Day 6: 16 May 2023, Tuesday
It’s the fourth day of our Tour de Taiwan cycling adventure, and we’ve settled into a good rhythm by now. We woke up at 6:00am and went for breakfast at 6:30am, followed by the usual warm-up at 7:15am and briefing by Jeffrey. Today will be the second-longest distance for the nine-day tour – we will cycle 121km from Chiayi to Kaohsiung (高雄), passing Tainan (台南) along the way. The terrain will be similar to previous days – mostly flat, with some bridges to cross. The illustration for the itinerary board today shows a prawn because we will be having lunch at a restaurant at Anping, which is famous for its shrimp rolls.
Yesterday, the handlebar mount for my GoPro camera broke so I couldn’t record any video footage after that. Thankfully, one of the Hong Kong ladies in our group, Taurus, had a spare chest strap mount, so she lent it to me to use for the rest of the trip. Because of her kind gesture, I was able to record video footage using my GoPro camera. A friend in need is a friend indeed!
We started our ride at 7:33am. The scenery for the first 17km as we cycled out of Chiayi city was unremarkable. We had our first break at Hou Bi train station (後壁車站) at 8:25am. The historic train station was built in 1902 during the Japanese colonial period. It was renovated after a major earthquake in 1941 but it remains one of the best examples of wooden Japanese style train stations in Taiwan. It is a simple and charming building, reflecting the slow pace of life in the Tainan countryside. We took our obligatory group photo here before continuing our ride at 8:50am.
At 9:55am, we arrived at our next rest stop at Tsung-Yeh Arts and Cultural Center (總爺藝文中心), at the 41.3km mark. Here, the Giant crew offered us purple dragon fruit for refreshments. I really liked how professional and well-equipped the Giant crew were – they had a small plastic foldable table, a trash bin, tuppaware container with many metal forks, a knife and a cutting board to cut the fruits. It was a smooth operation and all the Giant crew worked very hard to take good care of us.
We resumed cycling after a 25-minute break, and encountered some light rain before taking another short break at 11:20am at Taijiang (台江), at the 62km mark. Even though the total distance for the day is long, the ride is quite manageable because there are short breaks every 20km or so. Of course, the faster the ride, the earlier you reach the rest stop and you have a longer time to rest before moving off again. But generally, there are sufficient breaks to catch your breath so don’t be daunted by the 121km distance, it is actually very achievable.
After a 15-minute break, we resumed cycling and soon reached our lunch stop at Anping (安平), a historic district in Tainan originally occupied by the Dutch in the 17th century. We parked our bicycles beside the canal and went to a restaurant called Chou’s Shrimp Rolls (周氏蝦捲) for lunch.
Chou’s Shrimp Rolls had its humble beginnings in 1965 when its founder, Mr Zhou Jingen, started a catering business and had shrimp rolls as one of its dishes. Around 1980, he improved the recipe of the shrimp rolls and they became very popular, so he specialised in selling shrimp rolls and named his stall after his surname. The business then expanded from a snack bar to a full-fledged restaurant and it is now one of Tainan’s most famous eateries.
The shrimps are wrapped with pig stomach membranes and deep fried. Its appearance looks a bit like goreng pisang (banana fritters), with a batter that is similar to tempura. Besides the shrimp rolls, we also had the famous rice dumplings, which are very similar to our savoury bak chang in Singapore. Tainan is also known for its oyster farming industry so we had an oyster omelette dish, as well as several other delicacies like shrimp ball soup and almond tofu dessert. It was a good meal. After lunch, we adjourned to a pudding shop nearby for more dessert before continuing our ride at 1:35pm.
After leaving An Ping, the scenery got better as we headed towards the coast. It was cloudy like the previous days but it was still nice to cycle beside the ocean and away from traffic and tall buildings. We eventually left Tainan behind and crossed into the boundary of Kaohsiung. At 2:38pm, we took a break at Qing Ren Ma Tou (情人碼頭), or Lovers’ Wharf, at the 89.5km mark. Here, the Giant crew treated us to a cup of refreshing winter melon tea each.
We resumed cycling at 3:00pm, and had our last break for the day an hour later at Dai Tian Fu (代天府) temple at Nanzi (楠梓) district, at the 109.8km mark. We were almost done for the day, with not much more to go. After a 13-minute break, we embarked on the last lap and arrived at Fu Rong Da Jiu Dian (福容大酒店), or Fullon Hotel, in Kaohsiung at 5:05pm. My Strava showed that we had cycled 123.73km today, with an elevation gain of 185 metres. That’s my longest ride ever, another milestone unlocked!
Fullon is a nice, 4-star hotel and we had three single beds in our room again, which was great. At 6:30pm, we went for dinner at the hotel’s restaurant. It was a feast, as usual. The quality of the food provided has been stellar so far. It helps that we are Chinese so the food is very palatable to our taste buds.
After dinner, we walked to the GIANT retail shop nearby to look at bicycles. Some of the members in our group were interested to buy a bicycle from Taiwan and ship it back home. After that, we had some free-and-easy time so I decided to explore Kaohsiung on my own.
I tried to take a public bus but it didn’t seem like it was coming, so I took an Uber from our hotel to the Sanduo shopping district. The ride took seven minutes and the fare was NT$154 (S$6.78). I alighted at Sanduo 3rd Road, where the large department stores Shin Kong Mitsukoshi and SOGO are located. I expected the shopping district to be livelier but it looked rather dark and it wasn’t crowded at all. Perhaps it’s because it was a weekday and it was rather late already (around 8:30pm).
I then walked to Xingzhong Night Market (興中夜市) nearby to have a look. It was quite a small and simple night market, with about a dozen stalls on each side of the road. Compared to the other larger and more popular night markets like Ruifeng (瑞豐夜市) and Liuhe (六合夜市), Xingzhong is catered more to the locals and it sold staples like lurou fan (滷肉飯), or braised pork rice. I wasn’t hungry so I just went for a bowl of cold peanut beancurd (冷豆花), which cost NT$35 (S$1.54). It was nice to experience something more local and non-touristy for a change.
After the brief sojourn, I took another Uber back to the hotel. The fare was NT$144 (S$6.34) and I arrived at 9:40pm. And that’s the end of the fourth day of our Tour de Taiwan cycling tour. Almost halfway through, and my body still feels good for now. The next half of tour will be more challenging and exciting as we cycle through the mountainous areas, but hopefully the scenery will get better too. Let’s keep it going!