Originally Posted by
Northwestrider
I ride regularly in Taiwan with very little touring. However I am able to say the east coast of Taiwan is remarkable in its beauty. The Taiwanese are very friendly. I'd imagine wild camping is possible. If a tour of Taiwan is planned, it would be wise to work on your climbing as there are many hills.
I have also toured Taiwan. It is pretty good for touring as long as you stay on the rural roads (and there are plenty of them!). You can also tour much of the Danshuei river from Taipei south and many of the other rivers that have been dammed. The retaining walls have bicycle paths on them that go for miles. You can tour this way for much of the Danshuei River, for example. It runs for about 160 Km. When you cannot ride the retaining walls, you can ride the roads that run along the river.
Taiwan is an excellent place to visit. Air, water, and trash pollution used to be beyond description, but it is better today. You will still have problem with lung burning air pollution in Taipei, TaiChung, and Tainan - especially with their poorly regulated Naptha crackers which are some of the largest (and most polluting) in the world.
True, the east side of Taiwan is beautiful, but I cannot imagine bicycling it. The terrain is wicked vertical AND worse is the mix with traffic. It is white knuckle driving in a car. It would be suicide on a bicycle.