Gateway to Taroko Gorge — Taiwan's east coast city sits between Pacific-facing marble cliffs and the Central Mountain Range, with Asia's most dramatic marble canyon a 30-minute drive from the downtown night market
Hualien is the largest city on Taiwan's east coast — a city of 110,000 where the Central Mountain Range meets the Pacific Ocean, creating a coastal strip of exceptional scenic drama. The city is the primary base for Taroko National Park, whose centrepiece is Taroko Gorge: a marble canyon cut by the Liwu River through the Suhua marble mountain range, with sheer walls rising 1,200 metres from a turquoise river, accessed by a cliffside highway (the Suhua Highway) that is one of the most vertiginous roads in East Asia. The gorge contains hiking trails, marble pavilions, the Eternal Spring Shrine…
Hualien was the traditional territory of the Amis (Pangcah) indigenous people before Han Chinese and Japanese settlement. The Japanese colonial administration (1895–1945) established Hualien as an agricultural and timber centre, building the cliffside Suhua Highway (begun 1927) to connect the east coast with the north. The Taroko War (1914) was fought in the Taroko Gorge itself — the Japanese military used the gorge's terrain in a campaign against the Truku (Taroko) indigenous people that resulted in the eventual submission of the Truku and their displacement from the gorge interior. After 19…