Day 446: Taroko National Park (太魯閣國家公園)

Jun 22 - Early trip down to the nearest useful bus stop down at the Cultural and Creative Industries Park, an eleven-minute walk from our hotel. From here it is a single bus ride north along the coast to Xincheng, then west and up the valley into the Taroko National Park. This is a huge park area, of which we will only see the steep river valley that has road access. The bus drops us off at the Tianxiang Recreation Area.

The valley is dramatic, with cliffs much of the way up, and with much of the road either cut into the cliff wall or through tunnels. As with many places in east Asia, there are some hungry macaques hanging around, so we have to always be on guard.

Tianxiang is the end of the normal public bus route. There are food stores here. We walk across the bridge to the entrance for a temple complex.

From this end point, we catch buses back down the valley, stopping at several places along the way. The first is a suspension bridge.

Next exit from the bus is at the Tunnel of Nine Turns. This used to be the tunnel along which the road went during the Japanese occupation, but a new tunnel now runs parallel to it. The old tunnel has been converted into a pedestrian walkway. There are some nice views into the cliff walls and river from here.

In this part of Taiwan, there was a vast accumulation of marine sediments about 200 million years ago. The Penglai Orogeny, about 6 million years ago, uplifted this sediment (much of which was metamorphosed to marble) along with everything else on the island of Taiwan. The Liwu River formed, and has continuously cut through this rock since, leaving the steep gorge we see today.

Next stop is the Yanzikou Trail, where the road splits in two and some good views of the gorge can be had.

Further down the valley are some temples.

The last stop was at the visitor center at the lower park entrance. Here there is a museum of natural history and some trails.

Long bus ride back to Hualien, and late dinner at a wonton restaurant.