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!

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.

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!).

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.

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.

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 😉

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