Blogs from Yuli , Hualien, Taiwan, Asia

At lunchtime, after our fruitless morning trying to visit Pine Gardens we checked out of the hotel, walked across the wide square to the train station and were lucky enough to catch a train leaving immediately for our next destination, Ruisui, a small town about 70 klms from Hualien. We were planning on going to the hot springs there. As the train approached the town we both decided that it really didn't look as pretty as we were expecting so decided just to continue on down the line to the next town. The train was passing through the East Rift Valley between two mountains and both ranges were easily visible from the train. The scenery around Ruisi was dominated by a white river basin - which meant grey gravelly river bed and grey water - not ... read more

The East coast has the highest concentration of Aboriginal people in Taiwan. This is harvest season, so one of the tribes local to Yuli had it annual celebration to thank the gods for a successful crop. The festival took place in the evening on the local playing field, with stalls selling food and drink and various fairground-style games (similar to the night market). The tribe elders were seated on a stage and a succession of performances of traditional song and dance were performed in front of them. The field was badly lit so it was difficult to see what was going on, but the dancing was definitely energetic. Mixed groups of teenagers performed first (perhaps to appeal to them, some of the traditional music had been "remixed" so that it sounded like '90s Europop, and the ... read more