A last minute decision, we did not want to waste a Sunday. Yi Lan is on the north eastern coast of Taiwan. For a long time, there were two roads to get there from Taipei. One is the mountain route that takes you through the windy mountainous roads. The other is along the coast by heading north than east. Both take about two hours, longer when traffic is bad. However a few years ago, a third route was built that reduced the travel time to a mere 40min. It’s a tunnel 13km that cut across the mountains, taking the traffic directly from one end to the other. Needless to say, the two other routes suddenly became the “detour” and everyone depends on the new tunnel for their commute.
The new tunnel is also famous for the most consistant and worst traffic jams in Taiwan. Every weekend towards the end of the day, it will clog up quickly. It’s more faithful than the old faithful, in a bad way.
Of course, what this means is there are a lot more visitors to Yi Lan from Taipei, which boosts the tourism, and also opens opportunities for locals to commute to Taipei more frequently.
As a coastal city, Yi Lan is known for fishing ports and sea food. Being on the bottom of the steep mountains, it is also known for the scenary. Others visit Yi Lan for the beach and water activities. In general, it’s like the backyard for the city folks in Taipei.
We did not have any destination this time, just driving around from point to point. So there’s just random photos. As usual, I am a temple freak, so lots of temple photos.
The north eastern coast is also famous for its shoreline. For me, this is the beach that I've always visited since I was young. Black sand, eroded rocks and secluded. This spot was the best hidden treasure for a long time, then someone bought the land right by it and built this huge mosque/traditional chinese architecture. No one knows what it really is, but it damn sure is a nice spot to have a home.
Lastly, there's always space for good seafood!
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