[ Race with Rain Clouds! ] TaoYuan Coastal Bike Path Ride Part 1 桃園濱海自行車道騎之一

TaoYuan Coastal Bike Path Ride Summary

• Self Ride
• Starting/ending Location: near Family Mart at ZhuBei, HsinChu (竹北全家)
• Bike Length: ~ 109 km. Elevation gain: ~ 350 m.
• Hill profile: Flat, small hills.
• Good for: Base training.
• CAUTION:
  • Rough bike paths.
  • Slow down when crossing TaoYuan’s country road intersections.
  • Heavy traffic & construction at FengBi Tunnel (鳳鼻隧道).
• Route Highlights:
  • Local #22 (竹22) rice field views.
  • XinPu family temples (新埔家廟).
  • HuKou Old Street (湖口老街).
  • TaoYuan Coastal Bike Path [ North South ] 桃園濱海自行車道
  • Baishajia Lighthouse (白沙岬燈塔)
  • YongAn Fishing Harbor (永安漁港)

Background

The TaoYuan Coastal Bike Path Ride was the 4th effort after HsinChu’s Coastal & River Bike Path Ride , to develop near 100 km Taiwan shore riding route.

Particularly the TaoYuan Coastal Bike Path Ride mapped out detailed information of the coastal bike path on Google Maps, so riders can better plan for the ride.

Start: ZhuBei River Bike Path 竹北河堤單車道

Our TaoYuan Coastal Bike Path Ride began at a basketball court at ZhuBei (竹北, literally means “Northern HsinChu”) for free parking (Hey don’t judge: it was going to rain today anyway).

We will first ride the ZhuBei River Bike Path over the busy city, towards eastern part.

The basketball court.

Starting point of ZhuBei River Bike Path.

Compared to the TuoQian River Bike Path that was literally at the other side of the same river, ZhuBei Bike Path was kind of shitty and rough. There was another bike path at the other side of river bank that we would try next time.

Pretty shitty bike path.

At some part the pavement became using tiles, which was rough.

The river bike path ended under HSR’s highrise rails. We went onto a local road which soon connected to Local #22 (竹22), a very nice country road through many rice fields.

Riding through rice fields! It was almost harvest season.

Cool rest stop.

Through Northern Hills

At the end of Local #22 our TaoYuan Coastal Bike Path Ride began a short climb over the hills at HsinChu’s northeastern side.

There were quite some churches at this area.

Temple next to our climbing route.

“Applied Nano Tech Something…?”

Crossing National Highway #3 beneath.

The hills at Northeast HsinChu was a triangular shaped hilly region with two river valley. We went onto the southern river valley and headed towards XinPu old town (新埔).

Another well decorated church at the valley.

There was quite a lot of old styled houses here.

At a place called BaoShi (寶石, which literally means “gemstone”), we crossed the river and the northern side was XinPu.

Heading towards XinPu!

XinPu Old Town 新埔

XinPu was the first major old town in our TaoYuan Coastal Bike Path Ride. Although not as glamorous as others like BeiPu (北埔), XinPu feels less like a tourist town, and keeps its normal town life.

XinPu’s traditional market.

A cool thing about XinPu was its many “family temples” (家廟): old traditional styled temples for ancestors.

Liu’s family temple.

Wall arts.

Lin’s family temple.

Old church.

From XinPu, we began a small climbing section to another old town at the other hill side.

Cool 3D wall decoration.

This was kind of creepy…

Dried persimmons shop.

At the hilltop there were some tea fields.

Cool tea field and white cafe building.

Random tank on road side.

HuKou Old Street (湖口老街)

After crossing the hill towards north, our TaoYuan Coastal Bike Path Ride arrived at HuKou Old Street. HuKou Old Street was once an important train rail stop during Qing Dynasty, but then lost its importance when the trail route was readjusted.

Old church, which was built at former train station.

The HuLou Old Street preserved a entire street of brick made houses, which was pretty cool.

The Old Street section.

Local post station.

Continue to Part 2!

Also Recommended:

Taiwan Bike Routes Map

[ 100 Fahrenheit Fun! ] HsinChu Coastal River Bike Path Ride Part 1 新竹海河單車道騎之一

[ Buddha Disney! ] ShiMen Reservoir X Rome Highway 石門水庫 X 羅馬公路

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