一日雙北 Twin Northern Highways in One Day
Finally, I've decided to write something to promote the beautiful cycling routes around Taiwan. I've really benefited from reading posts about routes that I intended to do before I actually started--it just saved you so much time planning the logistic! Unfortunately, I found most posts like this are in Chinese, and some famous routes may not be searchable in English. Therefore, I hope my blog can help foreign cyclists who wish to cycle in Taiwan but aren't so fluent in Mandarin can have something to be prepared before they start their first ride in Taiwan. This is my first post, so any suggestion is welcome! :-)
Let's begin with today's ride 一日雙北, which roughly means Twin Northern Highways in One Day (bear with me, I'm not a pro translator). The route goes through two highways - provincial highway 7 (BeiHeng highway) and BeiYi highway - both start with Bei (北), which means north, and that's how the name of the route comes from.
You can find the route here:
https://bike100.tw/en/routes/9796494*
strava route: https://www.strava.com/routes/9796494
The route is around 220 km, depending on where you start in Taipei, and over 3000 m climbing. It usually takes 12~14 hours to finish the whole route, so knowing where you are on the course and where to stop for rest is important. I will discuss the route in four sections: (1) Taipei > the start of provincial highway 7 (Sanxia), (2) the start of provincial highway 7 > Mingchi (the highest point on provincial highway 7), (3) Mingchi > YiLan, (4) YiLan > Taipei.
(1) Taipei > the start of provincial highway 7 (Sanxia)
Knowning that it's going to be a long day, I started my ride at 5 am from my home in central Taipei. To get to provincial highway, you can simply follow provincial highway 3 toward south or take the Taipei metro system MRT to Dingpu station (just be aware of the period when bikes aren't allowed on MRT) then follow provincial highway 3 to Sanxia.
This section is super flat so you can ride it as a warm-up. I'll suggest the first rest stop to be a convenience store slightly over Sanxia, though you can find plenty of 7-11s along the way before you ride on highway 7 as well.
(2) The start of provincial highway 7 > Mingchi (the highest point on provincial highway 7)
Once you get on highway 7, the climb starts. This is probably the best part of this route, so sit back and enjoy the views!** The climbs before Baling are not hard: most of them are not steep, not super long (<10 km), and include some fun descents in between. However, note that this part along is 46 km, which would take around 2.5 hours, and there are only a few convenience stores along the way, so make sure you get the most of it when you past one. I'll recommend the HiLife at around 16 km mark on provincial highway 7 for a short stop. The biggest climb of the day is yet to come, so save some energy and be prepared.
Here are some beautiful views you can enjoy before Baling.
As planned, I arrived at Baling slighly before 9 am and began the climb to Sileng at 9. Baling to Sileng is the biggest climb of the day, which is 10.5 km long at 5.1%. Make sure you stop at Baling convenience store (47 km mark on provincial highway 7) and get some food before you start the climb.
(3) Mingchi > YiLan
At this point, you have done over 2000 meters of climbing and probably 6 to 7 hours of riding. Fortunately, after Mingchi, it is a 11 km long downhill with many hairpin turns. It's kinda annoying because the hairpin appears like every 400 meters and you have to brake a lot to corner safely.
Once the sketchy downhill part is over, you'll take a left turn to keep on highway 7 for another 30ish km to get to YiLan. This section is a bit hilly, but nothing to be afraid of. There are few rest stops along the way (there are police stations where you can fill some water), so it's best to have lunch at YiLan.
(4) YiLan > Taipei.
After YiLan, you can simply follow provincial highway 9. The last stop before the BeiYi highway climb is Jiaoxi 7-11. BeiYi highway is not hard, but at this point you'll probably be exhausted so it could still be difficult. At approximately halfway, you can stop at Pinglin convenience store for a rest. After Pinglin, it comes the last climb of the day (10 km at 3.4%)!
The downhill of BeiYi highway is guaranteed to be fun. I averaged 46 km/hr on the 11 km downhill!
Overall, it took me 11 hour 18 minute (including rest time) to complete the ride, which averaged 24.4 km/hr and had an elevation gain of 3193 meters. This ride is one of the most challenging rides you can do in Northern Taiwan, and the view is probably the best! There you go 一日雙北 Twin Northern Highways in One Day. Let me know if you have any question. Hope you enjoy the ride!
