From Tamsui to Baishawan

New Taipei City’s Sanzhi District is just northeast of Tamsui town. Between Tamsui and Keelung the population density is low, with just a sprinkling of towns. Heading north from Tamsui on Highway 2, for a time you’re too far inland and the sea is out of sight – then, suddenly, as you lean into a curve at a point where only the sky has been in view dead ahead in the moments before, there it is laid out directly before you. Just moments later you’re at Qianshui Bay, our first destination.

“Qianshui” means “shallow water”; this bay is an intertidal zone. Many structures in the long line of buildings that stands between the highway and bay’s edge have been transformed into beachfront-oriented cafés and bars. Each evening sunset-watchers crowd their outdoor seating areas and the boardwalk in front. At low tide the water curtain is drawn back on the bay’s rich mini-ecosystem, and visitors spread out among the large rocks encrusted with clam shells and the many tidal pools, each an isolated neighborhood of tiny black fish and scuttling crabs. At this time the everpresent school of local fishermen have all moved out to the exposed algae-covered reefs by the receded deeper waters, adding to the charm of your photo mise-en-scenes.

At the bay’s east end is Zhilan Park . The main attraction here is its charismatic-design Ocean Viewing Platform , dubbed the North Coast’s “most beautiful runway.” Its lookout, at the end of a bridge corridor with a striking aqua blue design, juts out 57m into the bay. On it is a large wedding ring-sculpture installation artwork. The site is at its most romantic when the tide is in and the sun is setting/rising, the shiny rings reflecting the water’s blues and sun’s redrange pastel hues.

The Shuangwan Bikeway, following the coastline, perambulates east about 8km from Qianshui Bay, ending at Baishawan (“White Sand Bay”), which we’re visiting momentarily. “Shuangwan” means “twin bays,” referring to the east and west launch points. There is tree shade among much of its length, as well as a wonder-teeming temporarily revealed underwater world of rocks alongside you at low tide. The pathway is paved and very flat, the environs generally quiet, though of course the noise level picks up on weekends/holidays when day-tripper numbers pick up noticeably. Easy-pedal sorties take about an hour to complete (one way).

Along the way you traverse the pretty-as-apicture Linshanbi Recreation Area . This attraction and Baishawan are in the northwest corner of Shimen District, which is on Sanzhi District’s east. Linshanbi, or Linshan Cape – the “bi ” literally means

“nose,” referring to the cape’s jutting geo-shape –sports a mini-web of appealing trails and familyfun beach-ecology explorations. Black volcanic rock is prominent here; view this and Fugui Cape immediately east on Google’s satellite view and you’ll clearly see the paths of lava flows from days long gone when the Yangmingshan massif was volcanically explosive.

Crescent-shaped Baishawan is tucked into the crook formed by Linshan Cape and another less geodramatic promontory on the east. This is perhaps the most popular North Coast beach with Taipei City dwellers, and definitely so with its expatriates. Defined by consistent calm waters with minimal tide effect, among the panoply of for-rent fun gear here are iconic white cabanas, rattan beach mats, boogie boards, standup paddleboards, and big unicorn floats. There’s also brick-and-mortar and mobile refreshment vendors galore.