Giant Bicycles Corporation (捷安特), Taiwan's largest bicycle designer, builder and retailer, offers a highly attractive rental program (自行車租賃) to encourage more Taiwanese to take multi-day cycling trips across the island. The program lets you choose from two mid-range (NT$20,000 / US$650) bicycles [Great Journey 1 and CRX-2] and comes with a saddle bag and support kit that includes basic cycle accoutrements (air pump, tool kit, flashlight, lock, etc.).
The program allows rentals and returns at any of
Giant's 30 some wholly-owned distributors (contact
details for around 15 of them are posted in Chinese
here). For our most recent cycling journey from
Kaohsiung to Taitung, we rented bikes from Giant's
Zuoying (Tsoying) outlet (捷安特左營店, tel: 07-348-0975),
a 10 minute walk from the Zuoying
High Speed
Rail
(HSR) station, and returned them at Giant's Taitung
City outlet (捷安特台東店, tel: 08-934-7416).
The rental program is exceptionally cost effective,
with rentals billed at NT$1,000 (US$35) total for
the first three days and NT$200 (US$7) for each day
thereafter. While bikes seem to be kept in good
condition, make sure to give them a thorough once
over before setting out. You probably will also want
to consider packing a spare inner tube and/or tire
repair kit as well.
The bicycle rental program is surprisingly
under-advertised. Prior to our trip in March, I did
a Chinese language search of the Internet and came
up empty on any rental program details. The
Giant website (also in Chinese) is quiet on the
rental program as well ... the company apparently
treating it as somewhat of a stealth operation.
Giant may be concerned about over-subscriptions and
thus prefers word of mouth promotion.
Program rules ask that you book reservations through
your pick-up location (Giant outlet) at least
one week
in advance. English will likely prove too
challenging for most of the store attendants taking
phone-in reservations, so suggest that non-Chinese
speakers book by e-mail. A partial listing
of outlets with
e-mail links
follows:
Giant Taipei
Hsinchuang (Sinjhuang / Xinzhuang)台北新莊店
Giant
Bali (Shihsanhang) 十三行站
Giant
Taipei Banqiao (Banciao) 台北板橋店
Giant
Taipei Nanjing (Nanking East Road) 台北南京店
Giant
Hsinchu Jiedeng 新竹捷登店
Giant
Taichung City Hall 台中市政店
Giant
Taichung Nantun 南屯店
Giant
Taichung Beitun 太原站
Giant
Fengyuan Circle 豐原圓環店
Giant
Tainan City 台南店
Giant
Kaohsiung Zuoying (HSR Station) 左營店
Giant
Kaohsiung Qijin (Cijin) 旗津站
Giant
Kaohsiung Ersheng 高雄二聖店
Giant
Pingdong City (Pingtung) 屏東店
Giant
Taidong City (Taitung) 台東店
Giant
Hualien Liyutan 鯉魚潭站
Giant
Hualien Qixingtan (Cisingtan) 七星潭站
Giant
Yilan Zhongshan (Jhongshan) 宜蘭中山店