Sun Moon Lake is one of the classic stops on the Taiwan tourist trail and is increasingly marketed as a destination for cyclists. While there are several decent bike trails around the lake, it is geared more toward casual day riders than toward people planning a multi-day road bike trip.
This local guide to cycling Sun Moon Lake should help explain how to ride the loop and how to build the lake into a multi-day itinerary.
The Sun Moon Lake Cycle Loop
The headline ride at the lake is the 27km lap around the water. It’s the route advertised by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau, CNN once ran it on a list of the most beautiful bike rides in the world, and on a clear morning the reputation makes sense. Calm water on one side. Forested hills on the other. The kind of mid-altitude air that feels like a small reward after a hot day on the lowlands.
Be aware that the loop is rollier than the brochures let on. The western shore in particular has a couple of small but genuine climbs of a kilometre or so, plus a few sharper little kickers that catch first-timers by surprise. Nothing that anyone with reasonable fitness will struggle with, but if you’re picturing a flat promenade lap, recalibrate.
The sightseeing stops break the ride up nicely. Wenwu Temple sits high above the northern shore with a steep staircase down to the water and good views back across the lake. Ci’en Pagoda is a short walk up from the eastern side, built by Chiang Kai-shek in memory of his mother, and worth the climb on foot once you’ve stopped anyway. Xiangshan Visitor Center on the southwestern shore is a piece of modern architecture by Japanese architect Norihiko Dan, all sweeping concrete curves opening onto the water. Far more impressive in person than the photos make it look.
Three Tips Before You Ride
We’ve done the loop dozens of times with clients. Three things consistently make the ride better, and one of them is more contentious than it should be.
Ride clockwise. The thing you came to see is the lake, not the other lane of traffic. Clockwise puts you on the lake side of the road the whole way. It sounds painfully obvious, but half the riders we see at the lake are doing it the wrong way round because the tourism signage describes the route in both directions and they pick whichever entry point they happen to arrive at. Pick the right one.
Stick to the road on a road bike. The official route mixes bike path and road, and while the bike path sections are lovely for casual riders on hybrids, on a road bike they cause problems. You get casual riders weaving in front of you, and at one point the path inexplicably includes a flight of stairs. We’re not joking. Somebody, somewhere, was tasked with the job of designing a cycle route and decided that a full-on flight of stairs would be fine. There are also sections of the path that get really slippy in the damp; cleats and stone steps, not a friendly combination. The road version of the loop has a short tunnel and a decent amount of extra climbing, but you’ll enjoy the ride a lot more and it takes you directly to all the sights as well.
Plan your food stops. The visible street food at Ita Thao and Shuishe is aimed at coach-tour traffic. It’s not terrible, but it’s not brilliant, and quite a few of the stalls cycle through under the same generic banner. The locals’ picks are different. The BBQ Chinese sausages from the cart outside Xuan Zang Temple on the southern shore are excellent and worth a small detour, and there’s a waterfront restaurant just outside the small town of Yuchi that does proper local food and is worth the slightly longer one. On our guided trips James steers people to whichever of these is open on the day; if you’re riding self-supported, those two are your best opening bets.
Sun Moon Lake to the Taiwan KOM
The other reason the lake matters to cyclists is what it connects to. Sun Moon Lake is the southern gateway to Wuling Pass, the summit of the Taiwan KOM and Taiwan’s highest road at 3,275m.
Lake to summit is around 85km and roughly 3,500m of climbing if you go the direct way, via Puli and onto the Blue 14 road that climbs up into the central mountains. There’s a more scenic option that tracks the edge of Wan-ta Reservoir, which is a beautiful piece of road, but it adds another 16km and about 1,000m of climbing, so you’re paying a real tax for the view.
Honestly, we don’t think this is the best side to climb the KOM from. Traffic is heavier than the more famous Hualien approach, the gradients have a tendency to be steady-grinding rather than dramatic, and the most photogenic parts of the climb are higher up than your legs will appreciate by the time you reach them.
If you’re climbing it unsupported and need somewhere to break the journey, the southern side is actually the most practical of the three approaches. There are hotels and mingsu, which are Taiwanese family-run guesthouses, in Ren’ai and at Qingjing Farm, plus more service points along the road than you get on the northern climb via the Yilan Valley. One thing to know: Qingjing Farm is a big domestic tourist attraction in its own right because of the sheep, so weekend traffic on the lower section of the climb can be heavier than the rest of the week. Plan accordingly.
Sun Moon Lake on a Full Island Tour
The third use of the lake is as a hinge on a full quan dao loop. This is where it earns its place on a multi-week itinerary, rather than a sightseeing afternoon tacked on a shorter trip.
