After spending the last 5 days around the lovely Nantou County (南投縣), we now head further south by taking a long drive towards Pingtung County (屏东县). We stopped by Hengchun Township (恆春鎮) which is the only urban township in the southern part of Pingtung County. It’s also the southernmost township in Taiwan and a gateway to Kenting.

At Hengchun, the driver brought us to a popular store named Xiao Du Bao Zi (小杜包子), which serves one of the most delicious baozi I had in Taiwan. The steamed buns are handmade-on-site, come in big portion with generous filling and it tastes so good!

We also checked out two other attractions in Hengchun like the historic East Gate and Chuhuo Eternal Flame. The East Gate (东门) is part of the city defence walls built in the 19th century that have been preserved.

It’s possible to walk on top of the city wall but there isn’t much panoramic view to sing home about…

The nearby Chuhuo Special Scenic Area (恆春出火) is where the deep-lying natural gases are emitted through the cracks and gaps from the mudstones ground. Which means those natural gases will ignite when there is fire source.

An old gentleman was making use of the ‘free gas’ to cook sweet potatoes while we’re there. Can you spot his aluminium foil wrapped sweet potatoes in the picture below?

Most of us were exhausted after a long day ride by the time we reached Howard Beach Resort Kenting (墾丁福华). So we decided to take a rest before checking out Kenting night market (墾丁大街).

Kenting night market

“The sun goes down, the stars come out, and all that counts, is here and now”.

This is surely the place to be after sundown in Kenting. And unlike the clamped night markets in Taipei, Kenting night market is well spread out at either sides of a main road. The downside is that we have to keep watching out for vehicles while eating and moving along – perhaps they could have close the road to traffic at night.

There’s a wide variety of food items though most stalls are selling almost the same stuff. We had our fun at some of the numerous game booths too. Though the market is not on the same scale like those in the big cities, it’s still worth checking out!

STAY: Howard Beach Resort Kenting review

Howard Beach Resort is huge. The massive compound includes a big swimming pool, bowling alley, gaming arcade and shopping area. Don’t expect too much though, the bowling lanes look under-maintained, arcade games are seriously dated and most of the shops seem to be closed down. Hotel provides shuttle service with golf carts from lobby to its main entrance. From there, it’s a 5 minute walk to Kenting night market.

Perhaps the highlight is the spacious room with two comfortable queen sized beds, a large bathroom and balcony. Overall, we enjoyed our 2 nights stay here and wouldn’t mind staying here again.