Let me start by saying I’m no expert at hiking Taiwan’s high mountains! Of the Top 100 Peaks (a list of one-hundred mountain peaks from the 270-odd summits in Taiwan that exceed 3,000 meters in height), I’ve so far only done 29 – a lot less than some hiker friends of mine. However I’m acutely aware that starting out on the Top Hundred can be be a bit daunting – the difficulty of the peaks on the list varies hugely, and while two or three summits on the list are within the ability of all able-bodied people, and a further ten or twenty can be conquered by anyone that’s reasonably fit and has a few Taiwan day-hikes under their belt, after that the difficulty level quickly goes through the roof, and inexperienced hikers could easily find themselves in serious trouble if they pick the wrong trek. Continue reading
Chiayi County
Taiwan 101: Part 5. The South
Southern Taiwan has some of the most interesting aboriginal culture on the main island, with atmospheric (and often remote ) villages of Paiwan and Rukai stone houses, and several of Taiwan’s most memorable traditional festivities, including the insane Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival, surely one of the most intense traditional annual participation events anywhere in the world.
For lovers of natural beauty, Chiayi County is unsurpassed. The crowds all flock to Alishan, but the best places in the area are Continue reading
Taiwan 101: Part 3. Aspects of Taiwan
While the natural beauty of Taiwan will always be its greatest allure for me personally, the island also has an extraordinary wealth of cultural, historic and industrial attractions. Salt harvesting has been carried out on Taiwan for hundreds of years (with a history of eight centuries on the ROC-controlled island of Kinmen). Today salt production is a very minor industry here, but some of the salt fields (and a pair of unusual salt ‘mountains’) remain; the best have a strange beauty that’s quite unlike anything else on the island. Sugar, one of Taiwan’s biggest industries in the 1950s and 60s is now produced at only two sites on Taiwan, but some of Continue reading
Shuiyang Forest: a remarkable reminder of the 921 Earthquake
The great Jiji Earthquake, which rocked Taiwan on September 21st, 1999, caused both a huge loss of life and enormous devastation. However in several places the earthquake actually created new landscapes, some of great beauty, such as the lakes at Jiufenershan. None of these new landmarks, however, are quite as magical as Shuiyang Lake (水樣森林), which was born that night when a landslip blocked a stream running through a remote valley in central Nantou County, close to the epicentre of the earthquake. As the stream backed up behind the natural dam, creating a sizable lake, it also flooded a coniferous forest that once clothed the valley floor. The flooded trees, their roots deprived of oxygen, died, and over the following years the tree trunks were bleached white by the sun. The unique result now draws large numbers of hikers to one of Taiwan’s most arresting natural curiosities. Continue reading
Twenty Favorite Taiwan Waterfalls
Taiwan is paradise for a waterfall lover like myself. It’s a bit of a joke among friends and family, but I’ve loved these things since I was a kid and used to scan guidebooks back home in England, reading about stunning cascades with rich and evocative-sounding names such as Cauldron Snout, Pistyll Rhaeadr, Falls of Glomach and Sgwd y Eira. When I finally passed my driving test (em…on the fourth try…) and got my first car, a Datsun Violet, there was no stopping me – in a series of weekend trips and longer holidays I started methodically touring first Wales and then England, exploring all those waterfalls I’d read and dreamt about in books. Within a year or two the interest had become almost an obsession, resulting in me writing a book (sadly never published) covering the complete waterfalls of England (totalling some 370… named examples).
It would probably be near-impossible to see all the waterfalls in Taiwan even if I made it my full-time job, since they are just too numerous and many are simply very remote or otherwise difficult to reach, so it’s just as well I’ve at least partly grown out of my youthful obsession. Waterfalls are still an irresistible magnet however, and I’m never happier on a hike then when it includes at least one (but preferably more than one) waterfall. Continue reading
Stone Dream Valley Trail: one of Taiwan’s great day hikes
I’m acutely aware that my enthusiastic, glowing descriptions of many of the places in Taiwan that I write about could all too easily read like the exaggerated ravings of an over-zealous soul who’s seen too little of the rest of the world, and in my defence I can only say that the reason is perhaps that Taiwan not only has an abundance of amazing landscapes to brag about, but that most of them are also accessible to a degree that is rarely found in other mountainous corners of the world.
And now I’m going to skate on really thin ice by saying that of all the places I’ve been on this island, the Stone Dream Valley (石夢谷; or rather the area around it) is one of the most magical places I’ve visited on all my ramblings around this fabulously scenic island. (Once again) my photos simply don’t do this almost other-worldly landscape justice. Whether it was my mood that day, the weather, the fine company of my hiking buddies, the fact that the location is far more spectacular than I was expecting, or a combination of all of these, the day we did the Stone Dream Valley walk was one of those rare conjunctions of moon and stars that made for a quite unforgettable hike. Continue reading
A Few Photos
It’s been so long since I’ve been hiking that I’ve started putting on weight and seem to be entering a mild depression. The plum rains seem – hopefully – to be loosening their grip on the island and there are hopes that we might have a good weekend exploring coming up (our last attempt, a scooter trip around the mountains of Chiayi three weeks ago turned into a soggy disaster). Meanwhile, partly as a little self therapy, and to replace my last, angry, post from top position where its been for the last couple of weeks, here’s a couple of photos from recent and not-so-recent trips around the main island of Taiwan. Thanks to Oksana for the ancient tree photo – much better than any of the ones I took myself!
Stop the dual-pricing system on Yushan!! (Please sign my petition…)
UPDATE JULY 19th:
I received some hopefully great news from one of the petition signers (and hiker) about two weeks ago, but since I’ve been in China (where WordPress is blocked!) for the last three weeks, there was no way to share it. Here it is (thanks T!):
…according to [his contact], the planned differential pricing has been reviewed and OVERTURNED.
The fees will be revised to remove the two-tier pricing policy.
No change on the Yushan N. P. website yet, but hopefully that’s simply because things take a bit of time to filter through. Fingers crossed…. Continue reading
Taiwan’s Bat Caves
Until my right little finger finally heals, and allows me to practice piano for more than fifteen minutes
without swelling up (and God knows when that will be!) I seem destined to releasing my emotional energies on as many long hikes as I can, and on reliving various recent and long-passed adventures on this blog. At least this gives me the chance to look out and arrange some of the huge backlog of photos from trips around the island that are presently slowing down my computer….
My return visit to Huangdidian Bat Cave the other week has set me thinking about Taiwan’s many other caverns. I’m no geologist, but Taiwan’s geological makeup doesn’t lend it to the formation of deep caves – there’s very little limestone here! (Now my home country England – that’s a different matter – check out this Titanic cave, discovered only in the year 2000!) Even Wikipedia, rather embarrassingly, has only one entry on its ‘Caves of Taiwan’ page – the well-known Baxien Caves on the coast of southeastern Taidong County. Actually there are loads of ‘caves’ on the island, and although most are little more than impressive, wind-eroded overhangs in rock faces, Taiwan has a number of true caverns as well.