Taiwan’s secret surfing paradise and artist’s haven getting more popular by the day
Dulan is a remote getaway for travellers when something slower and simpler calls. But the quiet, seaside town’s fame is spreading, and its growing popularity may soon see it overrun with tourists and holidaymakers
The town of Dulan, a quiet hamlet in the Dulan Forest, has long been on the lips of Taipei residents looking to escape the concrete crush. The seaside town on Taiwan’s east coast is little more than a short main drag and a paved ring running up the mountainside named Yuanshan Industry Road, after the region’s blue- collar past. It is now lined with private homes turned B&Bs, farms, and a few modest archaeological sites.
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People describe it as an artist’s haven and a surf bum’s dream – a place where the cost of living isn’t quite so inhibiting as it is in the city and the surf breaks are less than crowded.
The town is in Taitung county, an expanse of southeastern shoreline that gives way to imposing cliffs and green mountain peaks blasting out of the sea. It was once accessible only by ship, with tall waves crashing on long stretches of black and amber sand, lined with tangles of driftwood stripped bare, and seas promising high winter swells.
As a result of its relative remoteness, forbidding coastline, and at times tempestuous seas, Taitung was the last morsel of country to be colonised by Han Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century.
Even today, in low season there is a touch of the “raw”, as the immigrants of the Qin dynasty used to refer to those inhabitants who had yet to submit to their colonial rule. But word is getting out, and while in high season the tour buses use Highway 11 with regularity, it could soon be a place swelling year-round with travellers.
