Taiwan Day 22: Jiaoxi and Toucheng

Day Twenty Two

A 6.2 magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan today in Nantou County but the effects were also felt in Taipei. Although I am staying in Taipei during my stay here, coincidentally this morning Hui Chee and I boarded a bus at 9am to go to Jiaoxi. While there we did not feel the earthquake at all and didn't even know about it until her parents called. Our homestay auntie told us afterwards that they evidently felt rattling in Taipei in the afternoon.

We went to Jiaoxi in Yilan County for a one day trip because we wanted to see the waterfall at Wufenqi. To get there we took the MRT to Taipei Main Station which is connected to the Taipei Bus Station. At the bus station, we just read the signs to see which was the next bus out to Jiaoxi and bought a ticket. The buses to Yilan are very frequent (every 5-10 minutes) and quite comfortable because they were the big travel tour buses.

In Jiaoxi, when we got off the bus we turned left down the slope toward the Jiaoxi train station to board the shuttle bus that took us to Wufenqi.

Today was sunny but felt breezier out in Jiaoxi than in Taipei because it is closer to the seaside. There were many families and small children around playing in the water and eating.

The waterfall has three parts (upper, middle and lower) but the upper part had little water so we didn't walk up that far. Instead we hiked up to the second level of the waterfall.

View from hike

After Wufenqi, we went back to the main part of Jiaoxi. While walking in town we passed by this scene and I knew I had to try it! It was a pool of hot spring water filled with fish for feet dipping (NT80 each person).

At first I couldn't dip my feet in for more than 30 seconds because it felt so ticklish! Afterwards I really enjoyed it because it felt like little vibrations :) Definitely a relaxing treatment for the feet after a hike.

I really wanted to see Turtle Island (Guishan Island) from photos that I saw online so we took the train to Toucheng. It was an 8 minute ride from Jiaoxi to Toucheng.

It turns out that Toucheng's own bus systsem doesn't operate on Sundays and the shuttle bus to the seaside only runs every two hours so we weren't able to go near the coast or the Lanyang Museum by foot unless we took a long walk.

Toucheng

On the train ride back to Taipei, I think I saw Turtle Island out the window but it was really hazy. I guess it didn't matter that we weren't able to go to the coast in Toucheng because we wouldn't be able to see the island clearly anyways.

Turtle Island?

Another fun one day trip out of Taipei!

Take care,