Gorgeous panoramas and sandy beaches aside, Kenting gave us the most difficulties in itinerary planning among the 11 destinations of our Taiwan round-island trip. Reliable info was scarce on both the English (inadequate details) and the Chinese side of the Internet (filled with over-promising advertisements), leaving us with questions such as:
- Where to find a reliable English-speaking taxi driver?
- What to expect on a half or full day taxi hire?
- What to eat among hundreds of night market stalls?
- Can't we get an authentic seafood dinner on a moderate budget?
Documented below are answers to our own questions, an honest record of two memorable nights spent at one of the most beautiful corners of Taiwan.
Getting There by Public Transport
Public transport to Kenting wasn't as complicated as feared: Kaohsiung MRT to Xin Zuoying high speed rail station, then Bus 9188, a comfy highway coach reaching Kenting within 2.5 hours. The same bus also stops at the nearby train station of Fangliao, which we found convenient for our return leg when we hopped back onto a TRA train en route to Taitung on the East Coast.
Getting Around
The half-hourly Kenting Street Car -- really a glorified local bus -- was reliable for getting us between lunch at Hengchun town and our hotel at Kenting, with options of reaching the Museum of Marine Biology or the Eluanbi Lighthouse at the far ends of the route. But the bus doesn't run past 18:00, meaning that we had to head back to Kenting Main Street for dinner.
But most importantly, the bus does not reach the picturesque east coast of Hengchun Peninsula and the most scenic part of Kenting IMHO. That's why we needed to hire a taxi.
Finding an English-Speaking Taxi Driver
For readers looking for an English-speaking taxi driver in Kenting, we highly recommend A-Xuan whom we hired for a half-day of sightseeing along the eastern coastline.
Golden-tanned from years of surfing Kenting's windy beaches, A-Xuan would be easily mistaken for any typical Taiwanese millennial, characteristically polite and presumably speaking minimal English ... until you listen to his past stories of working various odd jobs in Australia! Normally he leads larger Mainland Chinese tour groups, but recurrent diplomacy rows between Taipei and Beijing often make him and his van available for hire.
A-Xuan drives a 7-seater minivan at the time of writing, and operates out of Kenting / Hengchun with the option of pick-up / drop-off at Kaohsiung. Please leave me a message below if you need his contact info.
What to Expect on Half Day Taxi Hire
Kenting's taxi drivers have unified itineraries and prices for half and full day tours. At the time of writing, half day tours cost TWD2000 (CAD$87) per taxi with a choice of two possible routes, roughly tracing the east coast and west coast of southern Hengchun Peninsula. The full day tour, costing TWD3000, is simply a combination of both the east and the west coast routes.
A-Xuan met us at our hotel in Kenting at 08:00 and dropped us off at Hengchun (or back at Kenting had we preferred so) just past noon. Our four-hour private tour started with the southern coast of the national park, marked by the Sail Rock and its neighbouring beach of dramatic white sand and turquoise waters, off-limits to all except nesting sea turtles.
Within 50 minutes we reached the most photographed sight in Kenting, the historic Eluanbi Lighthouse originally built by the island's Qing Dynasty governors as a fortified citadel against potential attacks by Taiwanese aboriginals.
A few hundred metres southeast of the lighthouse was the southernmost tip of Taiwan. From where we stood, the nearest island of the Philippines was merely 150 km away.
From the lighthouse we drove north along the windswept eastern shore to my favorite stretch of Kenting, the sea cliffs of Longpan Park and Fengchuisha with their endless panorama of the Pacific Ocean. Visible on the horizon was the offshore tropical isle of Orchid Island, 2 hours away by ferry, and the next closest land at this latitude would be Hawaii.
Further north the coastline becomes increasingly rugged until it all culminates at the dramatic rock formations of Jialeshui. Here the public road ends, and all visitors must disembark and continue the journey on hourly scheduled tours by electric golf carts.
Eccentric eroded rocks resembling chessboards, toads or sea lions abound along this 2 km stretch of extraordinarily jagged shorelines, assaulted constantly by the same typhoon-sized waves that have attracted Taiwan's best surfers.
Meanwhile A-Xuan awaited us for over an hour at his van, parked next to the flying fish and calamari being sun-dried at the refreshment stand. As our half day tour was approaching the end, A-Xuan would chauffeur us to one final attraction closer to the town of Hengchun.
Just beyond Hengchun's Qing Dynasty fortified gates was the quaint sight of unattended flames fueled by underground natural gas seeping through the region's porous ground, impressive at night probably but hardly visible during daytime. From Hengchun we had the choice of returning to our hotel at Kenting Main Street, but we opted to be dropped off here for a taste of an authentic Taiwanese rural town.
At Hengchun's quaint town centre we thanked A-Xuan for four delightful hours along Kenting's picturesque eastern shoreline and bid him farewell, but not before soliciting three excellent restaurant recommendations for his hometown.
