Every morning when you are travelling with 8 girls is a mess of half-open luggages and this particular morning was no difference. We booked a day tour to Taroko Gorge via KKDay and the tour bus was at our hotel promptly at 8.50 am, triggering a mad rush to get all our luggage into the back of the bus while the rest of the tour group watched in mild amusement. Thankfully, our gruff but kindly tour guide cum driver was super nice about loading 10 deceivingly heavy suitcases into his bus for us, and soon we were off!
We headed for our first stop, a little pavilion overlooking the majestic Qingshui Cliffs. Rather than taking the typical route, our traffic light hating driver brought us through a winding small trail beside the sea for a much better view. He pointed out various landmarks along the way, including Qixingtan (Seven Stars Beach), peppered with his own musings and complaints (about his boss mostly), making for a delightful commentary.
In typical tour fashion, we were dropped off at each location with some time to explore on our own. First up was a site overlooking Qingshui Cliffs!
Tried out my drone at the overlook at Qingshui Cliffs! And then promptly smashed it along a rock wall at Shakadang Trail.
Check out my video on Youtube for the amazing drone footage!
I like to live dangerously.
It was insanely hot, so we quickly bundled back into the cool confines of the bus. Taroko Gorge was next, just a short 5 minutes drive away!
Huge, scary tunnel leading to Shakadang Trail. I can’t imagine how they managed to drill through the rock face without the machinery that we have today. Our driver was telling us that in the past, they had to set up dynamite to blast through the rock and then run for their lives before the dynamite exploded and the tunnels would cave in. Many workers didn’t survive the construction 🙁
Rock slides! This was from the typhoon season last year, which they were still trying to clear.
Construction for more tunnels and bridges in Taroko Gorge, to relieve the traffic jams that often build up on the highways.
Sadly, some of the common stops in Taroko National Park were closed due to rockslides, like the Swallow Grotto but our driver was quick to supplement with other trails and sights, like Lushui Trail.
It was really blistering hot the whole day, which I guess we would take over the torrential rains that have hounded us since we arrived in Taiwan. But the previous days of bad weather had caused many landslides and rock falls throughout Taroko National Park, as our guide had warned us on our way to the park.
The grey, gushing waters in the gorge looked like liquid cement, ready to sweep away anything in their path. With the worried looks on all the locals’ faces and repeated warnings from everyone we met, I think this was the first time I couldn’t completely relax and enjoy myself even when I am surrounded by nature, because of the imminent danger looming over us as we drove along the winding cliff roads and trekked through the mountain trails.
Our first stop was at Shakadang Trail, which was honestly quite boring. We didn’t have enough time to explore the trail entirely and the bus dropped us off in the middle of the trail, instead of at one end, so we had to u-turn after reaching the end on one side.
Shakadang Trail is one of the easiest walking trails in Taroko National Park and hence, attracts plenty of tourists. There are a few scenic spots for photo taking but mostly flooded with people 🙁 barely managed to get a few shots in!
We stopped for lunch at the Youth Activity Centre, which cost us about 200NTD per pax for a semi-buffet spread. The food was pretty decent, just a simple meal of rice with meat and vegetables.
After lunch, we continued on to Lushui Trail, which our driver chose to replace Swallow’s Grotto. It was a 40 mins easy walking trail (we saw some people in slippers) and ended at a carpark, where our bus would be waiting for us.
The view was pretty spectacular, as the trail wound around the side of some cliffs, high up above the main roads and gorge. 
There was also a suspension bridge at the end of the trail, which you have to queue for, because the bridge can only hold a certain number of people at one go.
After which, we left Taroko Gorge for Qixingtan Beach, which was actually the attraction I was most looking forward to!
It’s a beach filled with PEBBLES!! Instead of sand. It was so therapeutic to sit there and watch the waves crash against the shore, and it was awesome not to have sand all over your pants when you get up. There were so many types of stones as well, we were endlessly entertained searching for the prettiest pebbles.
It was a pretty chill ending to a long day of touring around Hualien. Honestly, I would only recommend this trip if you are travelling alone or in pairs because otherwise, it would probably be more fun and cost effective to hire a private driver to tour Hualien!
If you are interested in the tour we booked, you can check it out here > https://www.kkday.com/en/product/2143?cid=6320
Note: This post is sponsored by KKDay but all opinions are as usual my own 🙂