Garmin Activity: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/810419514
58km, 2h24, elevation 560m
It was ordinary Sunday afternoon and I had finished my classes at the language school at 5 pm. The next day I would be going to Hong Kong for visa purposes and therefore would be unable to cycle. That is why I wanted to do some cycling before going back to Shalu.
From Taichung city I went south via the Hwy 1-2. I ran through the districts of Nantun and Wuri. Wuri is named like that because of the river Wu that streams on the southern edge.
I first went through some heavier traffic and then I passed the Taichung High Speed Rail, which is on the above picture. One funny thing happened on my way here: There was red light but with the green arrow for going left. I did not see any cars coming from the other direction so I just rammed over that cross section. All of the sudden there is a cop shouting at me that I should stop. I ignored him and went on with my business. I have been looking back for several miles to see if I was followed. Luckily I wasn't. Nice escape from a probably heavy fine1
Bartman at Taichung HSR on a sunny Sunday afternoon!
I continued my ride, going past the Chenggong and Zhuifen stations. I had once taken the train from Shalu to Fengyuan and it passed these stations as well. Then I made it to Dadu township.
I wanted to do something different today and I saw this street, which I had seen a lot of times during previous rides. I never took the time to check it out, but I felt like it today. So I just went for it. When I saw this 12% sign I starting thinking: This might well be that famous Huanan road everybody is talking about... I met a somewhat thicker cyclist here and I asked him this question. He confirmed it to me. I was happy to learn that I was on Huanan road. I had heard people saying it was a tough ride and now I suddenly had the opportunity to judge myself.
It did have that 12% gradient everybody talked about, but I was not suffering. Maybe I have really grown so much that this is easy as pie for me. I faced this climb with relative ease. The first section of Huanan road was one short climb and then the road turned flat again.
Riding a relaxing ride on Sunday afternoon at the Huanan road. I had a nice view over Taichung and the evening atmosphere was very enchanting.
The road was full of twists and turns and there was more elevation to be covered. I noticed that there were several MTB trails. I did read some blogs mentioning this. It offered some nice possibilities.
The view over Taichung city from Huanan road during a sunset. It looked a lot better in real life. I would even dare saying "breath taking"
A picture taken at the end of the second climb. I approximately covered 200 meters of elevation, relative to the starting point.
More views of Taichung city. I noticed there were more people riding here. It was clearly a destination loved by local cyclists
A picture of my bike almost at the top. Today was a special day for my bike, below you fill find out why...
This was a picture at the end of the climb. It says Huanan road in Chinese
A view back of this Huanan road. It is a nice climb with beautiful views, but honestly, it cannot match against Nantou rides. However, this was something nice for future rides...
Then I had to search a little on how to head back to Taiwan Boulevard. I was in the Longjing area now. I found the 136 and from there going back home was easy. This is a picture taken at the red light. I was taking a left here.
Right before arriving back home, I saw this fabulous 9000 km on my flatbar. I was over 90% for my 10,000 km I said I would do this year. Excellent stuff. Conclusion of the day: Huanan road is nice. I should consider doing it by default on night rides.
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