We live on the west side of the island (mainland China is across the sea from us) in Hsinchu and drove up around the north by Taipei, then down the eastern coast of Taiwan to Hualien last weekend. The first several pictures are from our beautiful hotel, the Promised Land Resort, then the beach area in Hualien, where swimming or even playing in the water is prohibited, and also to Taroko Gorge National Park. It took us about five hours by car to get there since the country is extremely mountainous and densely covered with tropical plants and vegetation. A traveler typically does not drive directly through the middle of the country, but instead, would drive around the perimeter of the island, much of which is along a narrow highway, engineered miraculously with cliff-side roads situated close to a rather frightful drop-off almost straight below to the ocean waters. Our trip was a lot of fun and Kelly enjoyed t...