♨️️TAITUNG TRIP -- ZHIBEN, with AWESOME WEEPING FIGS! (台東知本)
First day of our trip to Taitung, including indigenous restaurant in Taimali, Zhiben Forest Recreation Area, and Hotel Royal Chihpen.
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Restaurant Info:
Lalaolan Xiaomi Gongfang (拉勞蘭小米工坊)
Add: No. 21, Neighborhood 10, Taimali Township, Taitung County (台東縣太麻里鄉10鄰21號)
Tel: (089) 782-547
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Hotel Info:
Hotel Royal Chihpen (知本老爺酒店)
Add: No. 23, Lane 113, Longquan Rd., Beinan Township, Taitung County (台東縣卑南鄉龍泉路113巷23號)
Tel: (089) 510-666
Website: hotelroyal.com.tw
English and Chinese
Taitung 台東
Zhiben - 知本
Zhiben Forest Recreation Area - 知本森林遊樂區
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Also watch the latest video on this channel: {Trip} LALASHAN on the Northern Cross-Island Highway (北橫拉拉山)
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Travel in Taiwan (May/June, 2016)
After picking up our rental car upon arrival from Taipei at Taitung Railway Station, we headed out along Highway 11 to the Zhiben Hot Springs resort area, not far south. Taitung City sits on the coast in the gap between the southern tip of the coastal mountains and the central mountains; the latter fan out and sprawl to the sea south of the city. The resort area lies close to the highway, just inside the mouth of a valley carved out by the Zhiben River. The Japanese developed the area as a healing resort during their 1895-1945 period of colonial rule, after systematically mapping the island’s natural resources upon takeover, at the same time introducing the Taiwanese to hot-spring culture. However, the local indigenous natives had long been using the healing waters, digging soak pools in the rocky riverbed.
The scores of inns and hotels are strung out along riverside County Road 194. At this road’s head you’ll find the entrance to the 110-hectare Zhiben National Forest Recreation Area ( Cross a bright-red 80-meter-long bridge, buy your ticket, and head uphill to the visitor center, which has displays on the local geology and flora/fauna. From there, explore the web of mountain-slope trails between the riverside cliffs and a boundary ridge. If you have the better part of the day you can consider tackling them all, but be sure to conquer the staircase Brave Man’s Slope Trail – steep, 320 meters long, rising 150 meters, 792 steps – which leads you past magnificent white-bark banyan trees. The roots of the giant Thousand Root Banyan create a fairyland setting you’ll expect to see forest spirits flitting through. There are fine views toward the ocean from the highest trail-points.
Back to Highway 11, and up to the Liji Badlands, directly north of Taitung City. They constitute the coastal range’s southern tip, on the Beinan River’s north side, city on the south. What are they, and what makes them “bad”? What you’ll see is a kilometers-long mountain wall riven with deep gullies. Enjoy them from viewing areas along County Road 45 that feature lookout pavilions, footpaths, and Chinese/English explanatory signage. You are in a grand outdoor geology museum: standing on this side of the river, you’re on the Philippine Sea Plate; peering across at the other side’s sedimentary hills, you’re looking at the Eurasian Plate. These are the two key players in Taiwan’s mighty, ongoing geotectonic drama, which among other things has given birth to the island’s scores of hot-spring sites. The badlands are primarily made up of fine mudstone pellets, long at the sea’s bottom, that are too light to go down under the Eurasian Plate with the rest of the Philippine Sea Plate. Now exposed, the unstable sediment suffers deep erosive scarring, creating a façade of ferocious, menacing demeanor. The forlorn, desolate landscape has also given rise to a nickname – Moon World.