Taroko

We are back from a fanstastic trip to Taroko Gorge on the eastern coast of Taiwan. Together with Paul's mom, we took the train from Hsinchu to Hualien early Tuesday morning, arriving around noon. We rented a car (a last minute, absolutely correct decision), and first drove to Qixingtan, a beach of beautiful rocks washed down from the mountains and smoothed by the ocean's waves. Continuing to our hotel in Tienhsiang, we made a few stops and took a short walk to the memorial to those who died building the road. We later saw photos of the process - during the Japanese occupation and early years after the KMT arrived, thousands of men chipped away the rock by hand using hammers and crowbars. Many died.

We spent all of Wednesday exploring some of the park's trails. We were fortunate to have spectacular weather. Paul got in a short by strenuous solo hike in the early morning, and the whole family enjoyed a long, beautiful walk to Baiyang waterfall. At the end of the trail, we crossed a high suspension bridge (we're so proud of Nana for making it across), viewed waterfalls, and removed our shoes to cross a "water curtain cave", that is a cave with a heavy flow of spring water crashing down.

Thursday, after the boys slept deeply and late, we didn't have much time before we needed to catch a 1 p.m. train, but we got a short walk down the beginning part of another wonderful trail, Shakatan. We made our way down to the river and waded in looking at more beautful rocks. At our example, a large choir group from Taida came down too, and we were treated to a background of singing (although our peace was lost).

From the time we entered the gorge, we were faced with very limited choices as to where to eat. So we ended up eating every meal at the hotel (except for the one lunch of food taken out from the hotel). The hotel runs a very impressive buffet, and especially the first night we really took advantage of the quantity and variety. Breakfasts were nice too, with Chinese, Japanese, and western choices.

We must say that Toroko lives up to its reputation. It's one of the most beautiful places we've been. It seems that the Hualien area is in general quite nice, not only for what's obvious, the scenery, but also for the more relaxed - compared to the more populated areas of
Taiwan - attitude of the people and the less polluted environment.

For some more pictures, please visit our mac.com page:
http://homepage.mac.com/paulportner/PhotoAlbum26.html

This brief report respectfully submitted by Paul.