An Easy Wander Around a Lake in Hualien County

Liyu Lake (or Carp Lake) lies about 11 kilometres southwest as the crow flies and just a 30-minute car-ride from downtown Hualien. This city proximity combined with its smooth trails and mirrored mountains make it a popular strolling spot for Hualien natives and weekend blow-ins alike. The round-lake trail is a short and gentle stroll or an even shorter and gentler ride if you rent a bike from one of the lakeside rental companies.

Distance: 5.2 kilometres with possibilities for extending it if you throw in Liyu Mountain.

Time: 1½-2 hours or maybe an hour longer if you include the optional extension mentioned above.

Difficulty (regular Taiwan hiker): 0.5/10 – This is a very easy walk.

Difficulty (new Taiwan hiker): 2/10 – This is an easy, mostly flat trail which would be accessible for wheelchair users or people pushing kids in pushchairs (you might have to take a slightly different route to us in some places in order to stay on a smooth trail).

Total ascent: About 120 metres.

Water: We each took our own small bottles and drank some. We also stopped for coffee and lunch once we were most of the way around the lake.

Shade: Some parts are shady, but I still had to use my umbrella.

Mobile network: Clear throughout.

Enjoyment: This is a lovely easy walk that you can do with the whole family.

Accessibility considerations: While most of this walk is ideal for anyone using wheels to get around, the short stretch along the road is not ideal. The pavements are occasionally lacking, and if you’re on the road, you’ll be sharing it with cars. However, it would certainly be possible to do the pedestrianised section of the walk. The car parks are furnished with accessible toilets.

Other: If you don’t fancy walking, you can also rent bikes (or boats) to travel around the lake.

Route type: Loop

Permit: None needed

Jump to the bottom of this post for a trail map and GPX file.

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We arrived at the visitor centre and parked up to begin our journey around the lake. As we were getting ready to set off, a chap rode past on a bike and told us that if we were planning to cycle around the lake, we should visit his rental stall. Sadly for him, we were planning on walking, not biking.

For the most part, you can walk right around the edge of the lake, but at the time of our visit, there was some construction work going on so we had to take the path slightly further out.

There are lots of sculptures made my different artists dotted around the lakeside parks. In fact, wherever you go in Hualien, there are loads of sculptures made from the famed local marble.

Once we passed a toilet block, we found ourselves back on the trail running directly beside the lake. It was nice watching the views shift and change as we made our way around.

Naturally, Teresa found some animals to bond with. This cat was busy sunning itself, although it did deign to get up and greet us after a little cajoling. According to a passing walker, it can often be found scrounging scratches off of tourists.

The further south we went, the prettier the views seemed to become. Next to a shady seating area, we found an emergency phone first aid post. Mum and dad were curious to find this here. Evidently you can’t trust people back home not to pilfer stuff like this if you leave it in public.

The eastward side of the lake is a pedestrian-only path, and is pleasantly shady (the far side is quite exposed).

Close to the end of the pedestrian area, we encountered a small troupe of monkeys. Three of them were busily stripping the leaves off of this tree and stuffing their cheeks with them.

And the fourth had staked out a spot beside the lake and was enjoying a midday meal with a view.

A small temple sits at the southernmost tip of the lake.

It has a simple altar with a single Guanyin idol and the ceiling is strung with many lanterns which frame the view of the lake rather charmingly.

We passed an odd building with a stone bookcase out front (even the books were made of stone), and further on, the odd bark of this tree caught our interest. In some areas it had large tough spines that looked like mini rhino’s horns, and in other paces there were these vivid green patterns which had the appearance of stretch marks. Taiwan’s friendly Twitter botanist, Trevor Padgett suggested it might be a yellow variety of bombax ceiba, and I’m certainly not going to disagree with the expert.

As you walk up the western edge of the lake, you’ll pass the most built up part of the area. There are hotels, a few restaurants, and lots of places renting bikes and boats.

We visited mid-week, so the hopeful boat vendors were all just sat in the shade chatting and eying up the few tourists.

At the far end of the little jetty area, we found ourselves walking along the road. (There will be a path here soon, because it was under construction when we were here.) A raised walkway turns right away from the road and runs along the front of a couple of restaurants.

A very sweet little mantis on the railing beside the walkway.

We decided to stop at the second of these, (黑屋 Cafe) to stop for lunch. I had a vegetarian panini (odd use of mashed pumpkin, but not unpleasant) and iced coffee. I also found out that my parents are not fond of iced coffee, which I find strange.

Poor Teresa’s panini never arrived, so we got a refund on that and carried on back towards the carpark to head off in search of some wheel cakes to keep her happy. Just as we arrived back at the visitor centre, the bike renting grandpa rode up to us again to congratulate us on having travelled around the lake on foot. Rather than being miffed that we hadn’t lined his pockets, he seemed genuinely excited that we’d walked.

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How to get to Liyu Lake in Hualien

Google Maps address: We started our walk from the paid carpark at the northern end of the lake, but you can also start from the free carpark on the southwestern edge of the lake.

GPS location: N23 56.110 E121 30.440

Public transport: From Hualien Bus Station (which is close to Hualien Train Station), you can catch either the 1139C via Tongmen, or the 303 Taiwan Tourist Shuttle Hualien Line to Liyu Lake North Tourist Centre bus stop. The former runs every 90-120 minutes and the latter only has two services a day.

Nearby trails:

• Liyu Mountain
• Meilun Hill
• Qixingtan Beach and 48 Highland

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Liyu Lake Trail Map

GPX file available here on Outdoor Active. (Account needed, but the free one works just fine.)

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