Just north of Hua Lien is the Liwu River which runs through the Taroko Gorge National Park. It was just a short drive of about 40 kms so we hired a car with Alishan and left at 6.00 a.m. yesterday morning for an early start. Wow! What an amazing place. The gorge can be travelled via the Central Cross-Island Highway which has been carved and tunnelled through solid rock, mostly marble, across the Central Mountain Range. In one section it is 1100 metres deep. Over 780 men were injured during construction and about 212 killed - mostly from falling rocks due to landslides or explosions, or driving off the side of the road. In some of these cases the bodies could not be retrieved and the 'innards and brains splattered over the rocks scared even the birds and monkeys'!
Making stops along the way to enjoy the views, we continued along the gorge looking for the trail leading to the Baiyang Waterfall. Unfortunately, we went too far and on backtracking found the entrance tunnel had been closed due to a recent rockfall (no photo). The entrance was visible but not accessible. This was a pity as it was the only trail with waterfalls along it. We then walked the Lushui-Holiu trail (2km) and the Tunnel of Nine Turns trail (1.9km). Both fairly short but spectacular all the same. The Tunnel of Nine Turns trail was established in 1996, when the highway was diverted through a new tunnel built by the National Park Administration, 'for visitors to view these very spectacular parts of the park without the intrusion by exhaust-spouting clumps of metal that used to ply this road'.
This rock-stopper catches falling rocks! Guardrails were quite often dented from falling rocks - no wonder the helmets!
We also stopped off at the Eternal Springs Shrine which has a steep stairway to the Zen monastery, Chan Guang Temple. We only went as far as the shrine though. We were glad of our early start as by lunchtime the number of tourist buses and people was staggering! Returning along the Tunnel of Nine Turns trail we must have passed hundreds of tourists.
Enjoying the tranquillity at the Shrine