* https://bike100.tw/en is a website that I highly recommend for people finding routes in Taiwan. It collects many routes around Taiwan (and Japan now I believe) and rates them according to the difficulty.
**Forget to metion that you should be aware of the dogs on highway 7, some could be really aggressive.
Let's begin with today's ride 一日雙北, which roughly means Twin Northern Highways in One Day (bear with me, I'm not a pro translator). The route goes through two highways - provincial highway 7 (BeiHeng highway) and BeiYi highway - both start with Bei (北), which means north, and that's how the name of the route comes from.
You can find the route here:
https://bike100.tw/en/routes/9796494*
strava route: https://www.strava.com/routes/9796494
The route is around 220 km, depending on where you start in Taipei, and over 3000 m climbing. It usually takes 12~14 hours to finish the whole route, so knowing where you are on the course and where to stop for rest is important. I will discuss the route in four sections: (1) Taipei > the start of provincial highway 7 (Sanxia), (2) the start of provincial highway 7 > Mingchi (the highest point on provincial highway 7), (3) Mingchi > YiLan, (4) YiLan > Taipei.
(1) Taipei > the start of provincial highway 7 (Sanxia)
This section is super flat so you can ride it as a warm-up. I'll suggest the first rest stop to be a convenience store slightly over Sanxia, though you can find plenty of 7-11s along the way before you ride on highway 7 as well.
(2) The start of provincial highway 7 > Mingchi (the highest point on provincial highway 7)
Once you get on highway 7, the climb starts. This is probably the best part of this route, so sit back and enjoy the views!** The climbs before Baling are not hard: most of them are not steep, not super long (<10 km), and include some fun descents in between. However, note that this part along is 46 km, which would take around 2.5 hours, and there are only a few convenience stores along the way, so make sure you get the most of it when you past one. I'll recommend the HiLife at around 16 km mark on provincial highway 7 for a short stop. The biggest climb of the day is yet to come, so save some energy and be prepared.
Here are some beautiful views you can enjoy before Baling.
As planned, I arrived at Baling slighly before 9 am and began the climb to Sileng at 9. Baling to Sileng is the biggest climb of the day, which is 10.5 km long at 5.1%. Make sure you stop at Baling convenience store (47 km mark on provincial highway 7) and get some food before you start the climb.
 |
| Sileng is the highest point of on provincial highway 7. Mingchi is not far away from Sileng and is at a similar altitude. |
(3) Mingchi > YiLan
At this point, you have done over 2000 meters of climbing and probably 6 to 7 hours of riding. Fortunately, after Mingchi, it is a 11 km long downhill with many hairpin turns. It's kinda annoying because the hairpin appears like every 400 meters and you have to brake a lot to corner safely.
 |
| A famous sign on the way down that people will stop by and take pictures. Simply because it looks cool I guess. |
(4) YiLan > Taipei.
After YiLan, you can simply follow provincial highway 9. The last stop before the BeiYi highway climb is Jiaoxi 7-11. BeiYi highway is not hard, but at this point you'll probably be exhausted so it could still be difficult. At approximately halfway, you can stop at Pinglin convenience store for a rest. After Pinglin, it comes the last climb of the day (10 km at 3.4%)!
 |
| Viewing Guishan Island on top of BeiYi highway. |
The downhill of BeiYi highway is guaranteed to be fun. I averaged 46 km/hr on the 11 km downhill!
Overall, it took me 11 hour 18 minute (including rest time) to complete the ride, which averaged 24.4 km/hr and had an elevation gain of 3193 meters. This ride is one of the most challenging rides you can do in Northern Taiwan, and the view is probably the best! There you go 一日雙北 Twin Northern Highways in One Day. Let me know if you have any question. Hope you enjoy the ride!
* https://bike100.tw/en is a website that I highly recommend for people finding routes in Taiwan. It collects many routes around Taiwan (and Japan now I believe) and rates them according to the difficulty.
**Forget to metion that you should be aware of the dogs on highway 7, some could be really aggressive.
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