Day 5: Taroko Gorge

If you stumble upon this page/post, here’s what you need to know. This is the fifth out of seven posts (about the fifth day, out of my recent seven-days trip to Taiwan). You can read about the other posts here:
Day 1: Exploring Amazing Kaohsiung
Day 2: Kaohsiung and Tainan City Day Out
Day 3: Sun Moon Lake
Day 4: Taichung City Tour On the fourth Day I explore Taichung City, and on the afternoon, I took a train from Taichung to Hualien. It was basically moving from west coast to East Coast via North line.

I went to Hualien since I wanted to go to Taroko Gorge the next Day and Hualien was a perfect city to crash and spend the night before the hike. By then, I had already went to six cities in Taiwan within four days. I could not be more excited !!

Taroko is one of nine national parks in Taiwan. It spans between Taichung municipality, Nantou county, and Hualien county. There are many points of interest within the park, they are:

• Tunnel of Nine Turns (九曲洞 Chiouchüe Tung)
• Eternal Spring Shrine
• Yentzihkou, Swallow Grotto (燕子口)
• Chinheng Kungyuan, Park (靳珩公園)
• Tsihmuchiao, The Bridge of the Kind Mother (慈母橋)
• Tienhsyang (zh)
• Chueilu Tuanyah Precipice (錐麓斷崖)
• Lioufang Chiao Bridge (流芳橋)
• Hill of Tayuling the Great (大禹嶺)
• Puloh Wan (布洛灣)
• Qingshui Cliffs
• Shakadang Trail
• Changuang Temple
• Baiyang Waterfalls Trail

(source: Wikipedia)

Given the limited time, I chose to do the exploration on an organised tour, and I picked a tour by Island Life Taiwan (website: http://www.islandlifetaiwan.com/tours/taroko-gorge-tour/). I picked it because it departs earlier than other tour, and the review was great. When I booked the tour via email, I was put on waiting list since the minimum number was not satisfied yet. About two weeks before I departed to Taiwan, I got an email that the tour was ready to go and I will be picked up in Hualien.

If you choose to explore Taroko by Bus, here is the detail of the bus and the timetable.

I was picked up at 8 am on the Hotel I stayed in Hualien. There were two other people in the car and we picked another two before we went to Taroko. There were five of us within the tour.

​On a first stop, I was dropped off at Shakadang Trail. The trail was about 20 minutes, passing the Liwu River, and a big beautiful red bridge. The water in the river was so clear turquoise. The driver waited us at the end of the trail.

​With the car, we were then transported to Swallow Grotto. Swallow grotto is a cave on each side of the river that is form natural nesting place for a bird. Before entering the cave, I was instructed to use a helmet provided by the tour. It was said the rock was very fragile and every tourist should wear a helmet.

After the Swallow grotto, i was taken to other spots namely Baiyang Waterfall trails, Luishui Trail, and to bridges i forgot what the name was. After that we were taken to have a lunch. The lunch was pretty standard, a bowl of rice with mixed vegetables, meat and other chinese menus. I asked for the vegetarian one and it was delicious. After lunch we were taken to Eternal Springs Shrine.

Eternal Spring Shrine (Changchun Shrine) is the main reason i visit Taroko Gorge. It’s passed by a beautiful waterfall in the middle of it. It was built to commemorate 212 veterans who died while constructing the highways from 1956 to 1960 (source: wikipedia). This shrine has been built twice after being destroyed by landslides.

Behind this shrine was a steep hike to the bell tower. Our tour guide took us directly to the beginning of the stair so we can save our energy to step on the stair to the tower instead. It was pretty high though.

After that, we went to the Changuang Temple.

The tour did not finish just yet. After Taroko Gorge, we went to Chishingtan Beach. The beach was rocky (sandless) and a direct access to Pacific Ocean. It was also very clean and beautiful.

That day was bright and beautiful, and i could not believe my luck to have five straight sunny day in Taiwan. The tour was also great, we did the hike and the trail, but on a leisure pace. All the trail were well marked and everything looks beautiful along the way. Bathroom also available in the beginning or the end of a trail and there were many warning sign of landslides.

One thing that i regret is that it was not allowed to played to the river. Only seeing the river and not able to touch and swim was quiet hard. I did not know exactly why we were not allowed to swim, but i thought it has something to do with the safety of the access to the river. However, i enjoyed that day very much!!!