Tomas Belcik

Cycling Taiwan Tomas Belcik

From Taroko Gorge to Taipei 101, the Mazu festivals and pilgrimage temples, recognized by UNESCO as a world intangible or living heritage, Taiwan has become popular for an endless variety of incredible food, and as of last also a world-class cycling destination on account of having popularized cycling to the masses.
Born of the love for cycling and a cycling network of local bike routes, Taiwan created Cycling Route No. 1. as the route of choice for most to circumnavigate the island.
Cycling Taiwan is a full-color travel pictorial, a photo-essay, a documentary, and a guidebook with all the info you need to set out on much the same journey around Taiwan as the author did.
It follows a counterclockwise route around the island, first cycling south from Taipei along the West Coast. Propelled by the powerful winds of the Typhoon Alley and visiting Taiwan's colorful temples at Hsinchu, Daijia, Lukang, Tainan, and Kaohsiung, you ride to the southernmost point of Taiwan. Turning north, you traverse the southern mountains en route to the East Coast and up from there you ride back to Taipei.
Written by an avid cyclist and a photographer, with many cycling guides to his name, an adventure and cultural travel professional with an architectural background and four decades of travel throughout Asia and the rest of the world, Cycling Taiwan provides an insightful background for a richer and more rewarding travel experience on this extraordinary island.
Containing 472 photographs with informative narrative and captions, cycling details of route stages and distances, a list of accommodations, and the route-related GPX cycling tracks you can download, the book promises to entice any intrepid or armchair traveler. Above all, this is not only a cycling tour pictorial of Taiwan but also a visual appetizer to Taiwan's mind-boggling variety of food as nowhere else you can say "Ride to Eat" and "Eat to Ride" has as much meaning as in Taiwan!