Easter Holiday Ride – Riding in “Love”

When two people are in love, we will say “they are 沐浴愛河中” in Chinese (ie. bathing in the love river). However, one of the sweet ladies of my cycling team has her own interpretation:

愛河除了用來沐浴外，還可以跟友好一起沿途踩車

Meaning that “Love River” is not only just for falling in love, but also a wonderful place to enjoy riding with good friends.

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Well, my Easter holiday ride on 30 March 2018 was another group ride with my family and the same old cycling buddies. However, unlike what we usually have, we have an oversea cycling tour in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

For the Kaohsiung cycling trip, we have reserved a number of Giant Escape, Liv Alight and the YJ251 bikes (for my little boy).

After picking up our bikes at the Giant bike shop in the Sanmin District by noon, we rushed to the promenade near Wufu 4th Road and Hexi Road to meet the other two members of our team.

Interesting enough, the other two members have reserved a tandem bike for the cycling journeys in Kaohsiung.

Wow, so warm and touching!!!

Today’s journey is consisted of two parts. The first part is the “Love River Bike Path” – A well paved cycling path along the “Love River” or “Ai he” (愛河) from Hexi Road to the “Smile Park” (微笑公園) where you can enjoy the beautiful scenery along the river promenade.

Major points of interest are:

• Kaohsiung 228 Peace Memorial Park
• Zhongdou Wetlands Park
• Sanmin Parent-Child Park
• Heart of Love River
• Hedi Park
• Smile Park.

The end point of the Love River Bike Path – the Smile Park.

Before continuing with the second part of the journey, we have our late lunch at Tino’s Pizza near the Hedi Park, a cozy place with tasty Italian foods.

We are so hungry that we forgot to take pictures for most of the food!

Summary of the first part of the journey.

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The second part of today’s journey is cycling around the Lotus Pond (or Lianchi Tan) in the Zuoying District, along the “Lotus Pond Bike Path“. Given that there is no bike path in between, we have to ride along the extremely busy Chongde Road and the CueiHua Bicycle Bridge to reach the Lotus Pond.

The 416 Metres long “CueiHua Bicycle Bridge” is one of the two bicycle bridges built by the Kaohsiung government to facilitate cyclists to ride across roads with high traffic volume. The other one is the “Star-of-Cianjhen Bike Bridge” in the Cianjhen District that will also be shared in my later post.

Other than helping cyclists to safely move along the Cueihua Road and the Kaohsiung Metro Expressway, one can also enjoy the stunning view across the Lotus Pond, the Botanical Garden and the Jhouzih Wetland Park when riding along the bridge.

Shortly after crossing the Cueihua Bicycle Bridge and the Huantan Road, we arrived at the Lotus Pond Bike Path and began our round-the-pond ride.

Within a few minutes, we arrived at the Lianchi Tan Scenic Area where the famous Dragon and Tiger Pagodas are located.

Opposite to the Pagodas is the Zuoying Cih Ji Palace (慈濟宮) that was built in 1719.

Being a tourist spot, there are also a lot of souvenir shops and eating places along the Lianchi Tan Scenic Area.

Time flies and it’s time for the return trip after our sprinting along the Pond.

Lovely sunset at the Cueihua Bicycle Bridge and the Heart of Love River.

If times allowed, I highly recommend having a night ride or visit to the Heart of Love River where one can enjoy the sparkling night view created by those well planned spot lights embedded along the bridges.

Summary for the second part of our journey.

We were a little bit late on our return trip and the Chongde Road is terribly busy as that was peak period on Friday evening. Fast moving scooters and motor cars were next to us along the road and the various road junctions. Seems to be very dangerous but in fact it was ok as Taiwan drivers are quite friendly to the cyclists.

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3-D visualisation of the journey as generated with Relive.

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Background information:

Route Name	Love River / Lotus Pond
Background	This bike route is consisted of two bike paths interconnected by the Chongde Road. The first bike path is built along the Love River and extended to the Smile Park. The second bike path is made up of the Cueihua Bicycle Bridge and the Lotus Pond in the Zuoying District.
Distance	30 Kilometers (Round Trip)
Starting point	Junction near Hexi Road and Wufu 4th Road
End point	Lotus Pond in Zuoying
Point of Interest	Kaohsiung 228 Peace Memorial Park, Zhongdou Wetlands Park, Sanmin Parent-Child Park, Heart of Love River, Hedi Park, Smile Park. Botanical Garden, Jhouzih Wetland Park & Lotus Pond
View (1 to 5 👍; with 5 for the most stunning view)	👍👍👍👍
Difficulty (1 to 5 💪🏼; with 5 is most difficult)	💪🏼
Support facilities
Food & Drinks	Lots of local cafes, restaurants along Love River and near Lotus Pond
Toilets	Public toilets in Kaohsiung 228 Peace Memorial Park, Zhougdou Wetlands Park, Jhouzih Wetland Park, Botanical Garden and Lotus Pond