Authentic Cheap Eats at Hengchun Town
Arguably Hengchun's best known export, Xiaodu Baozi (see map) has elevated the humble steamed bun to the degree of national renown, shipping their handmade baozi across Taiwan on web orders. A-Xuan recommended the classic Duck Egg Yolk with Shiitake Mushrooms and Pork (Danhuang Xianggu Roubao) while I also picked a Spicy Meatball (Lashizitou) Steamed Bun at TWD40 each. While both were enjoyable, our driver's recommendation was of course the better bet.
This nostalgic little eatery was our favorite find in Hengchun Town.
Personally recommended by A-Xuan, Abo's Mung Bean Paste (see map) is your classic Taiwanese family operation specializing on one menu item, perfected by old grandpa decades ago as a street vendor. Its success has apparently sprouted half a dozen copycats within its 200m radius, but as our driver pointed out, this is the granddaddy of them all.
The humbly named Mung Bean Paste (Ludouzhuan) is more complicated than it sounds -- the tiny beans have to be deshelled by hand and beaten into a chunky mush, mixed with tapioca jelly then drenched in an old-fashioned syrup of Taiwanese brown sugar. The classic combination of mung beans and chewy artisan-made jelly is unmistakably analogous to similar desserts from adjacent Teochew across the Taiwanese Straight, accentuated here by a delightful depth of flavor from tropical cane sugar.
One block south of the dessert shop was yet another cheap eatery recommended by our driver. While Wang's Sesame Noodles (see map) did serve a good range of hearty lunch options, we took the hint from the neighbouring tables and ordered the local favorite of Dried Noodles in Sesame Paste.
Other dishes were unmemorable but the noodles were spectacular as promised, perfectly al dente, swimming in the fragrance of roasted sesame and served with an optional dollop of garlic-chili paste. Between the three eateries we spent only TWD120 (CAD$5.2) per person, with change to spare for fresh fruit (Taiwanese pineapples!) at the local wet market (see map).
Bill for Two Persons
| Steamed Baozi x 2 | TWD 80 |
| Mung Bean Dessert | TWD 40 |
| Dried Noodles in Sesame Paste (Small) | TWD 40 |
| Blanched Yam Leaves | TWD 30 |
| Blanched Water Spinach | TWD 30 |
| Pork Meatballs in Soup | TWD 20 |
| TOTAL | TWD 240 (CAD$10.4) |
While Hengchun Town offers Kenting's best eats in terms of authenticity and price, the lack of public transport in the evening restricted us to Kenting's touristy main drag where cheap dinners were nearly impossible to find. Our first stop was the (in)famous Kenting Night Market, arose out of necessity when seasonal tourist demands for informal peasant grub greatly overwhelmed the capacity of its overpriced Thai/American/Italian restaurants. Here we sampled 6 different stalls. Some were recommendable; some were not.
Authentic Eats at Kenting Night Market
Tip #1 -- Don't automatically assume that Kenting Night Market (see map) serves crappy food simply because of tourist infestation. The pictured 50-year-old sausage cart churned out the best Grilled Taiwanese Sausages out of the 7 different night markets we visited across Taiwan.
Get the grilled sausage in Kaoliang Liquor flavor -- you'll thank me for it. A reasonable TWD100 (CAD$4.3) buys you three sausages, which also comes in regular, black pepper, and flying fish roe flavors.
Tip #2 -- Even if you can't find anything local and creative, you can always fall back on franchised night market stalls such as the ubiquitous Big Sausage in Small Sausage (hailing from Taichung's Fengchia Night Market) or the pictured Papa's Garlic Fried Chicken (originated from historic Lukang).
Again, TWD100 (CAD$4.3) buys you a snack box of popcorn chicken in original garlic, zesty lemon, powdered cumin, or Thai spices, marginally cheaper than KFC but more interesting in its range of localized flavors.
For something fancier and local to Kenting, a neighbouring cart featured live clams freshly steamed to order, available in original, black pepper, garlic or spicy chili, again for TWD100. The final product turned out less salivating than it looked as the umami sweetness of the clams was entirely overpowered by the unevaporated rice wine.
Taiwanese ingenuity in utilizing every edible part of the domestic fowl was demonstrated at the popular stall known locally as Yongbo Tea-Smoked Duck, specializing in various exotic cuts from duck heads (2 for TWD100) to tongues (7 for TWD100) to hearts and livers (also TWD100).
Here we have Taiwan's version of charcuterie meats, steeped in the vendor's own secret marinade and generally served cold as a quick street bite or even an entree for a busy family. The duck tongues turned out slightly under-seasoned, though I quite enjoyed the largely-deboned quarter duck especially with a squeeze of calamansi juice.
Finding my favorite Taiwanese Sausage was already a surprise at Taiwan's most touristy night market, but the likelihood of also discovering my favorite night market dessert was just improbable considering its universal bad rap. Perhaps it was my lucky day, but there was something special about this popular dessert stand known as QQ Dannai.
