The Qingshui Cliffs are where Taiwan's eastern mountains simply stop and the Pacific begins. The rock face rises almost a kilometre straight out of the sea, a wall of grey and white marble and gneiss streaked with vegetation, and the road runs along its flank, cut into the cliff, with a drop of hundreds of metres on one side. The water below is a deep, intense blue, and when the light hits it right, the whole scene seems almost unreal.
The cliffs are part of a long stretch of the eastern coast where the Philippine Sea plate meets the Eurasian plate, and the collision is pushing the mountains up faster than the sea can wear them away. That is why the slopes are so steep, why earthquakes are common and why landslides occasionally close the road. The Suhua Highway, which runs along this coastline, was originally built in the Japanese period and later widened, and it remains a spectacular feat of engineering, with tunnels, cuttings and viaducts that keep the road clinging to the cliff.
The riding is magnificent but demanding. The road is narrow in places, with blind bends, tunnels and heavy traffic that includes trucks, tour coaches and sometimes cyclists, so patience and concentration matter. Keep to your side, especially in tunnels, and give the edge a wide berth. Rockfall and heavy rain can close sections, and typhoon season from summer into early autumn brings the greatest risks, so check the road status before setting off. The best weather is spring and autumn, and mornings are generally clearer, with the sun lighting the cliffs from the east.
Viewpoints along the route allow you to stop and look out over the ocean, and small stalls and shops sell drinks and snacks. Nothing here is built to last the way a town is, so the services you find may be simple. Hualien City, about twenty-nine kilometres to the south, has petrol stations, restaurants and everything else, and the other end of the highway has similar places at Su'ao and Yilan, so make sure you start with a full tank.
Find a safe pull-off, switch off the engine, and listen. The sound of the sea far below the cliff is something you will remember.