Camping in 小野柳 臺東Xiaoyeliu, Taitung : My First Time Camping out in Taiwan

Xiaoyeliu (小野柳)

Also known as Fugang Geopark (富岡地質公園), the area have lots of interesting rock formations along the coast. Unlike most of the country of Taiwan’s east coast, the rock formation here is primarily made of sandstone.

Near-but-not-so-near Taitung downtown, the area is accessible and has a nice quiet glamping area overlooking the sea. On good days, you can even view Green/ Sanasai Island!

For 2025’s blood moon, we chose this as our base of operations.

In this article, I’ll outline the practicalities of our glamping adventure in Fugang Geopark.

Getting in (and out)

Taipei to Taitung

From Taipei Metro, we took Puyuma Express (普悠瑪號). Named after Pinuyumayan‘s word for “united”, this TRA train brought us from Taipei to Taitung.

To buy tickets, we used Taiwan Railway e-booking app. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tw.gov.tra.twtraffic; https://apps.apple.com/us/app/taiwan-railway-e-booking/id1441617748)

It cost us 1872 NTD per person. Train is express, so it skipped a lot of stops. Price covers return trip and a meal for the ride to Taitung. Note that easycard is not accepted.

Taitung Station to Xiaoyeliu

Original plan is to take a bus but when the bus arrived, driver told us it’s not the bus we were looking for.

With time running out for us to check-in at the camp, we decided to take a cab. The cab’s waiting area is in the same area as the bus stop.

It cost us 640 NTD total. This covers return trip as well- we asked the driver to pick us up 9:30am two days later.

Glamping

While camping is fun, since our focus this time is to do astrophotography, we opted to glamp. We stayed at Taitung Xiaoyeliu Camping Area (台東小野柳露營區; LINE Customer Service: @go617; web: https://www.i-camping.com.tw/;).

It cost us 2,600 NTD to get a roofed platform/ cabin to pitch our tent in. We were expecting bad weather, so we opted to get that instead of just an open air platform.

We stayed 2 nights- from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning.

Like other glamping area, there is working electricity, running water, WC, and shower area. In case you don’t have a tent, you can rent from them. In our case, we brought our own tent– “Blackie” (our other one, “Flappy” is too small to accommodate the astrophotography gear we brought).

Geopark is directly accessible via stone steps.

For food, we opted to walk to a 7-11 store nearby (https://maps.app.goo.gl/Lwes2zcXgAAjZaeBA). There are also stores to buy (cold) drinks and instant noodles from within the camp area.

Walking along Xiaoyeliu

Using the camp site as our base of operation, we first went to the Geopark. There are lots of really interesting rock formations there! There are sign-boards all over the place that told us what the rocks are called by the locals. There are also warning signs about sections that get very wet and slippery. We visited the area at night time (we saw locals night fishing!) and at day time. The views and experiences are very very different for each.

Where to eat near Xiaoyeliu besides 7-11?

For breakfast, we went Fugang Harbor (富岡漁港; https://maps.app.goo.gl/tbKPRVyooQw8vDAFA). It’s less than a kilometer away. There we ate seafood caught by locals. I find it odd but they do serve sharks and devil fish if you are into that. For us we opted for fried rice, noodles, and prawn croquets.

Stargazing in Xiaoyeliu

Star viewing and astrophotography from the camp is nice- it’s a Bortle 4 to 5 area! On new moon (or in our case, during the totality of the eclipse) you get a very decent sub-urban starry sky.

Read how we took videos and photos of the Blood Moon here: Stargazing in Taitung, Taiwan: Blood Moon Eclipse 2025

That’s it for now. In the future, I would like to return to the area with a bicycle and just cycle around Taitung to see what’s there (and eat lots of sea food). It’s a nice break from the fast paced life in Taipei.

Until next time!

-🐻さん