1) Explore Luodong
{ Updated Post in Day by Day Format in Oct 2025_Note: This trip happened in 2018}
For Day 2 of Taiwan Yilan Trip, we checked out early right after breakfast from the hot spring spa hotel. Next, we headed towards Luodong Township, another part of Yilan on our booked taxi. Our first itinerary of the day would be exploring Luodong Forestry Culture Park because I had read that there were old trains and tracks in it. Our boy is fascinated with all transportation.
Historical Info of Luodong
Luodong used to be a base for the timber-processing industry in Taiwan, processing valuable trees for sale to other parts of Taiwan and overseas. The industry boomed in the 60s to 80s with wide-spread deforestation. However, new government policies appeared and the timber industry started to decline in 1982. After stopping operations, it was converted into a leisure and educational park and opened in 2009.
Nature Boardwalk in Luodong Forestry
We were greeted with the sight of huge logs the moment we stepped in the entrance. I like the natural surroundings immediately and there were plenty of nice trees and plants to look at.
On further walking, we came across train tracks of the former railway that brought the timber from the mountains to the mills. We started walking on the tracks towards the old locomotive and discovered a natural boardwalk. The boardwalk was largely sheltered with leafy trees. The air was cool and we took some pretty pictures while walking with the Log pond at the side. I was surprised that they still had some trunks submerged in the Log Pond to show the process of timber-processing. There was also various information boards throughout the park detailing the history of the logging industry.
Old Locomotive and Zhulin Train Station
Soon, we reached our objective for today, the old locomotive that transported logs for timber in the past. We found an old train with its passenger cars used as a dining area outside a cafe. The cafe was beside an old Zhulin train station which now serves as visitor’s service centre. It was nice to sit inside the carriage and pretend we were passengers on the train.
Luodong Forestry Wood Art and Wood Souvenirs
We like the Wood Sculpture Square, where sculptures created from wood were on display. There was even a small bunker there to safeguard from enemies. The souvenir shop was nice as they sold nice wooden, natural accessories and interesting souvenirs we had not seen before. Eventually, we bought a museum coaster and a musical wooden toy for Dar.
Luodong Forestry Exhibition Hall Museum
We wondered what to do next and I was disappointed that the rain spoiled our exploration around the park. As the Forestry Exhibition Hall was linked to the Old Zhulin Station under shelter, we decided to take a look. It turned out to be a nice, small indoor museum, helping us to learn about the logging industry in Luodong.
2) Yilan Bee Farmer
It was a short journey from Luodong Forestry Culture Park as the Yilan’s Bee Farmer was in the vicinity. We went into the small place and found lots of information about bees and honey displayed on the wall. However, the words were all in Traditional Chinese so Dar could not read all of them. Just when we thought the walls were just objects display, we discovered a glass window with real bees behind it! At least, we could show Dar-Ling how bees are kept.
As there were just a few walls of information, we quickly finished our own tour and walked out to the back where the bees were kept. They only offer booked group tours to learn about honey harvesting. We were not eligible and just admired the garden instead.
Garden with Photo Spots
The Garden at the back of the Bee Museum was nicely sculptured with pretty props for a good photograph spot. Alas, it was drizzling and the props were mostly wet, so we could only manage a few pictures before we left for honey shopping indoors.
Yilan Bee Farmer – Honey Shopping
My intention was to buy some honey products here but we were not sure what to get. Fortunately, they allowed us to sample the biscuits and we bought three packets of “Niu She Bing – 牛舌饼”. We wondered why they called it “Cow’s Tongue” at first – what has it got to do with cow? The staff explained to us that the shape of each biscuit is like a cow’s tongue but the ingredients were just the usual flour, milk mixed with honey. Indeed, each biscuit was thin and crispy with a honey fragrance.
I found the honey taste was unique and floral fragrant. It WAS expensive so we only bought a bottle but when we finished it soon after we got home, I regretted that I should have bought more…(we drink it by mixing a tablespoonful of honey with water).
My next item on the list was to purchase a honey ice-cream. I read that this Cafe sells delicious desserts so I had wanted to try it. It would be nicer in Summer time as it was the rainy season now but the ice-cream still tasted good! Vin and Dar bought drinks – Honey Lemon, while we all shared the ice-cream. They tried only a little of the honeycomb that came with the ice-cream so I ate most of it. This was my first time eating a honeycomb and found the rough texture of it interesting.
Ling was only fascinated with the little playground that was inside the Cafe but we had to leave soon for other itineraries so we took away our food after they were ready.
