Taiwan: Taroko Gorge

Taroko Gorge is a canyon formed as the Li-wu River cut through the surrounding rock, most of which is marble. Our hotel was right in the gorge, surrounded by the mountains. After breakfast at the hotel, we set out to explore. Near the hotel just across from the river was Hsiang-te Temple, a Buddhist monastery. Perched on the rocks and only accessible via a footbridge, it is an ideal location for contemplation. We crossed the footbridge and went through a large ornate gate. Then we began climbing up stairs to reach the first level. We saw a few monks and other helpers walking around the grounds preparing for a large dinner reception they were hosting the following day to commemorate the anniversary of the large golden Buddha at the top level of the monastery. We were allowed to walk freely through the monastery and the monks graciously answered our questions. We climbed the stairs to the next level, observing small gardens and statues of Buddha. The most prominent building of the monastery is the Tienfeng Tower, a tall narrow circular tower. There are no rooms and it is hollow in the middle with two circular staircases going up opposite sides of the tower with small doors leading out to small balconies. We climbed to the top and had an excellent view of the river, the mountains, the bridges, and the monastery. We continued to wander around the monastery for a little while before returning to the hotel for a short rest.

We left the hotel on foot walking about a kilometer to the start of the Paiyang Trail. The entrance to the trail was a very long foot tunnel through a mountain with no lights, just the light emitting from each entrance. The tunnel led to a trail along the river through a gorge. The marble cliffs are very beautiful and the erosion had created some interesting patterns and colors. The trail continued along through more tunnels of varying lengths and darkness. At times, the drop-off next to the trail got very steep down to the water below. Further down the trail we reached a bridge over the river at a spot with rolling waterfalls. Over the bridge, there was another bridge, but it was a flexible suspension bridge over a waterfall. I did not like that the bridge moved under foot and LB kept jumping up and down on the bridge. There were multiple waterfalls near the bridges and recent rainfall had them swiftly flowing. We crossed back over the bridges and continued along the trail to the final tunnel, the Water Curtain Cavern. In that tunnel, the water had broken through cracks and cascaded down like a beautiful shower. There were a few slickers at the entrance so we took them and went through the tunnel and then turned around. We hiked back along the same path, through the tunnels, and back down the road to the hotel. We gathered our bags and took a mid-afternoon shuttle back to Hua-Lien. We had driven into the gorge at night and didn't see how steep cliffs next to the road. The road is a narrow two-lane road through more tunnels. A very scenic , if a bit harrowing journey.

In Hua-Lien, we were unable to get tickets on an earlier train to Taipei, so we ventured into downtown Hua-Lien for a few hours. We found an open air market and looked around at the various clothes and nick-knacks. Everything is in Chinese, but capitalism is universal so we had no problem looking around. For dinner, we found an open air traditional Taiwanese restaurant. Luckily one of the servers spoke enough English that we could order. The meal was fantastic with noodles and fried rice, vegetables, an egg dish, a meat dish, and soup. After dinner, we returned to the train station and caught our train to Taipei. I slept most of the way back and when we arrived we headed back to our previous hotel for a much need night's rest.

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