Ride In Taiwan

Pedalling Taiwan’s National Cycle Route #1 has become a local rite of passage, but also offers a way to connect with this remarkable country like never before…

- Mark Stratton

Leaving behind the bright lights of Taipei City, I cycled through fragrant oolong tea plantations and tropical forest, cruising dark-sand beaches and stopping only to eat a bowl of mackerel noodles near a shrine decorated by writhing dragons. My first day on Taiwan’s National Cycle Route #1 – fast emerging as one of Asia’s finest two-wheeled adventures – ended that night in Suao, where my generous host, B&B owner Chung-Ming Lee, treated me to chilli cuttlefish and sour chicken in wine, and insisted on paying for every morsel. It was all a far cry from most people’s vision of Taiwan as a bustling industrial nation.

‘Made in Taiwan’ is the image that this turtle-shaped island struggles to shake off. It suggests a manufacturing powerhouse modernising at all costs and with little concession to nature or its past. Admittedly, first impressions upon arriving at Taipei City do little to disavow this; shiny glass edifices and designer goods-stocked malls reflect the rampant consumerism of a tech-obsessed city where even the dustcarts pipe out Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’. Several previous visits, though, had taught me that Taiwan possesses a pleasingly green underbelly, far removed from near-neighbour China’s conquer-nature-at-all-costs approach.

The island is certainly not short of wondrous landscapes. It isn’t for nothing that when the Portuguese first arrived here in 1544, they christened it Formosa, meaning ‘beautiful’. Taiwan is rugged beyond belief, with 286 mountaintops tipping 3,000m while 20% of its landmass falls within protected areas.