LDlifehacks

Latest Updates

/ thebivytaiwan

July 2020: Hornets’  Nests Spotted at Golden Valley 

Watch out for hornets around the Bikini Cave and Euro Wall areas. A couple of climbers were attacked by the hornets. Yikes!

15 February 2020: Closure of Grand Auditorium (effective from Feb to end Jun)

The peregrines are territorial and there were past reports of unaware/adamant climbers attacked when they climbed close to their nests in Grand Auditorium.

Keep wildlife wild. Stay away from climbing and flying drones at Grand Auditorium from now till June (or until further updates from officials). Be mindful of climbing at First Cave and topping out on some climbs, e.g. Commissary Crack, since you could gain unwanted attention for climbing at Grand Auditorium mistakenly by visitors from the pavilions above.

June 2019: Climbing Accidents at Long Dong

There have been 3 climbing-related accidents, one in March (Long Lane) and two in May (Music Hall & Grand Auditorium) in Long Dong this year. All three accidents involved climbers falling off their route, and unfortunately in one of the incidents, a climber’s death.

With the summer vacation, there is bound to be more traffic at the crags. In case of emergencies, there’re medical kits stashed in various sectors at LD. Know where they are and how to use them.

Be a responsible climber – climb with care and watch out for one another. Everyone holds the duty to ensure his/her safety, and to protect the very place we climb in.

Check out the link below for locations of medical kits in LD
https://taiwanrocks.net/first-aid-storage-locations-in-lon…/

Thanks to the peeps from Taiwan.Rocks.net for the writeup!

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7 March 2019: Closure of Grand Auditorium (effective from Feb to end Jun)

Once again, Grand Auditorium is closed for the yearly nesting season of the local peregrines. Please refrain from climbing and flying drones at this sector. Be mindful of climbing at First Cave and topping out on some climbs, e.g. Commissary Crack, since you could gain unwanted attention for climbing at Grand Auditorium mistakenly by visitors from the pavilions above.

December 2018: Coach Demonstrates @Back Door is Closed

A pull test was carried out on all bolts of Coach Demonstrates (Route #60, Backdoor) and the first bolt failed the test. Climbers should refrain from using the bolts for climbing, or back up the bolts with gear.

*Updated in May 2019: The first bolt is replaced with a new Titanium bolt

August 2018: Rock Falls at Golden Valley & Long Lane

Rock falls were observed at the following sites. No casualties are reported.

  1. 31 Aug: Golden Valley
    Location: Dragon Boat Wall (pg 80 & 81)
    Routes: Aus der Traum (#171 & #172) & Yosemite Crack (#173)
    Cause: Dislodged by climberIMG_2610
  2. 25 Aug: Golden Valley
    Location: Golden Valley Central, Black Wall (pg 70 & 71)
    Routes: Black-Faced Man (#140), West Coast (#141), I Love Taiwan (#142) & East Coast (#143)
    Cause: Dislodged by climberIMG_1963
  3. 12 Aug: Long Lane
    Location: Long Lane (pg 218 & 219)
    Routes: Heping (#440) & Fear Only Fear Itself (#441)
    Cause: Act of natureIMG_7199 2Reminders:
    1. Always wear a helmet, especially where other parties are climbing nearby
    2. Check the integrity of rocks before use
    3. Shout for “rock” when you dislodge a rock. Alert people around you

18 April 2018: Amendment to Time Schedule of Bus 1811 

Please take note of the following changes to the bus schedule of Kuokuang Bus 1811 from Taipei Main Station to Longdong. The first bus now departs the terminal at 8.50am (instead of 8.20am) and the next one comes at 10.20am (no more bus at 9.20am).

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For buses from Longdong back to Taipei Main Station, these are the timings that depart from the terminal, so add about 1.5hr to the timings below for arrivals at Longdong

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These timings apply to weekdays, weekends & national holidays unless otherwise stated.

