In April 2023, I went on a two-week trip around Taiwan. My itinerary consisted of a list of cities without any plans for what to do when I got there. As my train left Hualien, I started planning how I would spend the next few days in Taitung. I quickly realized that just as in Hualien, eastern Taiwan did not have much to offer aside from nature. I found this place 90 kilometres up the mountains from Taitung, Lisong Hot Springs. The pictures showed jade coloured rocks with boiling water running down them. Sold! Without further research, I decided that this was where I’d be headed the next morning.
Due to the spontaneity of my day trip, I had not arranged to rent a car. I asked the front desk of my hotel where I could rent one, and they pointed me to a place a couple of blocks away. Unfortunately, when I got there, the lady told me that they did not rent to foreigners. Mind you, I had an international driving permit and had rented a car a couple of days prior, but no big deal. I had seen a couple of car rental companies by the train station, so I headed up there to try my luck. On my fourth attempt, I was finally able to find a place that would rent me a car.
The drive starts off on a wide highway surrounded by rice fields with mountains in the distance. I found the roads on Taiwan to be well-maintained, and traffic laws seemed to be mostly followed. As I drove through the last town before I hit the mountains, I stopped at a 7-Eleven for a quick snack. The view from the small dining area (pictured above) was amazing. I hadn’t seen rice paddies in person before this trip. Incredible view against the mountain backdrop.
As I got higher into the mountains, the road became narrower and twistier. There were constantly sections where the centre line would disappear, and you were on a road about one and a half lanes wide. It was my first time driving in such mountainous terrain, so I was a bit worried. Thankfully, I was the only car on the road for most of the drive. The lack of cars, beautiful surroundings, and adrenaline from driving on such narrow roads made this drive absolutely incredible.
After about two hours of driving up the mountains, I turn off onto a dirt road with barely enough room for one car. Two kilometres later, I hit a locked gate. There were a couple of cars parked around it, and I was lucky enough to leave mine in the last spot. Besides the handmade sign, there was no indication that I was in the right spot. I walked past the gate and found myself on a private farm. There were dogs barking in the distance, and I saw the farmer burning some dried crops in a bonfire. He waved at me and pointed in the direction of the trailhead.
There is a rope all the way down the trail. At the start of it, there were old cloth gloves on the top of each metal pole. I grabbed a pair and proceeded down the trail. The way down isn’t too bad, but there are a few sections with quite a steep slope that requires holding on to the rope. Thank god for the gloves, without them my hands would have been destroyed.
Eventually, I came out of the trail to a riverbank. There was no indication of this being the correct spot besides a rope on the other side of the river. Perhaps the river current was stronger this time of year, but there was no way to get across without swimming. I held up my backup in one hand and paddled across. On the other side, I used the rope to climb on top of the boulder, and I was finally able to see the hot spring. Climbing down the other side, I was back in the river, but on the other side were the jade colored rocks dripping with boiling water.
There was a section of the riverbank where the boiling water from the hot springs would meet the frigid river. People had made a couple of pools by piling rocks so that just enough river water would come in. These pools were a couple of feet deep at most, but if you lay down, it was quite nice. When I got too hot, I jumped straight into the river to cool off. Incredible experience, made even more special by the fact that I was the only one there.
As I mentioned, the hike down was mostly fine. Going up was a completely different story. For most of it, I was pulling myself up by the rope. I had to put on a second pair of gloves. There were parts where I was so exhausted I felt like I was going to collapse. I stoped for a break, but there was no place to sit, ended up leaning on a tree for a bit. The trail seems to go on forever. The only way I could tell I was getting closer was by the increasing number of gloves along the trail. In the end, it took me thirty-five minutes to get back. In retrospect, I should have taken it easy, but I was going at full speed for some reason. I recorded a video right after I got to my car, and you can just see the sweat pouring off my face. I was so thankful I parked my car as close as I could, because otherwise it would have been another two-kilometre hike up the mountain.
The day trip to Lisong Hot Springs ended up being one of my favourite memories from Taiwan. The drive was incredible, the hike was a fun challenge, and the springs themselves were unique. My favourite experiences while traveling are ones that might not be around in the future. This was definitely one of them. The farmer might decide that he doesn’t want people walking through his land anymore. God forbid someone could get hurt on the trail, and it will be shut down. Or the spot will become overcrowded. It would have been a completely different experience if the drive had been full of traffic or I had had to wait for my turn in the springs. Luckily, none of this was a problem, and I got to experience Lisong in its full beauty.