Jiaoxi is probably the town that attracts the most tourists in Yilan, especially in the cooler winter season. The town is easily accessible by train, and I always felt refreshed after stepping out of the train station with a view of the
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In the past 2 years, we’ve stayed in Luodong 3 times. Luodong is one of the largest towns in Yilan, if not bigger than Yilan city. We find Luodong the most convenient to explore sights in town and nearby attractions like Toucheng
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Last October, we were in Bologna for an iOS conference #Pragma that takes place in different cities of Italy each year (online this year due to COVID). We took a train from Venice to Bologna, and then a taxi to the hotel.
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On the last day of our trip to Yilan, we rented a car via iRent to explore Toucheng town for the first time. Toucheng is the northmost town of Yilan county, and was developed the earliest. Morning coffee at Mr. Brown Coffee
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Hiking in humid summer weather is quite a challenge, but we felt like it’s still better than staying in for the whole weekend. After searching for shaded hikes in the Taipei area, we decided on our Sunday half-day itinerary: taking MRT to
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Right before the COVID outbreak in the US, I went on a work trip to Chicago and left just a few days before the 14-day mandatory quarantine in Taiwan. The average 13.5h flights were perhaps the most restless ones I’d taken, wearing
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After almost three months of no traveling, the stress started building up and I couldn’t wait for a chance to travel domestically after the COVID-19 calmed down in mid-April. Around the same time last year, we also visited Hualien and Taitung. This
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After spending a couple of days in Osaka and Nara, we took a Hanshin train to Kobe and arrived in just about an hour. Kobe was one of the earliest harbors that Japan opened to the world around 1868, and parts of
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We visited Osaka in 2014, and 5 years later we came back to this lively city in the Kansai region. This time, we worked remotely in Osaka for 3 days at a coworking space, coffee shops, and a library. Aside from working,
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From Taipei, we took the high speed railway southbound for 90 minutes and spent a long weekend in Kaohsiung. On Sunday, we went on a hike to Monkey Mountain (Shoushan or Chaishan) after the sky cleared up a bit. Route There are
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On a Sunday of our 4 days in Osaka, we took a train to visit Japan’s oldest capital. During the Nara Period from year 710 to 794, the first capital was established in Nara and later moved to Kyoto. In this era,
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Back in October, we flew to Rome and took a 4-hour train from Roma Termini to Venezia S. Lucia station. We were immediately welcomed by amazing sunny weather and took a water bus operated by ACTV to Rialto stop near our hotel.
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On our second visit to Tokyo, we added a two-day getaway to the coastal area in Kanagawa prefecture (神奈川). We stayed in Fujisawa, and spent a day in Enoshima and the other in Kamakura. It felt more relaxing and calm compared to
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With the protests going on this year, lots of feelings came up when I worked on this post and photos from Hong Kong from last July. We visited Hong Kong after Shenzhen, our last stop in China. We took the subway from
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This Fourth of July, we attended a beautiful wedding of our dear friends on the beach in Playa del Carmen. It was a short trip, but we got to visit a few places before the wedding. Snorkeling at Akumal We drove about
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After 2 days in Hualian, we went on a 2 hour train ride to Taitung. Most people seemed to rent a car or had shuttle service, and Taitung train station was much quieter than Hualian station. Other than taking trains, we biked
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We visited Tokyo for the second time in December 2018, and there are always new experiences to be had in this city. The Pokémon cafe just opened earlier in 2018, we made sure to make a reservation. Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Akihabara are
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Hualien has always been a scenic destination in Taiwan. My impression of Hualien since childhood was mostly sitting in a car or shuttle, touring around Taroko National Park and getting off for a few minutes before hopping back for the next stop.
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After a day trip to Hangzhou and before Hong Kong, we stopped by Shenzhen for a day and half. We are both engineers and thought a visit to this rising technology hub would be a fun idea. A friend worked at Tencent
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The morning after 3 days in Shanghai, we headed to Shanghai Hongqiao station for a high speed train (Gaotie 高鐵) to Hangzhou. I have never seen a crowd as much as in Shanghai train station elsewhere, especially from a bird’s eye view on
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