When the day is just starting to unwind in the extreme southern part of Taiwan – the Jialeshui area in Manzhou, there is a small park near the popular surfer’s spot in Taiwan – Gangkou beach, which located just down few steps from the Yucun park, while on the way to Jialeshui Scenic Garden area.
360° photo of the sunset in Gangkou beach in the Jialeshui area.
Come early morning, and it’s almost sure, that the beach will be all yours except for the few surfers who go to the beach early to avoid daytime heat and catch the early wave.
If you are now planning to swim or catch a wave with a surfboard, you can start slowly by exploring the Yucun park first. As usual, you can take a virtual walk in some part of it in our 360° tour:
360° tour of the part of Yucun park near the entrance to Gangkou beach
In the tour above, you can see the main entrance to the beach, which is near the public toilet, and leads directly to the sandy part of Gangkou beach.
Main Entrance to Gangkou beach
The beach actually is pretty big, it stretches for more than 1.2 km. (source). It has 2 parts, the big sandy part, and the small rocky part on the left side of the beach where most early sunrise photos were taken by me, like this:
As this study points out, that:
Long-term weather records show that northeasterly winds are dominant during winter, and can reach speeds as high as 10 – 17 m s-1 (Shih et al. 1994). This led to the build-up of up to 1.5 km long, 200 – 300 m wide dune ridges obliquely parallel to the coastline. Consequently, a relatively wide, sandy beach, accompanied by up to 10 – 20 m high coastal dunes stretches about 1.2 km south of the river-mouth. The shoreline characteristic changes again, as the beach transitions into a cliff coast
Now, take a virtual walk on the morning sun-lit Gangkou beach and look in all directions in our 360° tour:
You can actually go down to the beach also to this, rocky side as well, the road then is a bit less smooth, but still walkable.
This small and steep trail leads up to the Yucun park.
Same trail seen from up, Yucun park
Take a small virtual walk at this side of the Yucun park as well.
Gangkou beach is almost always associated with surfers and smaller homestays up on the road and in Gangkou village, and near Gangkou Suspension Bridge will be usually decorated with surfing themes.
This B&B near Gangkou beach also rents out surf boards
Since Gangkou beach is located on more wild, east side of the Kenting – Manzhou Township, it is more possible to encounter wildlife as well, I was able to spot several macaques in Yucun park, but while using a 360° camera, did not have time to catch them on the photo.
Additional Resources to explore: