Chishang
Great for cyclists and vegetarians. Paradise for vegetarian cyclists.
Posted by: Josh, 16 January 2026
Midway along the train line between Hualien and Taitung on Taiwan's East coast, nestled in the East Rift Valley, is Chishang.
A rural town surrounded by rice fields, and best known for the scenic and serene cycling route along Brown Boulevard, Chishang in Taiwan is a must-visit – particularly in the shoulder season months of October and November as the rice plants turn from green to golden brown.
For a compact town, Chishang has excellent options for eating and drinking, including ample vegetarian restaurants, and undoubtedly the best spot for a drink that we found in our travels in Taiwan.
Contents
What to do in Chishang
You may already know Chishang is renowned for its cycling, with designated bike paths weaving through rice fields overlooked by beautiful mountains. But it was surprising to find just how easy a cycle it is, even for a relative novice on a bike.
I’m only a moderately proficient cyclist, and Liz is less confident still. But we were still comfortably able to manage several hours cycling down from the station to Dapo Pond, stopping to admire the views, then out along quiet roads and boardwalks towards the lush and almost endless rice fields on the edge of town.
Even in only moderate shape, and in slightly higher than average temperatures for late October – in the high 20 degrees Celsius – we were able to get round comfortably on a regular pedal bike. Some sections of the cycle route are narrow, and rookie cyclists should take care on these – we only encountered section of the path in which the road slanted off towards the edge, but that was enough to leave Liz with a grazed hand from bumping into the fence.
Our bikes were a mere 100NT$ each (about £2.40) for five hours from one of the rental places by the station – itself a beautiful building, even before you start your trip.
You could also go for an e-bike, and many tourists when we visited chose to rent the buggies or family-sized cycling options available from shops all around the town. Most local tourists took the e-buggies/family sized e-bikes.
The views on your cycle or buggy tour are nothing short of cinematic. As is the case for many of the more well known tourist views in Taiwan, as soon as we were away from the top of Mr Brown Boulevard (named for a coffee company whose advert was filmed here), the crowds instantly thinned out and we were often several hundreds of metres from the nearest other tourist.
There’s a host of notable picture spots along the route: a giant waterwheel, the great view pavilion which offers (slightly) elevated views of the countryside around you, and the Takeshi Kaneshiro tree – yet another spot famous in this part of the world for being featured in an advert, this time for Eva Air. To a western tourist, it may just be a tree… but a nice one, particularly on a sunny day.
For those looking for a detailed suggestion of a possible route, we can’t recommend Nick Kembel’s work highly enough for his in-depth recommendations on this and many, many more parts of Taiwan – check it out here, if you haven’t already.
Done cycling? There are a couple of other spots to check out, but nothing that will take more than an hour or two of your time.
The Chishang Fanbao Museum is dedicated to the history of bento boxes and is still a place you can pick up lunch today.
Which brings me to Chishang's next biggest draw: its food and drink.
Where to eat and drink
Read our tips on food and drink in Taiwan on our What to Know Before you Go post
Our favourite bar in Taiwan
We’ll eulogise more about this gorgeous art gallery and bar in our Best of Taiwan post (coming soon!), but Shan'ao (search 山凹。咖啡 | 酒酌 | 小食 | 藝文展演空間 in Google Maps) is a must-visit in Chishang.
Liz enjoyed a refreshing Kavava cocktail, made with millet wine, while I adored the Chishang roast coffee – both the perfect flavour and the elegant serving of it.
Drinking here, in a cozy, blissfully quiet room taking in the artwork all around us, was a highlight of the trip – and a much-needed moment of relaxation after our cycling earlier in the day. We shared a waffle, made with a sourdough base and served with a local honey blended with lychee, which was just as delicious as the drinks. The owner here speaks a little English, meaning even the ordering experience was totally stress-free.
Coffee
If you don't fancy the black coffee at Shan'ao, there are a few cafes to choose from. I enjoyed a visit to Bike de Coffee, where we enjoyed two cappuccinos and a green pepper and tomato bagel. Coffees are good and I was a fan of the bagel, which had a little sweetness to it, though Liz was a little less keen.
