Taiwan is a mountainous island with only 20% of the land habitable, which is highly concentrated on the plain corridor along the western coast.
The high speed rail started operation early this year has made the major cities on western coast to a huge urban as a whole.
And There are 3 major expressway from north to south along the western coast (no.1, 3, 61), and 12 from west to east linking the coast to the inner part of the plain (no. 62~88).
As you may guess, the high density of the expressways are due to the high density of people and urbans, but the 3 major lines along the western corridor still cannot satisfiy the traffic demand during the rush hour and vacations for taipei citizens going back to their hometowns in southern part of taiwan.
On the contrary, the eastern coast is populated by only 1 million people, and the cliffs and mountains dominate the eastern coast, which makes building expressway even more difficult.
And that's why the eastern coast preserves such an abundant range of wildlife and natural environment without any pollution.
Yesterday, I drove down to the eastern coast at midnight to wait for the sunrise from pacific ocean at Su-ao, and it took only 1 hour and a half from taipei.
Sunrise from the sea level is very rare for taiwanese people for the reason that most taiwanese live in the weastern coast, where you can only observe the sunrise form mountains.
Highway no.9, which is not upgraded to expressway yet.
Coast along highway no.9
fishing boats
Valley in Nan-ao.
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Highway no.9 in the village of eastern taiwan.
Looking down to the harbor from the highway.
Expressway no.5, on the way back to taipei.
Countryside od eastern taiwan through the highway fences.
Heading for north, the direction to taipei.
Xueshan tunnel of 12.9km, the longest highway tunnel in asia.
Lanes of opposite direction are down under.
Expressway no.5 through the mountain.
Another shorter tunnel.
Interchange to a small town.
Road sign board with the layout of the xpressway system in taipei.
Conjunction to expressway no.3
Expressway no.3
Almost there.
Conjunction to expressway no.3A
On the 3A, driving down to the taipei basin.
The skyscraper as an indicator of our approaching to the city.
To the end.
Here we are, back to Taipei.
Back to home!!
Route map for this journey.