The definitive symbol of Northern Taiwan and the island’s most popular natural wonder, the windswept moonscape of Yehliu was our last excursion before reaching our ultimate destination of Taipei on this 800 km journey by public transport.
Nationally famous for its gorgeously weather-beaten shoreline, Yehliu boasts East Asia’s most visited geopark by virtue of its close proximity to metropolitan Taipei. Geological treasures abound, chiselled by mother nature through eons of erosion by wind and waves, not to mention Taiwan’s staggering frequency of major earthquakes.
Centre of it all is the iconic Queen’s Head, an elegantly eroded hoodoo with a slender neck that experts estimate will break within the next 15 years, even without the odd attempt by a vandal attempting to behead the queen with a hacksaw.
Starting out in the morning from the popular hill town of Jiufen, we took a local bus to Keelung Station to store our heavy luggages before taking the North Coast Shuttle Bus to the Geopark. By 11:00 the parking lot was already filled with tour buses and their armies of megaphone-touting guides and day-tripping tourists.
Behind these idyllic photos were some of the densest crowds of our 11-day trip, packed with Mainland Chinese visitors even at this time of ice cold diplomacy between Taiwan’s ruling DPP and the regional behemoth of Beijing. One could only imagine the ridiculous tsunami of Chinese tour groups back when pro-Beijing KMT was in power, and we’re glad to have arrived in a stormy season in Cross-Straight politics.
The famous Sea Candles were relentlessly assaulted by four metre waves on this blustery day. Each of these softer, breast-shaped rocks is topped with a small round cap for a nipple, chemically altered and hardened over time by the evaporation of salt crystals.
Some of the hardened caps come in bizarre shapes such as this fittingly named Peanut Rock, blending in perfectly alongside ice cream cones, honeycombs, ginger rocks and giant’s kettles.
Well maintained trails and planked walkways stretch to the end of the narrow bluff, jutting 2 kilometres off the Taiwanese coast in the rough direction of Okinawa. A half day’s sailing to the west would reach China’s Fujian Province, and to the east, the westernmost Japanese islands of Yaeyama.
Fossilized sea urchins cover the rocky promontory in such abundance that visitors are free to touch and feel their bony carapaces. Park staff have bigger fish to fry in preventing overzealous tourists from leaning against -- or worse climbing -- the delicate hoodoos.
The same waves that chiseled the Fairy’s Shoe has also eroded hundreds of holes on the rocky flats, occasionally trapping the odd mud crab or starfish in low tide to the sadistic amusement of scavenging tourists.
Slippery cleavages formed by millennia of wave action was one of the minor hazards along an otherwise easy hike for adults. As for the kids, there are dolphin and sea lion shows at Yehliu Ocean World adjacent to the Geopark.
Layers of sedimentary rocks flaunt their brilliant colours even on a cloudy day. Even the occasional hiker can easily spend at least a couple hours in this wonderland of Martian landscape, complete with a simple concession stand and some well-placed washroom at both ends of the rocky headland.
Our lunch-on-the-go consisted of a large slab of deep-fried seaweed from the marketplace next to the Geopark along with some 7-Eleven sandwiches. These would have to last until our highly anticipated dinner upon arrival at Taipei, at the revered Nonglai Restaurant to be covered in the next post.
IF YOU GO
Yehliu Geopark is an easy day-trip from Taipei Station via Bus 1815, taking 1.5 hours or more through city traffic. Alternatively, plan to spend a full day at Keelung and do this as a side trip via Bus 790 from Keelung Station. If you’re on a round-island trip like ourselves and need a place to store you heavy luggages, both Taipei Station and Keelung Station feature lockers and attended luggage rooms.
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