This is the third installment of a series of blog posts about my 2026 trip to Taiwan. I’ve tagged them all with the taiwan tag so they should be easy to find!
It was Friday, my last night in Kaohsiung, and a holiday in Taiwan commemorating a massacre that took place in 1947. It was also my first opportunity to meet my girlfriend’s father and brother, since I was visiting during the week and they were both working, and what was a better way to get to know everyone then to spend a few hours in a car on a day trip! While researching places to visit near Kaohsiung, I came across the Duonagao Suspension Bridge which looked pretty interesting – and at just over an hour away it was the perfect amount of driving!
We all piled into a two door Toyota sedan just after noon and were about to set forth on our journey, except we discovered one tiny stowaway which throw a wrench into our plans – A praying mantis!
Most of the car panicked and ran outside, but my inner child got the best of me and I got the little guy onto my hand in an attempt to evict him from the car. This was my first time seeing one in person and it was a cool little bug!
At the time I didn’t think mantids bit (turns out they do, but it’s not dangerous – plus this guy was really chill and didn’t bite me anyway) so I wasn’t too concerned about letting him crawl on my hand. I was a little less thrilled though when he started crawling up my arm and onto my back where I couldn’t see what he was doing! Fortunately, my girlfriend’s brother got him off my back and evicted him onto a nearby bush. With that out of the way, we all loaded back into the car and headed out onto the road!
It’s a pretty nice drive from Kaohsiung to the entrance of the Maolin Eco Park. Once we left the city I found myself on a simple two lane highway that was similar to the Alberta roads I’d driven so many times on my travels to Coronation. On either side was farmland and I was impressed by the diversity of different crops being produced. About 20 minutes into the trip I spied something I hadn’t expected (but thinking back on it makes total sense) – Bananas! Something I was so used to eating tat I had never seen outside of a supermarket!
We stopped for a food break just outside the gates to Maolin and my girlfriend explained to me that we were now entering the indigenous area. I’d never thought about Taiwan having an indigenous population, but just like North America the indigenous were displaced by colonial settlers and now found themselves living on reserves in more rural areas. The similarity was truly striking!
Lunch was purchased from a food stand at the side of the road, and I’m told we were eating some kind of pigeon-adjacent bird. It wasn’t bad; similar to chicken but definitely more game-y. Not my favorite, but I’d eat it again if needed. After lunch we piled back into the car to complete our journey.
The last 10 minutes of our drive was much more technical then the first part our our trip. The road narrowed significantly (though there was still enough room for two vehicles to squeeze by each other) and it began winding it’s way up into the mountains. Switchbacks were plenty and a sheer drop just beyond the shoulder of the road was a good reminder that we were climbing up into a mountain. It wasn’t nearly as bad as the drive to Bradian, BC but it was definitely in the top 5 for interesting, technical drives.
The bridge is accessible by foot, bicycle or scooter so we needed to park just off the main road and continue our journey on foot. It was a short 10 minute stroll down a paved pathway before I was finally rewarded with the sight of the bridge!
As we waited for the others to catch up, my girlfriend announced that she was going to use the bathroom. I was totally impressed that the facilities actually had running running water and flushable toilets! In Canada, this would have been a pit toilet at best!
While I was surprised by the presence of the facilities, I was stupefied by what came next; my girlfriend asking for a TWD $10 coin in order to purchase tissues. In Taiwan, it seems, it’s not uncommon to need to pay for toiletries in public bathrooms. Certainly a different take on the paid public washrooms that are common in Western Europe!
The Duonagao Suspension Bridge is a fairly impressive structure. It spans some 230 meters between two hills and overlooks a river some 100 meters below. While the bridge was originally built just the Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan, it was torn down and rebuilt in the late 1990’s. Walking on the bridge actually felt very sturdy – I didn’t notice much in the way of bouncing or swaying while walking across. The bridge has a capacity of more then 200 people, so the sturdiness makes sense.
Visiting the suspension bridge was quite a popular activity and both sides were busy with visitors. I was of particular interest, I guess not a lot of foreigners make it out this far!
We spent a few hours at the bridge and around 4PM began to make our way back to the car. On the way back to Kaohsiung we stopped to explore what my girlfriend told me was an indigenous village.
I have to say, the village we stopped at was remarkably similar to the reserves I’ve seen in Canada – narrow streets, small houses, ramshackle buildings. There was even a church – apparently the Catholics were just as good at indoctrinating indigenous populations in Asia as they were in North America.
One thing I really enjoyed was the traditional construction methods employed by the community. Walls, and even buildings were constructed of small, flat shale rocks layered ontop of each other to form construction materials. I didn’t see any mortar or other adhesive, so I suspect these rocks hold together simply as a result of the way they are stacked and layered. It’s truly a spectacular example of using the available resources to one’s advantage!
By this time, it was getting late and we headed back to Kaohsiung for dinner. Back at the house I got to experience an “interesting” delicacy referred to as “stinky tofu” which is… a very apt description. It’s fermented tofu deep fried and usually served with pickled cabbage. It smells STRONG, like so strong that I when I first caught a whiff in the night market I thought I was smelling a sewage outflow until it was pointed out to me. Anyway, I tried it managed to get two bites in and that was enough. The rest of the family loved it though, I suppose it’s an acquired taste!