Luodong Sports Park

Traveling From Xindian (新店) to Pinglin (坪林) has become my weekly ritual since Alert 3 Level was enforced in Mid-May. I hop on Bus 923 every weekend to hike in the mountains. Bus 923 runs every hour, it takes 40 minutes from Xindian to Pinglin via Shenkeng. There are four tunnels, Jingmei (573M), Muzha (1875M), Wutu (248M), Pongshan (3,806M). Today I took the cross-county bus from Pinglin to Loudong to experience Hsuehshan (雪山) Tunnel (12,955M), the longest Tunnel in Taiwan. 

I spent 16 points taking Bus 923 from Xindian to Pinglin with my elderly e-ticket (480 points/month), arrived in Pinglin at 10:10 with my neighbor friend. We got on cozy Capital Bus 9028 with three rows seat at 10:40. No sooner had Bus 9028 departed, than we were in the Hsuehshan Tunnel. I turned on two cabin reading lights as if I were on the first-class cross-country airplane. I only scribbled a few words on my portable diary, then we reached the Eastern Taiwan.

When exiting the Hsuehshan Tunnel, the Yilan Plain stretched as far as I could see. The green rice paddies reached up to the horizon in a race to meet the azure Pacific Ocean. The Guishan Island (Turtle Island) to our left in the Pacific Ocean guided us all the way to Luodong (羅東) Bus Terminal.

Luodong Train Station is right across from the bus terminal. We passed the Luodong Station to get to Gongzheng Road, the main road in Luodang. Our destination of Luodong Sports Park is 2.2 kilometers west of train station. Before we reached the park, we enjoyed a delicious fusion cuisine at Ah-sui Italian Restaurant for lunch for two hours. 

After lunch, we took a stroll at the 47 hectares park with a range of facilities for sport including basketball and a swimming pool. The park is divided into four sections, forest area, sport area, waterscapes, and other landscapes. We took 3PM Bus 9028 back to Xindian before 4PM. It was another fruitful field trip full of sweat and laughters.