BAISHAWAN (白沙灣, BAISHA BAY)

Situated north of Taibei City is Baishawan (or Baisha Bay). It is one of the few beaches in Taiwan to feature white sand, most others sporting their versions of black and golden sands. It's considered a great destination spot by people wanting to get away from the crowds and spend a peaceful day out of the city.

Step 1: Getting to Baishawan

This part is relatively simple. Get yourself to an MRT station, work your way onto the red line and head north to Danshui (or Tamsui), the last stop on the northern end.

Exit the station and turn right. At the station there is a bus terminal. The bus you need (either 862 or 863 if I remember correctly) begins its route there. You may want to double check those numbers when you get there. To make this simple there is a tourist information section between the MRT exit and the bus terminal. Their English is fantastic!

You'll travel for a fair amount of time. Depending on traffic it can be as long as an hour and a half. There'll come a time when you see the coastline and think you're close, but then you'll deviate away through a small town for another twenty minutes. Don't panic - you're on the right track. Just keep your ears open and your eyes on the screen displaying for Baishawan to appear.

When you alight you'll be confronted by this. Simply cross the road and manœuvre around the buildings. You'll emerge alongside these shops on the far side.

Though usually less crowded, we arrived on the day they were having a kite competition. So we encountered a few interesting diversions.

There's a reason this is such a popular kite-flying area.

Now, that was that reason again? I forget...

A little tired of carrying the cooler box, I decided setting up camp would be our priority. We found a few rocks to hold down our picnic rug and set to work.

Chicken from yesterday's braai (BBQ) and a cold drink were the perfect appetisers, especially after carrying them the whole way there.

A word of advice - don't pack more liquids than are reasonably comfortable to carry. They weigh a lot.

Also keep an eye out. Occasionally the sea will offer up a painful obstacle.

Exploration further down the beach turned up two things. The first is a second entrance access to the beach via a staircase, the top of which offers a spectacular view of the beach. It ends by the road, offering another way out for those with cars.

The second thing I discovered was a pathway winding itself along the coastline. Between a hill and a great, dark rock a path meandered in and out of sight.

(The pillars flanking the top of the stairs. They can be seen in the previous picture.)

Being me, my first action was to climb the rock. As an afterthought, I drew my camera and took pictures of the beach I had just come from.

This was followed up by a picture of my new course.

Enough driftwood to shake a stick at.... sort of. Well, enough to find a decent walking stick. I hope I'm not the only one who played with driftwood on rocks at the beach as a child.

For those of you who would be put off by the idea of scrambling across rocks, there is the easier, tamer course in the form of a pathway. It's not as exciting, but it'll still get you there.

Baisha Bay also has its quirks. There's the swing sitting atop a mini waterfall.

Odd, personal artworks left by previous rock-scamps.

Squatting in shelters left by others.

(Safe as Houses)

It's enough to inspire you to exercise your own levels of creativity (or potential lack there of.)

(The two Chinese symbols on my shirt together mean "natural". They can also be used to stand for "science" or "biology" at school, though not for chemistry.)

What do you leave behind you?