Yilan Bee Farmer – Coin-Operated Ride
We discovered this “Bee Bee Train” when we were heading out to our awaiting taxi. Ling could not resist and it was not everyday we could play with this type of transportation with no other people. Thus, even though we were rushing, I let them get on for one ride. We let Dar accompanied her in case she could not stay on it well but it was actually meant for one person per ride. It turned out that the ride was quite slow (so it took them a while to get back to the start again) and shook a little at turns but stable in general.
3) Lanyang Museum
Firstly, we were there at Lanyang Museum, not to view the galleries inside, but to look at the architecture of the building. I read that it had an interesting view from the inside and wanted to see for myself. The galleries looked interesting too and all of us felt like visiting them but we would really miss all the other places we had planned if we strolled in the museum. Thus, we had no choice but to skip it.
4) Wushi Harbor or Wushigang
I read about Wushi Harbor where we could get fresh seafood snacks and lunch from a Seafood Wholesale Market. It was just behind Lanyang Museum. When we reached there however, we discovered that the entire area was quite deserted on a weekday. We were the only customers there and I was not there to eat at the restaurant. My intention was just to view the harbour and buy some seafood snacks on-the-go to eat at the Waiao Beach.
Wushi Harbor Seafood Wholesale Market
While walking in, we encountered live seafood moving on the ground in front of a stall. I was shocked as we had never seen them selling the seafood like this. The stall staff kept pulling seafood out from the water tanks to entice us to buy. How it works: Once we select a seafood item, they would bring it upstairs to a restaurant to cook it for us immediately. This ensures freshness. The signboards even wrote, “Steam, Fry or BBQ” for us to choose a cooking method.
However, I think the staff used the wrong sales tactic on us. Yes, we do love eating seafood but we love animals and nature too. (Our outings usually consists of feeding and observing animals). Thus, we were standing there to “look” at the exotic seafood as the children had not seen before and not to eat them!!! Seeing them being “tortured” like this (putting them out of the water and onto the concrete floor), we lost all our appetite……
We viewed the exotic seafood for a while as we had not seen such sea creatures before and rejected the enthusiastic staff. Then, we “escaped” quickly down the aisle, straight to the back and out of the seafood market to look at fishing boats in the harbour. We decided to get the snacks products from the stalls after we view the Wushi Fishing harbour.
Wushi Fishing Harbour
We were there just to look at the fishing boats for a while since the children had not seen them before. It was windy and cold and the water was smelly but the children enjoyed it. A boat happened to come and dock at the pier and Dar got to view firsthand how it was like. We were confused at first why they shouted at us to move away but we did moved slightly back. When the huge fishing boat came to a stop, the force of it banging again the dock was quite strong and generated a huge gush of wind.
Seafood Snacks – Dry Packed or Fried On the Spot
The packed dried seafood snacks were similar in many stalls so we sampled some and just chose one or two stalls to buy from. There were things like dried cuttlefish, seaweed snacks etc (forgot to take a pic of things we bought) and they were all delicious.
We were also surprised to find a few stalls which could deep-fry seafood items on the spot and bought a few packets of fried fish balls, cuttlefish balls and other seafood stuff like soft-shell crabs. They were delicious and the hot food warmed our stomach in the cold weather.
I was afraid Ling would not be full with just fish balls so we bought seafood fried rice from a restaurant upstairs too. (Later, we realised we should not have bought it since it was inconvenient to eat the fried rice in the packet while we were at the beach and she got really busy playing and did not bother to eat)
My verdict of this place was, the seafood snacks were quite delicious but the area had nothing much to look at (unless boats are your interest).
5) Waiao Beach – To look at Black Sand
It’s the wrong season to visit the beach but since we were there, I wanted to see for myself, the unique black sand on Waiao Beach. The beach is a surfing paradise in the summer as the waves were huge.
I was amazed at the expanse of beach in front of the visitor area. We would have to walk out very far to reach the waves. The rain kept starting and stopping but that did not stop the children from being enthusiastic about a sandy beach.
Indeed, it was black and so soft! They quickly squatted down to play with the sand even though we did not have any sand toys to use. With the twigs they picked up and just using their hands, they started building their little sand structures.
We could not stay for long as we need to leave for our farm stay which had some planned activities in the evening. By that time, we also have enough of activities for the day.
6) Toucheng Leisure Farm – Our First Farm Stay in Taiwan
After Waiao Beach, we had almost no energy left. I just remembered reaching Toucheng Leisure Farm feeling very tired and wanting to crash into bed. There were room issues and it took a while to be finally taken to our room.
