523 Mountaineering Association: Taipei Taiwan-- East Coast-- Day Hike-- Taoyuan Valley + Honeymoon Bay Seafood + Firefly

Taoyuan Valley + Honeymoon Bay Seafood + Firefly
by YiRu Li 2013.5.4

Taoyuan Valley is a beautiful meadow on a ridge by the northeast coast. Local farmers raise buffalos in Taoyuan Valley and buffalos eat young trees. Therefore, the meadow can be maintained and not infiltrated by trees or shrubs, which are dominant plant species in this area.

There are many trails to reach Taoyuan Valley. The most popular way is from Fulong, through Chai-lin historical trail, turning right on the saddle, and continuing along the ridge to Daxi. This is an 8-hour hike. For most of this trail, hikers will walk along a ridge without any trees for cover. If hiking here in summer, it is very hot and extra water is required. Around November, the whole trail will be covered with silver grass flowers. The golden sunshine is reflected by the white flowers, against by the endless green meadows. Beyond this is the deep blue ocean; it’s a very picturesque.

This time we chose to visit Taoyuan Valley from Daxi, through the Stone-Buddha (Shi Guanyin) temple, and then back to Daxi for eating the most delicious seafood in Taiwan in the Daxi fish market. Cold and warm ocean currents meet around the northeast coast. The great nature conditions make the ocean area a suitable place for fish and the ocean around Daxi becomes the biggest fishing area in Taiwan. Most of the east coast’s fish are auctioned at Honeymoon Bay's fish market and the seafood here is super fresh. Honeymoon Bay at Daxi is also famous for surfing. The beach of the Bay is 4 kilometers long and it’s a great joy to stroll along the beach.

In addition to abundant ocean resources in Daxi, many kinds of animals and plants live happily in this non-polluted natural environment. According to local people, if you hike alone on trails around Daxi in the morning, you will see mountain pigs on the trails! The clean water in Daxi also encourages the growth of fireflies. In April and early May, it is the firefly season. We’ll go to the “Home of Firefly” to see the amazing bright firefly by NeiDa stream!

The amazing mountains and oceans, romantic Honeymoon Bay with exciting surfing, super delicious seafood, and abundant ecological systems combine to make Daxi a wonderful paradise that people will always want to visit again and again.

Traffic: Take train or Drive to Daxi, Ilan. Turn left out of the train station and walk 800m to the trailhead.

★ Itinerary:

09:05 Meet everyone at Taipei Railway Station Lobby South 1 Entrance and take train 4162. (AM. 9:35 NTD 101) → 11:13 Arrive Daxi and hike up steeply. → 14:00 Arrive Taoyuan Valley and down the trail steeply.→ 16:30 Arrive Daxi Fish market, buy fish and then cook fish in a restaurant. → 18:30 Walk to see firefly. → 19:30 Arrive firefly valley and see firefly. → 20:30 Back to Dasi Train Station and take train 4233 PM. 20:43 to Taipei (NTD 101). → 22:36 Arrive Taipei.

Turtle Island view from Honeymoon bay