Taroko Gorge (太魯閣峽谷) never fails to inspire awe with its majesty and incredible beauty. Perhaps Taiwan’s most famous tourist attraction, it’s worth a visit, even if only seen from the window of a car or coach traveling along the road carved through its depths. How much better though, if possible, to explore a little of it on foot on one of the 10 trails developed by Taroko National Park.
Most of these routes are for general tourists rather than committed hikers, but several are “real” hikes, and take hikers into parts of the gorge that no coach tour group will ever go. The longest, the Dali-Datong Trail (大禮大同步道), offers probably the most authentic Aboriginal experience in the gorge area, and some magnificent yet little-enjoyed scenery to boot.
Dali and Datong settlements aren’t in the gorge itself, but cling to the upper slopes of a side canyon, the Shakadang (砂卡礑) gorge. It’s possible to walk up to Dali (and, for very strong hikers, to Datong) and back to civilization in a long day, but with all the effort needed to get up there (including 800m in elevation gain) it’s better to do it as a two-day trip, and enjoy a night up on top.
Photo: Richard Saunders
The Dali-Datong Trail made the national news last week after a 66-year-old Chinese woman walking along the short Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑步道) with a tour group left her companions and became lost. She ended up the following day, 21 hours later, on the Dali-Datong Trail, where she was helped back down by a rescue team.
HITTING THE TRAILS
The usual route up to Dali and Datong starts at the Taroko National Park Headquarters, at the eastern end of Taroko Gorge. Before you start the hike, pay a visit to the police station next door with your passport or Taiwan ID, and get a police permit. As long as the trail is open (you can check its status on the park’s English, Japanese and Chinese-language Web site: www.taroko.gov.tw), getting the permit is only a five-minute formality.
Photo: Richard Saunders
Walk up the steps from the large car park and turn left along the Taroko Terrace Trail (太魯閣台地步道), soon joining the dirt Dekalun Trail (得卡倫步道), which winds uphill in several lazy zigzags. Check out the lower station of the cableway (down a short, signposted trail on the left), via which logs harvested from the mountains high above were once brought down, and food and other essentials were (and probably still are) taken up the mountain to the villagers — the only way (other than on foot) to reach them.
In less than 10 minutes there’s a junction. The Dekalun Trail (straight on) climbs the mountainside on a raised wooden path via hundreds of steps. More interesting (although a lot more strenuous) is to turn left up a narrow dirt trail that climbs straight up the precipitous hillside beside a small, plastic water pipe. It’s extremely steep for the first fifteen minutes or so, with some awkward sections that require both hands and feet. Take care, especially if carrying a heavy backpack.
Eventually (over an hour above the Park Headquarters) the trail climbs to a large concrete platform: the middle station of the cableway. The view from the platform over the mouth of the Liwu River (立霧溪), the mountains beyond and (much less appealingly) the horrible gash of a huge quarry opposite, is spectacular. Beyond the cableway station, the trail becomes more straightforward, and soon re-joins the main Dekalun Trail for the final ascent to the top of the mountainside, the upper cableway station (which has a vertiginous view over the edge of the gorge) and the start of a length of road that connects Dali and Datong villages.
Photo: Richard Saunders
DATONG VILLAGE
The easiest way to Datong village is to follow the road (about two hours’ walk at a leisurely pace, including stops to enjoy the scenery). However, a more interesting way to Datong (which takes only a little longer, because, although much slower-going, it’s more direct) is to turn sharp left at the junction a few minutes along the road, downhill to a couple of ramshackle structures that are all that is left of the former community of Dali. If the weather is clear, look out for the scattered houses of Datong village, crowning a bluff a couple of kilometers further north up the gorge. Just below the path, a signpost points the way to the abandoned village church, an evocative little building slowly being swallowed by a sea of tall undergrowth.
The Dali-Datong Trail starts just beyond the church and soon becomes a dirt trail contouring the steep, wooded mountainside, crossing a series of small streams, their beds littered with beautiful chunks of rough marble. The trail up from Shakadang joins from the left about midway to Datong.
Photo: Richard Saunders
Datong consists of just four or five residences widely spread out on the grassy hillside, and commanding expansive views over the gorge of the Shakadang River, the rocky tip of Mount Qingshui (清水山; 2,408 meters) ahead, and, to its right and in front, the shapely dome of Mount Qianliyan (千里眼山; 1,624 meters).
It takes 5-6 hours to get here from the National Park Headquarters, so most hikers that make it this far stay the night, either in a villager’s house or camping on the grass (ask first). Try to book in advance (especially on Saturday nights) in case a hiking group is passing through, to avoid a very long, and possibly benighted, walk back down.
Once here, kick back, enjoy the amazing peace, listen to the residents speak Truku to each other, and (if the weather is clear) goggle at the stupendous views over the Shakadang River gorge and the big mountains opposite. Taroko Gorge may be just a few kilometers away as the eagle flies, but up here, it could just as well be a hundred.
Richard Saunders is a classical pianist and writer who has lived in Taiwan since 1993. He’s the founder of a local hiking group, Taipei Hikers, and is the author of six books about Taiwan, including Taiwan 101 and Taipei Escapes. Visit his Web site at www.taiwanoffthebeatentrack.com.
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
RSS