I recently took a trip to Taiwan with my colleagues – the annual outing once again. Two years ago, it was my trip to Zhangjiajie that led to the first post on my blog. Last year I headed to Tengchong and then also slipped in a weekend in Korea with my colleagues. This time we had 20 people on the bus, none of whom (myself included) had been to Taiwan before.
We had a very full schedule over the trip and it was the end of the second full day that we headed to the eastern side of the island to the area called Hualien (花莲). It had been raining off and on all day and just before we stopped for dinner the bus pulled over to a rest stop by the sea. It was one of the scenic spots on the two lakes bikeway that winds itself across Taiwan. We made our way down to the beach and walked along the surf. This wasn’t a sandy beach, but the rocks were polished and the waves crashed over the edge.
Clouds breaking over Hualien beach in Taiwan
The mist from the rain lingered but the clouds broke a little. I snapped a photo of a lone fisherman down the beach casting into the water.
It was one moment that stayed with me during the rest of the trip.
This post was inspired by the Travel Theme: Beaches – over at Where’s My Backpack. To see how others illustrated a beach, please click the link.
I have published photos of other beaches over the last several years – a beach vacation is one of my absolute favorites. To see some of those posts, you can also click here.
Where’s your favorite beach? Are you an umbrellas and a pina colada fan or do you look for deserted coastline and sea spray? Is it the closest beach or the one half a world away that calls to you?
Wherever it is – may you have time in the next several months to take a visit. I hope I will!
中国 Jumble 
Hmm, quite jealous. After 5 years in Asia the one and only place left un-visited on my ‘places to go’ list was Taiwan.
You made it to more countries than I have then – I still have lots of other places on my list. Vietnam, Indonesia, New Zealand… It was a great trip, I’d like to go back!
What a great picture! I like the break in the dark sky — looks like a little purple in the photo.
The rain let up just a little and made that opening. Five minutes earlier or later it would have been different!
I’ve been lucky to have visited many beaches in the world, however my favorite is Laguna Beach in California. I grew up near there and spent many wonderful days there as a child. I haven’t seen it in 20 years and I may not go back and tarnish the memory.
That’s the place that turned into the MTV show, right? I could see why you want to preserve it. Funny how things can change.