Taiwan Cycling Route No. 1 - what is it actually like?

Watch my highlights reel here: • Bikepacking the Wild B...
In January 2024, I ventured on my first long(ish) solo bikepacking adventure to Taiwan. I left my heavily pregnant wife with our 3-year old in Australia and had 10 days to do a full loop of the island, loosely following Cycle Route No. 1. I rode on a local route out of Taipei that I found on Reddit called "Sandy's Route" to Hsinchu, which was almost the most beautiful day on the ride. It rained most of the day and was FREEZING cold, but the trail tracked along quiet back streets, ecological reserves, and through rice fields.
From Hsinchu, I rode down the coastline with a 40km/hr tailwind towards Changhu. Thinking the ~100km ride would take a few hours (with the tailwind and all), it ended up taking 9-hours with the number of traffic lights. That day, my weather app was also giving me air quality warnings indicating that I should be avoiding outdoor activity. Eeek. Going to sleep that night, I started having some chest pains which were making me feel a little uneasy.
The next morning, instead of heading down the coastline, I decided to do some touristing and rode back up the coast into Taichung, where I ate some delicious food (discovered "Lin's Chinese Pizza" OMG), and rested for the night.
The next day, I went to head inland towards Sun Moon Lake and avoid the traffic lights and pollution along the coast. This morning, the air quality was about 8x worse than the day before and with the chest pain I was already feeling (and the anxiety that came with - sigh), I decided to 'enjoy myself' and jumped in an Uber up the mountain (instead of sitting in hot and polluted traffic). Once I got to Sun Moon Lake, I spent the entire day exploring every part of the lake and I hugely recommend going inland from Cycle Route No. 1 to explore this area.
Feeling a bit shaken by the air pollution, I was looking forward to a nice night's sleep. Then, I was woken at 2am with the entire hotel shaking. An earthquake hit just 100km away at 5.2 on the scale. I didn't get much sleep that night.
I intended to ride back out to the coast down to Chiaya and continue down the coastline but now that I was 2 days behind my adventure, and had enough of the West Coast, I decided to have a full rest day (catch up on some sleep), and the day after I got the train from Douliu to the east coast for some fresh air. I was sad I wasn't going to complete the full island loop, but I also felt like I hadn't missed out on much and I had fully experienced the west coast.
Arriving in Taitung, I couldn't believe what a difference a few-hour train ride can make. Fresh air. Crystal clear water. I was in the tropics! I spent the day doing a huge loop around Taitung and settled in for the evening. I found a local pizza place run by an American who played Banjo & the violin for his guests which was a huge contrast to the night markets and street food that I had been living off until then!
The next day, I veered off Cycle Route No. 1 and tracked along the coastline. There was a tailwind for the next few days (which was very surprising) and it pushed me all the way (in the rain) to Hualien and Taroko Gorge.
Taroko Gorge was AAAMAAAZINGGGG. All the GPX routes claimed that the climb was to be 2000-3500m vertical to get in and out, but in reality, it was closer to 500m with a very low gradient. With the views, I didn't even realise I was going uphill! I got about 1/3 up the gorge and they had the road blocked off for roadworks. I missed the opportunity to pass through by 4 minutes! I wasn't going to miss out on seeing the full gorge, so I had a 2-hour nap and continued on my ride up. Unfortunately, I had the same issue coming back down, so instead of a few hours in Taroko, I ended up being in there for close to 6 hours. It started raining on my way down (quite scary!) and being 6pm at night, I ended up getting the train to Yilan where I had my last night 'on the road'.
The next morning, I headed towards the coastline and back into Taipei in the same weather that I had left it in (freezing cold and raining).

[@williamwalker6518]

How many days did it take you to do in total? The trucks look intense, would you recommend this route? Thanks

[@btrain9498]

I took 10 days and I still definitely recommend the route but if I did it again, i would be much more open to jumping on the train between cities and doing more on the east coast. The west coast was an experience, and I’d do it again, but I would ride less km per day and just get on the train to my next destination so not get too tired of the traffic, scooters, and pollution (it was particularly bad when I was there).