-11 (it is hard to find a single block in the city where there isn´t a Family mart and/or a 7-11). And of course, a few temples and night markets on the way.

After two weeks here, I am off to Japan. But I feel good about having done my Taiwan 101.