Towering marble cliffs - formed millions of years ago - soar up to 3,000 feet along Taiwan’s Taroko Gorge. One of Asia’s natural wonders and the most popular scenic attraction on this island nation, the gorge - with the Liwu River rushing through it - continues for about 12 miles through deep canyons with lush vegetation, hiking trails and an extensive variety of animal and plant life. Taroko, or tailuge in the Ami dialect, means “beautiful” and the Taroko National Park, in the central East Coast area, certainly offers the visitor some spectacular vistas along with 27 of the island’s highest peaks.
A Ming Dynasty-style arch marks the entrance to Taroko Gorge. Only two miles down the road, the Eternal Spring Shrine sits high on a cliff commemorating the hundreds who lost their lives building the Central Cross-Island Highway from 1956 to 1960. A plume of water flows from under the shrine down the cliff face. Behind the shrine stone steps lead up to Guanyin Cave and Changuang Temple. The highway twists and turns for miles with various stops along the way. Home to the Atayal people, the area, now the Puluowan Recreation Area, offers a number of hiking trails for active travelers. Some of the most dramatic scenery can be found in the Swallows’ Grotto of this “marble valley.” A gigantic grotto of karst, it has towering cliffs frequented by thousands of swallows depending on the season. A little further on, visitors can stroll for about a mile through a remarkable feat of engineering, the “Tunnel of Nine Turns” Trail - a road of short tunnels and overhanging rock carved out of the marble cliffs. The stone walls of the valley stand so close, they only allow a few rays of sunlight to filter down to the floor of the gorge. Waterfalls cascade off the cliffs and trees cling to the vertical surfaces. The scene could come from a Chinese brush painting.
The guide had been repeating to our group that we shouldn't overpass him and lag behind me the tour leader. However, as soon as possible my disobedient group kinda evaporated and lost themselves in front of us among the crowds. Finally the local guide reunited with me and another lady who joked about her weight prevented her from joining those fast pacers.
We enjoyed the canyon or gorge here. And then we paid a visit to a local handicraft and jewelry store for marble and cat's eye gemstone. The group, especially ladies liked it here and after bargaining they seemed happy with their final deals. Our dinner restaurant was located near a military airport. Chiang selected its location out of security concerns, which was easy to understand as well as other power plants in Taroko gorge designed inside caves too.
We checked in a nice hotel before we were joined by another tour by the same Hangzhou tour company. Compared to them, we were more fortunate because their group were not happy with other two hotels before the local tour manager finally agreed to settle them down in our hotel. But funny thing was, I'd overheard the dialogue between my guide and his tour operator that for my group, another hotel beside this current one was booked for us. Super Vip status.
I went to see my new colleague in his room where he shared it with his guide and driver, while I had a whole room to my own. A young and energetic man, he had been Taiwan several times, and even more experienced than his local guide, for the first time guiding mainland tour groups and actually a pitch hand, because the first guide was so fired by acting crazily rude and openly criticizing the group for shopping zero in first several shops.
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