250km, 10h26, elevation 3413m
Today I did a stunning 250km. That number just really stands out in my list of Garmin Activities. Only one single trip did better up 'till now: 265km in November 2014. Today's trip went to a very special place I learned about in a blog. This place is located in Nantou County's Xinyi district and is the end of Hwy 16. Basically it got destroyed during a Typhoon, several times and the government decided not to reconstruct this bridge.
The date for today's trip is also very particular: February 28th. Anyone who knows a little about Taiwanese history will remember the 228 Incident. Put briefly, in 1947 the KMT mainlanders killed an innocent Taiwanese woman for selling tobacco and this was not the first such case of KMT aggression towards Taiwanese people. This led to the bloody 228 incident in which at least 30,000 Taiwanese lost their lives. The KMT government has always been reluctant to admit its share in this bloody rebellion but at least 228 has been turned into a Taiwanese National Holiday. It is also the reason why I had the opportunity for today's trip.
Back to 2015! So I did the traditional Shalu to Changhua section followed by 139 over Baguashan, through Nantou, Zhongliao and to Jiji. That is the section I had done a few times and it is a nice way for entering Nantou, as it goes around and not through Taichung city. After the usual pictures along the road I ended up in Jiji. I had been here several times and today I wanted to take a section I had never done before. That was not Hwy 16 but straight ahead from Jiji station. I believe the road number is Nantou 27. Most of this was an ascent, not to steep but still. At a certain point I saw this:
Apparently there is a mountain path called Jiji Mountain. It looked really tempting but I decided to just save the position in my GPS and come back for it later. Today I really wanted to go to that special place at the end of Hwy 16. It sounded so magical in that blog I read, I just had to go there first.
Riding Nantou 27 to the end leads to this sign: the new central cross Island highway (Hwy 16 or Tai16 in Chinese). This area here is known as Shuili, the Chinese characters for village on the water. Today my intention was to ride Hwy 16 all the way to the end and then go back to Shalu.
Hwy 16 has a first section where it coincides with Hwy 21 (the one going from Xinshe to Guoxing, Puli, Shuili, Xinyi all the way to Chiayi). I just kept following Highway 16 and I saw the road became a lot smaller, like a small mountain path, not really a National Highway. This is the sign I saw with places such as Renhe and Minhe/
Heliuping ahead! What a tiny little road! At least the conditions are fair. The gradient is also doable.
More views
The mysteries of mother earth
The 10km mark on my way to Heliuping, means I am really close
Going good, feeling fine, so far so good ^^
This is it: the end of Hwy 16 aka Heliuping. In the picture you can see the relics of a bridge that used to lead across this river. I saw some people playing water games just at my right and I even saw an all terrain vehicule just riding through this river bed. Now THAT was impressive. Later when I went back I met them and asked them if there was anything special across. Of course I was considering this myself. But they told me it is just a little more road until it stops. For once I will take their word for it. I can imagine that section not being road bike friendly!
41.3km is where the Hwy 16 fun ends!
People playing games in the river bed. Lots of people have the day off on February 28
On my way back
Nantou 63, counting down from 11. In other words, I will be at the Sun Moon Lake in just 11km. During this section I would learn that all of this was ascent, so lots of climbing!
When I finally reached the Sun Moon Lake, I arrived at the section called Tannan (the south of the lake in Chinese). I did not have to do the entire circle of the lake, just go back to Shuili would be enough. From there I took the 131 to Puli. I had taken Hwy 21 several times but I found that there were just too many tour busses packed with Chinese people. So I decided to search for the more relaxing cyclist Haven called 131. I had failed to find it the previous times but this time I took the trouble to ask a local shop owner and she told me how to get there. Xiexie ni! So that's when I arrived here. And YES this was a lot safer, more relaxed and more enjoyable than Hwy 21. Need to remember this for the future.
When I made it to Puli, I had something to eat and then I thought about how I would go back to Shalu. Basically there are two ways to do it. One being Hwy 14 to Guoxing and Caotun and then I could do Changhua Dadu Shalu or I could do Caotun Wufeng Taichung Shalu. Whatever preference you have, but at this hour, both would face heavy traffic. Luckily there was another way of returning which would be longer, more challenging and more quiet. That would be to take Hwy 21 from Puli to Guoxing (which goes to the Northern tip og Guoxing district) and then following 21 until Xinshe. From there I would take another 13km to Dongshi and from Dongshi another 12 to Fengyuan where I had tea time with my Taiwanese friends. And from Fengyuan to Shalu would be abother 25.
I remember when I stopped for food in Puli that I had a 160 on my marker and from previous trips I had calculated that the Hwy 21 + 8 to Shalu would be around 90. When I got back home later that evening, I had a very lovely 250km. Fantastic ride, wonderful times outside, discovering this nation island and eternal memories. Really happy after this ride!
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