10 April 2018: Closure of Grand Auditorium (effective from Feb to end Jun)

Once again, Grand Auditorium is closed for the yearly nesting season of the local peregrines. Please refrain from climbing and flying drones at this sector. Be mindful of climbing at First Cave and topping out on some climbs, e.g. Commissary Crack, since you could gain unwanted attention for climbing at Grand Auditorium mistakenly by visitors from the pavilions above.

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#LDlifehacks: Getting to Long Dong

/ thebivytaiwan

Most people who have been commuting from Taipei to Long Dong will be well-acquainted with the Kuokuang Long Distance Bus 1811 & 1812. They runs five times daily departing from Taipei Main Station and terminate in Yilan.

Departure time at Taipei Main Station (exact location here):

1811 – 8:50, 17:40, 20:20
1812 – 14:20

So what happens if the buses are full, or you miss your bus?

Here are two alternatives for you to consider:

Option 1: Take TRA Train to Keelung & transfer to Bus 791

  1. Walk to Bus Stop “Keelung Station (Renxiang Clinic)” (exact location here)
  2. Take Bus 791 towards Fulong (福隆)*, travel time: approx. 45min
  3. Get off at Longdonggang stop (龍洞港) – closest bus stop to School Gate

Bus 791
Estimated arrival time at Keelung Train Station (Renxiang Clinic)

Weekdays

Sat, Sun & National Holidays

5:00

5:20

5:20

5:50

5:55

6:30

6:30

7:40

7:10

8:45

7:41

9:25

8:30

9:50

9:12

10:30

10:12

11:08

11:12

11:50

12:12

12:30

13:10

13:10

14:08

13:50

14:52

14:32

15:38

15:08

16:40

16:17

17:10

17:17

18:13

18:13

19:17

19:17

20:12

20:12

21:40

21:40

*Time of arrival at bus stop estimated from official bus schedule here

Reminder:
Make sure you’re taking 791 towards Fulong, NOT 791 towards “Country Xincheng” (國家新城）!


Option 2: Take TRA Train to Rueifang & transfer to Bus 856

Take the TRA train to Rueifang Train Station, the closest train station to LD, then hop onto the Golden Fulong Shuttle Bus 856.

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Train schedule from Taipei Main Station to Rueifang Train Station from 6am to 8am (https://www.railway.gov.tw/en/index.aspx)

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Bus 856 weekend schedule, including national holidays (http://www.gold-fulong.com.tw/en/Default.aspx)

The first bus departs Ruifang at 8am, goes up to the mountains to Jiufen before it hits the coast at Yiyang Sea (yes the bay with contrasting hues of blue and yellow, resembling the Yin & Yang symbol ☯️) and continues on the Coastal Highway towards LD.

The great news is Bus 856 now stops at Longdonggang stop (龍洞港), the closest bus stop to School Gate parking since August 2017. The bus schedules above are not updated with the new bus stop addition but Longdonggang is in between LD Bay Ocean Park and LD Four Seasons Bay.

The entire bus ride from Ruifang to Longdonggang takes about 40min. The bus comes every 30min on weekends, and every hour on weekdays. A pretty good option if you want to get some breakfast or pack lunch from Ruifang before making your way to the crags. Ruifang has a quite a bustling day market scene, more on that in future posts 😉

Reminders:

  1. It is recommended that you take this option only when you’re taking Bus 856 before 10am. The traffic towards Jiufen through the mountains could be crazy with tour coaches and tourists who usually turn up around late morning!
  2. To get to LD/Jiufen, board Bus 856 at Bus Stop B (see map below). This is NOT the bus stop (Bus Stop A) right in front of the train station.
856 bus stop

Get on Bus 856 from Bus Stop B

#LDlifehacks: Food

/ thebivytaiwan

7-11 Convenience Store in Bitoujiao

The first ever convenience store in the village opened its door in October 2018! This is the closest convenience store to Long Dong. What a life savior!

At the same time, don’t forget to support local and small businesses in the village. That’s how we could all work together and support one another.