The way most riders do the full island is anti-clockwise, mainly because the prevailing winds on the east coast are more often southerly and you want them at your back on the way up. We go into the direction question properly in our quan dao guide, but the short version is that going anti-clockwise means the awkward bit of the trip is the west coast leg. Taiwan’s official Cycling Route 1 runs straight down the western coast through industrial estates, busy roads, and air-quality problems, and for most of its length it’s just not worth the kilometres.
The inland alternative routes you through the western foothills and central mountains, which is far better cycling. Sun Moon Lake is the natural midpoint of that inland leg. You ride into Puli from the north via the quieter back roads of Heping district, you stop at the lake, and the next morning you carry on south, either towards Chiayi for a flatter onward day, or up into the mountains via Alishan if you’ve got the legs and the inclination.
If Alishan tempts you, one warning. The road south via Xinyi Township is gorgeous, probably one of the prettier pieces of road in the country, but it’s tough riding, it’s landslide-prone, and there’s nowhere to sleep until you hit Dongpu Hot Springs. We wouldn’t do it without a van.
Sun Moon Lake is a very popular tourist destination, but it’s actually challenging to build into a long-distance cycling tour because it’s on the west side of the Central Mountain Range. The only one of our group tours that includes the lake is the 16-day Full Island Tour, which is a loop of the entire island. We used to treat the lake as a rest day on that trip, but over the years it has become so popular with local tourists that the hotels just aren’t up to the same standard as elsewhere on the island.
More recently we’ve found it’s better to visit on the way between Puli and Chiayi rather than trying to build a full day around it. What you usually end up with otherwise are busy crowds and a level of catering below the top-notch food we’ve come to expect everywhere else on the island.
How Sun Moon Lake Fits a Cycling Itinerary
If you’ve got a fortnight or more on the island, the lake is an easy yes. Build it into a full island tour and use it for a rest-day loop in the middle of a heavier riding block. The way we do.
If you’ve only got a week, the calculus is harder. The lake is a couple of hours inland of any major airport, and getting there on a tight schedule eats into the days you’d be better off spending on the east coast or on the KOM itself. So we tend not to suggest a Sun Moon Lake trip in its own right. What we do suggest is including it on any itinerary that runs through the centre of the island anyway, where it fits naturally and doesn’t cost you anything you wouldn’t otherwise be giving up. Timing matters too, since the lake at 750m of altitude is cooler than the lowlands and can be misty in winter; see our season-by-season guide for the wider weather picture.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the Sun Moon Lake cycle loop? The full lap is about 27km. It’s the official Tourism Bureau route, and CNN once stuck it on a list of the world’s most beautiful bike rides. Most people doing it casually take two to three hours, longer if you stop for the temples or a long lunch by the water.
Is cycling Sun Moon Lake flat? Not really. The brochures sell it as easy but the loop rolls a fair bit, especially on the western side. There are a couple of short climbs of one to two kilometres and a few sharper kickers. Reasonable bike fitness will get you round. First-timers sometimes get a surprise about halfway.
Which way should you ride the Sun Moon Lake loop? Clockwise. The thing you came to see is the lake, not the other lane of traffic. Ride clockwise and you’re on the lake side of the road the whole way. Easy fix, big difference.
Can you cycle from Sun Moon Lake to the Taiwan KOM? Yes. It’s roughly 85km and around 3,500m of climbing from the lake up to Wuling Pass via Puli and the Blue 14 road, and it’s the busiest of the three approaches to the summit. We tend to descend it on our 15-day KOM itinerary rather than climb it, but if you’re going self-supported and want to break the journey, the southern side has the most places to sleep along the way. See our Taiwan KOM guide for the wider picture of the climb itself.
Is Sun Moon Lake part of any Pedal Taiwan tour? Yes, on the 16-day Full Island Tour, where it sits inside the inland route down the western side of Taiwan. None of our other group tours include the lake.
Where should you eat at Sun Moon Lake? Skip the street food at Ita Thao and Shuishe; it’s aimed at coach-tour traffic and the quality is variable. The BBQ Chinese sausages from the cart outside Xuan Zang Temple are very good, and there’s a waterfront restaurant just outside Yuchi that’s worth the small detour. James will steer you to whichever one’s on form that week.
Want Sun Moon Lake on a longer Taiwan cycling itinerary, with the loop ridden the right way round and the right restaurants pre-checked? Drop us a line with your dates and group size and we’ll put a route together. For most riders, the lake works best as a piece of our 16-Day Full Island Tour. For a wider planning picture, our complete guide to cycling in Taiwan is the place to start.