Dinner spots
We were disappointed not to be able to make a reservation at Cheku, a fine dining vegetarian restaurant which creates seasonal dishes out of local ingredients and gets rave reviews online. Reviews generally recommend booking at least a couple of days in advance – but we tried booking three days in advance and couldn’t get a table. If it looks like it’s for you, make sure to email ahead well before you want a seat.
Fortunately, we had a great time elsewhere. We stopped in another vegetarian restaurant, Qiaobenwei Vegetarian Cuisine (search 巧本味蔬食人文料理 in Google Maps), and ended up trying half the menu. They serve a range of authentic local food, all of it well cooked – and some of it, such as a noodle dish prepared with Toona leaf, totally unfamiliar to my palette – for a very reasonable price. The restaurant gets busy so try to turn up early to secure a table.
Attached to the Farmers’ Association is a restaurant, Ikegami Bean (search 池上豆之 in Google) – where you can try tofu in various different forms. Expensive by Taiwanese standards, we limited our spending to a couple of small plates of tofu rolls, coming to 300NT$ (just over £7.15). Nice but unremarkable, it’s maybe best for those only staying in Taiwan a short while and wanting somewhere to sample a variety of different tofu textures.
Vegetarian Boy will serve you good food in huge quantities if, like me, you misunderstand the ordering system. In the end, one meal for Liz and two meals worth of food for me – two bowls of broth and toppings, plus an accidental bowl of rice and curry sauce – came to around 330 NT$ (£8). Recommended for anyone looking to eat big on a budget.
Night markets
There is an occasional night market in Chishang, according to the very helpful lady running the gallery/bar space that I talked about above. While we didn’t check it out, it was open on the Wednesday we were there but we were told it’s only open two nights a week, and the impression we got was that it might be small in scale. Know more about it? Let us know in the comments and we’ll update this guide.
Does it Ding Go?
Sure does! You can find an outlet of the beloved bubble tea chain known as Ding Go on the main road through town.
There can be no Life without Ding Go
Getting there
Read more about public transport in Taiwan on our What to Know Before you Go post
Easily reached from Hualien, with trains running several times a day and costing around 340NT$ (a little over £8). The journey takes around 1hr 20 mins.
It’s easy enough to get there from Taipei too – direct trains take between 2hrs and 2hrs 15, and cost 565NT$ as of December 2025 (£13.75).
Useful tips
-
Better bikes might be available if you look slightly further afield than the first stop by the station. While ours worked well enough to cycle comfortably, and we couldn’t complain about the price, they weren’t without their problems – a seat that couldn’t be adjusted up for me, brakes that ran slightly long, and a chain that slipped off Liz’s bike on a couple of occasions. We were happy to take what we could get on a budget, but shopping around might serve you well.
-
If you read too many Reddit threads, you might start to worry about stray dogs here and elsewhere in Taiwan. While it’s true that you might see a lot of strays and you should exercise caution – you can read a bit more about the history of this issue in a recent Taipei Times story – we had no problems with dogs on our trip. The vast majority are nervous and simply wandered off when ignored – however hard you may find that if you’re less confident with dogs – while a much smaller number of others came to greet us in a cautiously friendly way.
Final thoughts on Chishang
Liz's final thoughts
For a small town in the mountains, Chishang really packs a punch. The golden rice fields filling the valley between misty mountains was truly beautiful, and the cycling was fairly easy due to the well-maintained flat cycle paths. Make sure you wear sunscreen so you don’t get burnt like I did, even if you think it looks cloudy outside.
While Chishang is a small rural town with not much in the way of nightlife, I’d still say it’s worth it for a short stopover. Cycling around the beautiful rice fields enjoying the scenery was one of our favourite days in Taiwan. It also makes a convenient stopover if you’re travelling down the east cost of Taiwan, say from Hualien to Taitung, Kaohsiung, or Kenting.
If you have time, I recommend staying two nights so you have one full day to enjoy the beauty of the East Rift Valley. You could also arrive here in the morning, cycle in the afternoon, and leave the next day since the cycle route isn’t super long (it took us about three hours).
Josh's final thoughts
Chishang will only be a short part of anyone’s trip to Taiwan, but for those travelling in October or November it may be their favourite part too.
For ease of cycling, Chishang tops Sun Moon Lake and it's every bit its equal for the views and the sensation of travelling around the area.
While you won't need to stay too many days here, the time I spent here was some of the best on our adventure.
Related posts