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7-11 Convenience Store (Bitoujiao Branch)
Tel: 02 2491 1584
Add: No. 221, Bitou Road, Ruifang District, New Taipei City 224
Operating hours: 24H daily
For exact location: https://goo.gl/maps/fgbmMNDKp1ypwPbz5

Bitoujiao Village: 鼻頭港母女小吃店 Bitou Harbour Mother-and-Daughter Eatery

Located next to the more flamboyant Ah Zhu Seafood Restaurant, is this little gem owned by a retired neighbour and her aged but active mother. This stall is a saviour in Bitoujiao village and its surrounding premise, being one of the few (and affordable) eateries that open daily as long as it’s not raining.

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The stall

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The mother & daughter who keep visitors fed with their simple yet hearty meals

The stall may seem unappealing but it offers a good decent selection of food from the regular stewed pork rice (滷肉飯 lu rou fan), dumpling noodles (餛飩麵 hun dun mian) to their signature braised beef rice (紅燒牛腩飯 hong shao niu nan fan), fish soup from it’s local fresh catch (鮮魚湯 xian yu tang) and other local side dishes. Vegetarian options available too with local seaweed soup, boiled vegetables, tofu etc.

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Dishes offered, more options available on their menu (in Mandarin)

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My usual order: Dry dumpling noodles + mushroom meat balls (dumplings gone before photo was taken) + boiled veggies as a side dish

Some people find the seating area random but we like it casual as long as it is clean. You can even set up the table by the harbour and get an alfresco dinner in a nice and romantic sunset setting. The owner of the stall (the daughter) is also a super nice lady. She prefers to stay active and continue working albeit being retired, she finds playing mahjong every day kind of boring.

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Sunset in Bitoujiao. The stall is somewhere to the right of in this photo

鼻頭港母女小吃店 Bitou Harbour Mother-and-Daughter Eatery
Tel: 0978 144 639
Add: No. 109, Bitou Road, Ruifang District, New Taipei City 224
Operating hours: Daily 9.30am – 6.30pm (except on rainy days)
For exact location: https://goo.gl/maps/gVHJHk81W2o

Longdong Park Bay: 新味小吃 Xin Wei Self-Service Bento Shop

One of our favorite eateries around LD! Easily overlooked on your drive to LD, Xin Wei Bento Shop is located across Longdong Ocean Park Bay right next to a bus stop after Bitou Tunnel, a convenient spot to pack lunch in to LD and to enjoy the luxury of having a hearty meal at the crags.

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Look out to your right past Bitou Tunnel. No signboard!

The shop offers a great variety of dishes from stir-fired vegetables, tofu, braised pork knuckles, chicken drumstick to fried fish, to go with typically rice which you can ask to replace with vermicelli. This is a great option if you are vegetarian or you can’t speak Mandarin (or both :)), since all you have to do is stand in line and pick your favourite dishes. Bento shops typically charge according to the number of dishes you select (vegetables cheapest and seafood the most expensive) and the portion you take. In small villages like Longdong, a bento box with an average selection of food typically costs less than NT100.

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We call it the “Happiness Bento”

The bento shop is open for breakfast and lunch, so make sure you’re there early (which usually shouldn’t be a problem unless you’re at LD for a afternoon climb) since most of the food run out at about 1pm. There are some spaces to pull out right in front of the bento shop, or if not you could park your car by the side of the road.

Reminder:
Like most bento shops, this one uses disposables even if you are eating in. Do your part in reducing waste by bringing your own lunch box and cutlery!

新味小吃 Xin Wei Bento Shop
Tel: 02 2490 9606
Add: No. 40, Longdone Street, Gongliao District, New Taipei City 228
Operating hours: Daily 5.30am – 2.30pm (be there before 1pm for more food selection!)
For exact location: https://goo.gl/maps/L5quTmMJjQD2

Bon Appetit!

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This is MINE!

 

#LDlifehacks: The Weather

/ thebivytaiwan

Let’s put it that way – unless you’re at LD over the summer, the weather could be sometimes, how do we put it, iffy? And it doesn’t help that the weather forecast is not extremely accurate and at its best, quoting from a local friend, “just for reference”. However, there are still some useful cues from the local weather forecast’s website, giving us a better idea of the weather.

