Hualien 花蓮: Concert and Hot Air Balloon Festival!

Well once we got back from Orchid Island  we had 2 days to rest…and we were off again to 2013 Summer Festival in Hualien! This festival was a hot air balloon festival and also had concerts each night, so of course when we heard that Xiao Zhu (羅志祥) and Evan Yo (蔡旻佑) were going to be there so we knew we had to go and get train tickets and to book a hostel. Luckily enough there were seats on the train for Sunday June 30th, a day earlier then we wanted but turned out to be a better plan because then we could go visit the famous gorge (Taroko) in Hualien. Next was to book the hostel and since Lana has been to Hualien before she knew where to stay. We stayed at (Hello Backpackers) which I thought was more like a hotel feeling because it was so nice.

Since we got to the hostel late we just stocked up on water for our trip to the gorge Monday July 1st. Monday morning a taxi driver agreed to take us around to popular sites that people go. But before we left there was another American staying at Hello Backpackers and asked if he could come to the gorge too, so of course we said yes. One trail that we were hiking had 3 different temples that were famous and we could walk to and explore. Next was off to the beach which wasn’t like the beaches in Minnesota  instead they were rock beaches that we couldn’t swim in but was beautiful to see. After the beach we had not had time to eat lunch when we were hiking so we went to a famous dumpling place to eat and try the local food.

Then back to the hostel where we could get ready for the concert, I only knew of Xiao Zhu (小豬) the headliner but after the concert I found that liked 2 other bands; JPM and AK.

Tuesday July 2nd was more sightseeing, we went to a museum in Hualien then to a lake to go paddle boating just like in the TV show It Started with a Kiss. We were then off to another place that had beautiful scenery and see wheat reminded me of expensive houses on lakes in Minnesota. After taking pictures we then wanted to go back to get ready for the second day of concerts. Before heading to the concert, there was a guy staying at Hello Backpackers from China  that was also going to the concert to watch the headliner Mayday and was wondering if he could ride in the same taxi. So of course we said yes and became friends except that he spoke really fast Chinese so Lana had to did most of the taking. For the second day of concerts, I only knew 2 people out of the 5; Kimberley Chen (陳芳語)and Evan Yo but didn’t recognize the headliner Mayday. But Tuesday we found out that there were over 10,000 fans that came to the concert that day and seemed crazier than the fans the day before.

We then headed back to the hostel because we knew we were going to get up early Wednesday July 3rd to go see the hot air balloons and possibly ride in them.  From where we were staying it was about an hour away to see the hot air balloons, once we got there we decided it was reasonably priced to just have the hot air balloon go up in the sky. Being it was in the morning there wasn’t many people in line as in if we would have went at night. But once in the hot air balloon it was so exciting to see everything from the air, after the hot air balloons we went to another beach. Then we went back to the hostel to pack and get ready to leave to go back to Taichung. This trip went by really fast however, I will always remember this trip because we knew we had to go and see the concerts of our favorite singers and of course the hot air balloons too!