We had to walk through a dessert stall, down a path, to some pretty looking condominium apartments. The staff told us to come take the desserts and snacks (小吃）soon as they were free for all guests staying in Toucheng but it would close at 5.30pm when they start the barbecue.
Toucheng Leisure Farm – Room
The room was just a simple room with no decor and hard ceramic floor but I like the spaciousness with two double beds. The bathroom was tiny in comparison but good enough for us. After resting, I did not want to walk out anymore. Vin was hungry and wanted to get the free desserts and dumplings so I told him to just bring me a bowl of green bean soup later. He went to the dessert stall and cooked some soup dumplings for the kids and they ate outside. The green bean soup he brought back for me was deliciously warm and great for the cold weather.
BBQ Night
We started later in the BBQ as Vin were too exhausted and took a nap. The staff specially went to call us when he discovered us missing. When we finally arrived near to 7 pm, most of the people were indoors eating instead of barbecuing and some of them were even finishing. It took a while for the staff to start our fire and find another set of food-handling equipment for us as someone took ours. We were quite frustrated with the slow service but the food turned out quite tasty. The variety of food to BBQ was a lot but we were not too familiar since we seldom do barbecues. Thus, we only took the marinated chicken, sausages and corn.
We had to share the same stove structure with another family so it was a little cramped. Soon, we felt hot and tired trying to cook our food. The chicken took a while to BBQ and it was cold outside, so I asked Vin to go inside with the children and take the cooked food so they could be more full. I felt awkward doing the BBQ wearing my coat. The weather was windy cold but the stove was hot.
The food inside were also mostly their own farm-grown vegetables or local Taiwan dishes we were not familiar with, so Vin did not take a lot for the children when I joined them. Anyway, they were mostly gone when he went in because people were concentrating on eating inside and not doing barbeque. We did not know to take more food just now when we arrived and had concentrated on the BBQ. In fact, Vin felt he did not have much to eat because they were not food that he likes.
The BBQ activity was supposed to be family fun activity but we could not appreciate it since we had experienced an entire day of sight-seeing and had not much energy to cook. I wished they could have offered the option of cooking for us if we did not want to cook ourselves. Most of the cooked stuff were vegetables or unfamiliar items to us. There were only uncooked meat and minimal fried food.
Making Sky Lantern Workshop
After dinner, we heard an announcement for a “Sky Lantern Making” workshop. It intrigued us and we eventually decided to sign up too as we had nothing else to do for the night. The person explained the process to us and we started folding, gluing and pasting the materials together. It was a fun time making our first sky lantern from scratch. The previous time we were here in Taiwan, we just drew the decoration for the Sky Lantern in Hualien and released in the Minsu.
Each of us wrote a wish while Ling scribbled with a paintbrush. She love the activity so much but we did not allow her to destroy more of the lantern after she painted on one side.
The staff then helped us to put in the burning paper and we went outside, to the open ground of the Toucheng Leisure Farm. He lit the lantern and took a picture of us (unfortunately, was blurred) as it floated into the sky.
Playing with Fireworks
We were the last to release our sky lantern as we started later than everyone else. Meanwhile, people were releasing exploding fireworks into the sky and we started asking the staff where to get them.The staff told us we could buy from their store! We were happy to do that but we decided to just get sparklers since it was late already. Thus, my 3-year-old had fun playing with sparklers for the first time!
These sparklers were much safer as the handle was very long. We still kept a close eye on her and told her to throw the metal straight onto the ground (so we would pick it up later) and not to touch the hot tip after it burnt out. Otherwise, she would end up like her curious brother the first time he played with it.
We ended our second day in Taiwan on a happy note and managed to complete all that we had planned for the day. Unintentionally, we always end up planning a lot of places to see in one day to fully maximise our time overseas. There are just so many nice places in Taiwan that we want to see for ourselves! Fortunately, the children did not mind. They kept up with us and enjoyed all the activities.
>> Read Previous Post: Taiwan Yilan Taipei Trip Day 1
Taiwan Nov 2018 Yilan: Day 2 Itinerary
- Luodong Forestry Culture Park in Luodong
- Bee Museum in Yuanshan
- Lanyang Museum in Toucheng
- Wushi Fishing Harbour in Toucheng
- Waio Beach
- Toucheng Leisure Farm – to stay for the night
Read our Summary Itinerary Post for Taiwan Nov 2018 Yilan | Taipei : 5-Day Taiwan Trip Itinerary: Nature and Fun
Past Explorations in Taiwan: 8 day Taiwan Itinerary Chiayi | Nantou | Taipei | Hualien
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