IMG_4855

Type B fun 😀

1. Check the weather forecast for Longdong Park South Entrance on the Central Weather Bureau’s official website (https://www.cwb.gov.tw/V7e/forecast/entertainment/other/A014.htm#)

No the weather forecast for Taipei, Keelung, Ruifang or even Gongliao (the district where LD is) are not good enough. In fact, after staying along the coast for a while, we learn that the weather in Taipei and LD are many times coincidentally, opposites. There are many occasions when hopeful friends from Taipei turn up at LD having to turn back because it’s raining, or days when it is “send conditions”, and there’s almost no one around (not that we’re complaining!). We noticed this during our times staying in different home-stays along the coast, and this is exactly the reason why we decided to stay close to LD – because the best way to tell, is to look out of the window! The beauty of being close to LD is, when you spend less time commuting, you earn more time climbing 😉

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Weather forecast for Longdong South Entrance (https://www.cwb.gov.tw/V7e/forecast/entertainment/other/A014.htm#)

2. Check the radar display for current rain intensity

The weather forecast provides information on wind direction and it helps heaps to know if the wind is bringing more rain clouds or blowing them away.

Screen Shot 2018-02-28 at 11.12.51

Noooooooooooooo…

3. Check the road surveillance cameras for live updates

It seems like access to the camera footage is restricted to the Chinese version on the CWB website so here are the links below! We suggest looking at these two cameras closest to Longdong:

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Step 1: Click on 瑞芳區 (Ruifang District)

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Step 2: Select 台2 北濱海公路/南雅路到南雅路/鼻頭路 (third last from the bottom)

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Step 1: Select 貢寮區 (Gongliao District)

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Step 2: Select 台2 88K+150 到 91K+000 (fifth from the top)

One camera to the north and the other to the south of LD, so this should give you a good idea of how the actual weather is. Just to get an affirmation before making the commitment to head out here 😉

Some reminders:

1. Do take note of the Plum Rain Rainy Season and of course, the typhoon season, which typically take place in May and August/September respectively. Having said that the global climate is changing and these events do span over a month before or after.

2. It’s a good idea to plan for an extended trip in Taiwan if you would like to climb at LD! This gives you flexibility to shift your itinerary and turn up for climbing when the weather has cleared up.

Regardless the weather, there’re crags which stay relatively dry on rainy days. Or if you’re looking for an active wet weather program, the region has much to offer too. We’ll share this in a separate post 😉

Rock on!

#LDlifehacks: The Taiwan Bus App

/ thebivytaiwan

Don’t travel around Taiwan without the Taiwan Bus App! Although named as a “bus app”, the application provides useful information for various modes of transport islandwide from time schedules of the MRT, railway trains and buses to the actual quantity of U-bikes at a specific location. And the most important thing is, it is finally available in English! C-O-O-L!

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Introducing the Taiwan Bus App

There are no U-bike stations around Long Dong (I’ve seen some random bikes lying along the coast somehow), but LD is easily accessible by buses, directly from Taipei or from train stations like Ruifang & Keelung. Read more about getting to LD from Ruifang from my previous post here.

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Buses that I have saved, basically all the buses that come to our village!

The Taiwan Bus App gives real time of bus arrivals, reducing waiting time and enabling us to manage time more efficiently. It works only on mobiles with data, or where you can get wifi, and I personally feel that it’s worth getting data for this purpose (unless you decide to hitch-hike, which is totally cool too!).

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Bus arrivals in real time. Nice!

Longdong Port or Longdonggang stop (龍洞港) is the closest bus stop to the North Parking Area, the parking before School Gate. Cross the road, take the flight of stairs down to the back of the Ho-Mei Village (和美村) and keep walking along the driveway towards Ho-Mei Elementary School (和美國小). This is the most common way climbers take to go climbing at School Gate and beyond, even all up to Second Cave.

