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FYI SOUTH Magazine, July 2003. VOL.3 ISSUE 7

Cover Story:

Kenting: A true all-things-to-all-people resort

By Steven Crook

      Kenting offers a great deal more than sandy beaches and sparkling ocean. Energetic visitors can happily spend days here without ever getting their feet wet.

      Kenting National Park--which now covers 20,000 hectares of land, and almost as much sea--has 15 species of wild mammals (though you're more likely to see buffalo than macaques), 59 kinds of reptiles and amphibians, 216 species of butterflies, and more than 300 different birds.

      October is a good time for bird watching: During that season, thousands of migrating Gray-faced Buzzard Eagles and Chinese Sparrow Hawks pass through Kenting each day.

      Offshore, reefs of soft and stony coral attract scuba divers. Sixty percent of the world's coral species can be found around Kenting; these reefs nurture 1,500 kinds of fish. For those visitors who want to enjoy all this submarine color, diving outfitters abound.

HUMAN HISTORY

      The Hengchuen Peninsula has more than a dozen prehistoric sites, some of which were inhabited by humans 4,000 years ago. More recent cultural attractions include the 120-year-old lighthouse at Eluanbi, Hengchuen's South Gate, and the tiny aboriginal communities that dot the area.

      Popular with tourists since the 1970s, Kenting Road--the resort's main strip--now hosts well over a hundred businesses run by locals, outsiders, and foreigners. On weekend evenings it resembles a night market, with food vendors, souvenir hawkers, and even tattoo artists plying their trades.

      Dawan Road, quieter and closer to the beach, is home to two of Kenting's most popular eateries--Warung Didi and the Cactus Cafe.

      Unless you're here for the gastronomy or the nightlife, you shouldn't restrict yourself to "urban Kenting" and the nearby beaches.

UTMOST CONVENIENCE

      Scooters can be hired at almost any time of day or night. I arrived just after 5 am, and had the paperwork completed within 10 minutes.

      Provincial Highway No. 26--the main road through Checheng and Hengchuen--varies between busy and congested. But the roads that criss-cross the eastern half of the peninsula make for dream riding: Smooth tarmac, extremely light traffic, and pleasing scenery at every turn.

     Some of the places I saw in the hour after dawn, like the crumbling cliffs near Lungpan, looked very different when I returned mid-afternoon.

      At one point further up the coast, I had to stop because torpid cows blocked the road. When the Japanese took over Taiwan, they found much of the peninsula unsuitable for growing crops, so they turned it into pastureland.

      Later, a man with a two-meter-plus tuna fish strapped to the back of his motorcycle overtook me at great speed.

      The Jialeshui Scenic Area, open daily between 8 am and 5 pm, is the principal attraction in the southeastern quarter of the peninsula. Admission costs NT$80 for adults, NT$50 for children.

      The coastal walkway through this Scenic Area is very pleasant, but it can get crowded. As with other parts of Kenting (indeed, tourist spots throughout Taiwan), avoid weekends and holidays if at all possible,

SAND DUNES AND PALM TREES

      Because Taiwan is a well-watered, fecund island, the shifting sand dunes at Gangtz are especially intriguing. It's no surprise that at least two companies offer Jeep tours of the "desert." A circuit costs NT$300 or so per person, and takes 25-30 minutes.

      Aboriginal villages such as Mudan are good places to break your journey. These settlements are tidy and attractive, but far from wealthy; spend some tourist dollars if you can.

      I enjoyed my foray through the less-visited, thinly populated eastern half of the peninsula so much that it seemed a pity to turn around and head into the uplands visible from the tourist beaches.

      These hills are largely uplifted coral reefs. It is strange, hundreds of meters above sea level, to find house-sized chunks of brownish coral. It's also a vivid illustration of the power and time-scale of geological processes.

      Kenting Forest Park is a formal but worthwhile introduction to the area's plants and trees. Exploring the nearby roads--many are dead-ends, others are rock-strewn farm trails, a few are alarmingly steep--can be equally rewarding. The surrounding open pastureland, and the cattle grates on the road, make for several this-cannot-be-Taiwan moments.

      Mountain biking is certainly an option hereabouts, and rock climbers will find plenty to occupy them. In fact, when you begin to count pastimes like stargazing (the unpolluted air and relative lack of human inhabitants make for ideal conditions), the list of non-water activities is almost endless.

      There are hot springs elsewhere on the peninsula if the sea is too cold for you (unlikely in this season), not to mention the superb National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium.

      In and around Kenting, you can be sure: You'll run out of time before you run out of things to do.

GETTING THERE

      Unless you're driving your own vehicle, the only way to get to Kenting is by bus. At least four companies run frequent services between Kaohsiung Railway Station and Kenting Road; many buses also stop at Kaohsiung International Airport. If you're traveling from Tainan or Chiayi, and would prefer to avoid Kaohsiung's crowds, take a train to Fangliao (halfway between Pingtung and Kenting), then walk two minutes to the bus stop directly across the road from the train station.