This is my submission for the “First BlogBlog Club Gathering.”
Spontaneous Departure
The day before yesterday at noon, my brother said he was going to a beach campsite. Then in the afternoon, we got a report back—his car got its front wheel stuck in the sand on the way in.
Using this as an excuse, my dad suggested we should go “rescue” the camping trip, so we packed everything within fifteen minutes and hit the road.
The only problem was—that beach was in Hualien.
The three of us crazies drove through the night, rushing from Taichung straight to Hualien. I also unlocked all my firsts: first time driving through the Snow Tunnel, first time on the Su-Hua Highway, first time on the Su-Hua Reconstruction—achievement unlocked all at once.
Campsite ── Hezhong Beach
Our destination was Hezhong Beach. By the time we arrived, it was pitch black. The campsite was about thirty meters from the sea—you could clearly hear the waves, and the wind was stronger than expected. After unloading equipment in the dark and setting up the tent, we realized something crucial—we brought a cooking canopy, not a sleeping tent. We left in such a hurry, but couldn’t do anything about it now. To keep the wind from blowing the tent away, we moved four big rocks to weigh down the ropes originally meant for tent stakes (you can’t really stake into sand anyway).
After setting up the tent and turning off the lights, looking up, you could clearly see Orion. What fewer people know is that below Orion’s belt are actually three stars connected together—they’re bright, just not usually noticed. Phone cameras couldn’t capture it, plus my hands weren’t steady, so I won’t embarrass myself by showing the photos.
Earthquake
This is off-topic. At 1:01 AM that day, a felt earthquake occurred off the coast of Yilan. Before the earthquake, we heard a very low, deep rumbling THE TITAN IS COMING!!!, then the whole person was shaken awake. The epicenter was actually quite far south in Yilan, probably less than ten kilometers from us, and the focal depth was very shallow, making it very noticeable. This was also the first time in my life I was this close to an epicenter, the first time I so clearly felt what P-waves and S-waves are.
Pulling the Car
Around 5 AM, fishermen from the day before passed by, noticed our car stuck in the sand, and woke us up saying they could try to help pull it out. The car was stuck about half a wheel deep—shifting to R and giving gas just spun the wheels.
At first we tried pushing together—driver reverses to see if it could get out. Of course it didn’t move at all. Later they switched to boat rope, tied it to their own car, and both cars reversed together. After some effort, they finally pulled the car out.
Conclusion: Never drive onto the beach again.
Sunrise
After pulling the car out, there was only about half an hour until sunrise. We were already in Hualien—how could we miss the Pacific sunrise? So I found a rock and sat down, waiting for dawn. The clouds that day were a bit thick, and the distant clouds looked like mountain ranges on distant islands. When the sun slowly emerged from behind the “mountains,” the view was actually much prettier than expected.
After watching the sunrise, realizing I still had to drive all the way back to Taichung, I ate breakfast and went back to sleep.
Nearby Scenery
This is one of the remnants of the old Su-Hua Highway—one of the tunnel openings. After passing through, you’d reach the location in the second photo.
This is a wide shot showing the tunnel from the first photo. Among the pockmarked cliff faces, one hole is the old Su-Hua. Not sure if this is from the Japanese colonial period or the part that broke from the 0403 earthquake.
Chongde Beach
Because of the 0403 earthquake, the area around Qingshui Cliff severely collapsed. The original service area is gone, so it was relocated to the Chongde Beach side.