To get to Golden Valley and Back Door, take the Long Dong Cape Bay Trail (龍洞岬灣步道) which begins at the side of Ho-Mei Elementary School. The trail is paved with stoned steps and you will find yourself gaining elevation and end up at the top of the crags (awesome view!). After passing two vista points, walk another 100 to 200m and you’ll see a dirt trail on your left that leads you down to the coast. The trail has a clear path but may be hidden in the bushes. You will find warning signs of seasonal “Freak Waves (瘋狗浪)” at the start of this trail. This is the same way fishermen take to get to the coast.

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Freaky freak waves!

To go to Back Door, walk to the end of the paved trail and it will lead you to the South Parking Area which is equipped with restrooms. You will see another vista point, go around it and make your way down with care.

For climbers who are going to LD from Keelung and Bivy, Bus 791 brings you to both Longdong Port or Longdonggang stop and Fozu Temple stop, which actually refers to Hsilingyan Temple (西靈巖寺)at the South Parking Area. The bus stop is just 5 min away from the parking, a fast and convenient way to get to Golden Valley and Back Door.

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Download The Taiwan Bus App for free at https://itunes.apple.com/tw/app/taiwan-bus/id1163101845?l=en&mt=8. It seems like it is currently available only for iPhones, let me know if you find anything else!

Some reminders:

  1. At times you may notice the next bus timing suddenly “disappear”, and the bus app shows the arrival time for the next bus (in 98min time!). Calm down and take a deep breath, chances are there are some hiccups in the system and the bus will still turn up at the same timing you noted.
  2. Press the bell early before you alight. The buses go really quick and you don’t want to miss your stop!

P.S. For guests staying at The Bivy, if you would like to see more of the surrounding, it is entirely possible to walk to LD! There is a walkway along the coast and from The Bivy it takes about 30min to get to North Parking Area. At times you may find our doggie Chongchong following you, she knows LD pretty well and could possibly show you the way 😉

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Introducing Chongchong, The Bivy’s greeter & security/bouncer

Alien Residents at Long Dong

/ thebivytaiwan

The Bivy is set up by husband-and-wife Singaporean climbers, Qx and Kelly in May 2015.

It all began with a book that Matt sent to Qx in 2007, a guidebook of Long Dong that he had written. It took us three years when we finally decided to make our way there in December 2010.

We hopped onto Huzi’s (鬍子) van in Taipei and made our way to Long Dong. As we got onto the Coastal Highway, the view of the winding coastline and crashing waves in the vast and open Pacific Ocean welcomed us. The drive along the Coastal Highway remains as one of our favorite parts of the entire experience going to, and now, living around Long Dong. It gives us an ironic sense of peace and thrill.

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Taking our first ride on the Coastal Highway

Since then, we found ourselves returning to this place year after year, staying in different villages and small towns around LD.

Enchanted by the simple and local lifestyle of living in a fishing village, supported by some basic amenities, and a close enough proximity to LD, we finally decided to set up our second home, The Bivy in Bitoujiao in May 2015.


Bitoujiao (鼻頭角)

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Bitou Cape as seen from Long Dong

Bitoujiao (or Bitou Cape) is a quiet and quaint little fishing village, inhabited by less than 100 people.

Bitou Cape, alongside Fugui Cape and Sandiago Cape, the northernmost and easternmost points of the island respectively, are the three main capes that provide a beautiful spectacle of the coastline in Northern Taiwan.

In Bitoujiao, residents are generally either 50 years and above or children, and the village thrives on fishing, recreation and tourism for a living.

We are grateful that we get to enjoy nature, quietness, clean air, good spring water, small catches of fresh seafood and seaweed and other local produce. Most importantly, this is where we adopted our mixed-lab doggie, Chongchong.

Live an Adventure,
Qx, Kelly & Chong Chong (The Bivy Dog)

Qx and Kelly are rock climbers and AMGA certified instructors.
Chong Chong is The Bivy’s crag dog, ie greeter/security guard/trainee porter.
We love rock climbing.

Night falls in the village
From our rooftop
First trip to Long Dong, days when we took the bus to Keelung Night Market for dinner everyday
Chongchong, our new addition to our climbing family