Far from your standard tapioca pearls ubiquitous in Taiwan's national drink, these gelatinous brown orbs have been infused with local artisan-made brown sugar for that extra complexity and richness in flavor. Normally I steer clear of bubble tea after the recycled rubber scandal from years past, but these were simply impossible to resist.
Tip #3 -- Keep an eye out for fruit trucks for the best deals on fruit. If you're craving for healthy fibre like I was after several nights of deep-fried meaty night market grub, come to Kenting Night Market after 22:00 and look for the randomly appearing truckloads of fresh pineapples, mangoes, pitahayas or whatever else is in season. On this night a large, ripe sugar-apple and a red pitahaya cost TWD110 in total, easily a 40% discount compared with Taipei.
Bill for Two Persons
| Grilled Taiwanese Sausages x 3 | TWD 100 |
| Garlic Fried Chicken | TWD 100 |
| Steamed Clams | TWD 100 |
| Tea-Smoked Duck (1/4 duck) | TWD 150 |
| Duck Tongues x 7 | TWD 100 |
| QQ Dannai | TWD 50 |
| Bitter Melon and Pineapple Juice | TWD 60 |
| Sugar-apple | TWD 70 |
| Red Pitahaya | TWD 40 |
| TOTAL | TWD 770 (CAD$33.5) |
Dinners at Taiwanese night markets are seldom dirt cheap -- that's what Minced Pork Rice is for -- and we ended up spending nearly TWD800 as a couple. The next evening we took a local's recommendation for an authentic Taiwanese seafood dinner, and it didn't cost much more.
Authentic Cheap Seafood Restaurant
XIANGZINEI (Kenting) (Location Map)
This is likely the first ever English review for this hidden gem, concealed within the dark alleys between Kenting Main Street and the beach. While the name of Xiangzinei literally means "in the alley," this unfussy mom-and-pop shop of 8 tables is anything but unknown to the locals. We arrived early at 18:15 on a weekday in the low season, and still waited 30 minutes for our turn.
This place is popular for good reasons: daily catches from the local fishermen, reasonable prices, and authentic Taiwanese flavors as exemplified by these Stir-Fried Clams with Basil, fresh, fragrant and perfect with steamed rice. Now that's a killer combination against Kenting's overpriced American-wanna-be BBQ joints.
My favorite Taiwanese seafood is probably the humble baby oyster, steamed, stir-fried in omelettes, or deep-fried here and served with a light dip of peppered salt. Needless to say this was my favorite dish of the evening.
For a veggie stir-fry we ordered two native Taiwanese delicacies that we had never encountered outside of the island. The fruity acidity of pickled glue berries was pleasantly refreshing after the deep-fried oysters, and the slimy mouthfeel of the witch's butter -- not my favorite by the way -- was reminiscent of snow ear fungus in Chinese desserts.
Highlight of the evening came last in the form of a whole parrot fish, freshly steamed in an almost Cantonese presentation with sweet soy sauce and green scallions. The long queue of diners at the storefront persisted as we finished our four courses, a testimony to the price-quality-ratio of this immensely popular local eatery where we spotted zero foreigners.
For readers visiting Kenting, Xiangzinei is located in an alley perpendicular to Kenting's main drag, about 70m east of Dawan Road where the large Pailou gate stands. Refer to the picture above for the external appearance of the restaurant, and ask the locals if in doubt.
Bill for Two Persons
| Deep-Fried Oysters | TWD 202 |
| Stir-Fried Clams with Basil | TWD 202 |
| Stir-Fried Glue Berry and Witch's Butter | TWD 152 |
| Steamed Parrot Fish | TWD 450 |
| Steamed Rice | TWD 10 |
| TOTAL | TWD 1016 (CAD$44.2) |
It's been a long winded post, but I should document where we stayed in Kenting as it was a neat, friendly and relatively cheap hotel.
Where We Stayed
We took a chance and booked Tranquil Sea six months in advance, convinced largely by its reasonable prices and convenient location -- 3 minutes' walk from the bus stop, 2 minutes to Kenting Night Market and 2 minutes to the beach. And once we got past the love-hotel-esque decor, the size and amenities of our room was probably the nicest amongst our 9 hotels in Taiwan.
On the last day we watched the sunset from the rooftop balcony, a stone's throw from Kenting's sandy beach where we spent much of our afternoon wetting our feet in the crashing waves. Two nights was a luxury at this tropical national park, after which we would resume our round-island trip by train towards to the sparsely populated east coast of Taiwan.
IF YOU GO
At the time of writing, the quickest and most reliable means of public transport is Bus 9188 from the Xin Zuoying high speed rail station in Kaohsiung, taking roughly 2 hours to arrive at the major town of Hengchun or a further 15 minutes to reach the tourist district inside Kenting National Park.
Bus 9188 (and the slower 9189) also stops at the nearby train station of Fangliao, roughly one hour from Kenting and useful for train transfers especially if you're on a round-island trip like us.
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