The Last Stretch of Coast With No Road

Almost every stretch of Taiwan's coastline has a road running tight along it.

Only one stretch doesn't. It is called Alangyi (阿朗壹).

Where the round-island highway stops

The Alangyi Trail lies between Nantian (南田) in Daren Township (達仁鄉), Taitung, and Xuhai (旭海) in Mudan Township, Pingtung.

Years ago, the round-island Provincial Highway 26 was meant to be punched through here, joining the head and tail of Taiwan's coastline into one. But the work reached this point and stopped — because people realized that once a road crossed over, this last stretch of coast untouched by asphalt would never come back.

So Taiwan made a rare decision: to leave a road forever unfinished.

These 8 kilometers became the one stretch of coast on mainland Taiwan that a car cannot reach. It was once part of the Qing-era "Langqiao–Beinan Road" (瑯嶠─卑南道); indigenous people, settlers, and postmen all walked through here. Today it is the Xuhai-Guanyinbi Nature Reserve.

Why it is still here

Alangyi is still Alangyi because it is hard to get into.

The reserve runs on total-volume control: you must apply online to enter, you must be accompanied by a licensed guide, and there is a daily cap on numbers. You cannot just turn up the way you'd wander onto a riverbank.

「

It's not that we don't welcome people. It's that this is the only stretch of coast like this we have left — it needs to be walked very slowly, and very lightly.

」

It sounds like a barrier, but it is really a kind of tenderness. Precisely because it is hard to reach, it never became the next attraction trampled flat.

Nantian stones, and the climb over Guanyinbi

Step into Alangyi and the ground beneath you isn't sand — it's Nantian stones (南田石), round black pebbles polished and gleaming after thousands of years in the Pacific. When the tide pulls back, the whole pebble beach gives off a rushing "hwa-la, hwa-la" sound, as if the sea were counting its stones.

At Guanyinbi (觀音鼻), sheer cliffs block the coast and there is no way to keep walking along the shore — you can only go up, on the high climb: hauling yourself by ropes to the top of the headland, then coming down the other side. From up there, you look down on the open, unsheltered Pacific, the Kuroshio Current flowing right beneath your feet.

Taking stones here is forbidden. The Nantian stones belong to this coast, not to anyone's pocket.

Walking where there is no road

We have grown so used to roads.

A road gives you direction, speed, an answer to "how much longer." But in Alangyi there is no asphalt, no signposts, no signal — you can only follow the shape the coastline already has, and let the tide decide your pace.

As you walk, you come to see that this isn't a coast "with no road" so much as a coast given back to the sea to shape as it chooses. Taiwan kept these 8 kilometers as a reminder: not every place needs to be punched through.

How to walk the Alangyi Trail

• Location: Nantian (南田) in Daren Township, Taitung ↔ Xuhai (旭海) in Mudan Township, Pingtung; about 8.4 km in all, half a day
• Permit required: it lies within the Xuhai-Guanyinbi Nature Reserve and runs on total-volume control; you must apply online to enter and walk with a licensed guide. In peak season and on holidays, slots go fast — book early
• Direction: most people walk from Nantian (the Taitung end) toward Xuhai, following the Kuroshio and the light
• Season and gear: sun protection, non-slip hiking shoes, plenty of water; summers are scorching, and you'll need to watch the sea state and the tides
• Leave no trace: it is forbidden to pick up or take away Nantian stones or any living thing
• How to pair it: it fits best right after "South Link Slow Travel" — heading south from Taimali and Duoliang, you finish off the very last stretch of Taiwan's coastline

Afterword

World-class things are often not about "more" but about "less."

Less development, fewer footprints, fewer places you "absolutely have to see." Alangyi is a rare blank Taiwan kept for itself — a coast with no road that carries you further than any road could.

Walk it and you'll understand: sometimes the most luxurious scenery is a place we never changed.