Yihuality : November 2014

Because I had to study a lot recently I didn’t had time to post my experiences from my trip to Yehliu Geopark (野柳) and Keelung (基隆市). So here comes an update and many pictures, because there’ve been very beautiful animals - and I finally figured out how to make a nice galerie. This time a put hand on the pictures afterwards, because it was a grey day and the real beauty of the stones was not reflected by the original pictures.

The mushroom shaped forms result from a harder top soil layer and a softer underlying layer which is eroded easier by wind and water. You can guess the shape as you like, but there is kind of a heart and the famous “Queen’s Head” which looks similar to the silhouette of Nefertiti.

For me – what I didn’t expect – most impressive were the tourists, which are queuing up to get a picture alone with the famous stones. For me it’s very funny to watch single tourist handling their selfy-stick or watching tourists (also Taiwanese people) taking pictures of me – because I look so special, so foreign. Sometimes they are very cute and ask if they can make a picture with me and ask someone to do, but sometimes they are a little bit impolite and just take picture from the distance. Do they really think, we foreigners do not notice?

Because I wanted to be a little bit out of the crowd I started walking to the viewpoint on top of the archipelago and had a nice view of the coast. The stone formations are phenomenal – hard to belief they are actually made by nature.

Another highlight of course where the butterflies I saw there, again new species I didn’t already saw before. But I was not the only one fascinated by nature. In the park and on the way I had some obstacles namely photographers to overcome. Take a look at the picture to get an impression how they also block the way to get the perfect shot of birds, butterflies, insects or what else is flying around there. I can definitely understand them, despite the fact that I don’t have the patience they have.

After spending the morning in Yehliu I travelled to Keelung and visited some temples with a 23,5m high Buddha statue. I liked the place very much and also rang the huge bell the biggest temple on top offers – it is loud but a very warm and nice tone.

Afterwards I had a short stroll over the famous Miaokou Night Market (廟口夜市) and ate vegetarian noodle soup there. It offers a whole street with more than 40 different places to get food, the seafood here is very well known in Taiwan.

All in all it was a very nice day-trip. The bus from Taipei Main Station just needs about one and ahalf to two hours toYehliu and the bus from Yehliu to Keelung needs about half an hour. The landscape where the bus drives through is very beautiful. But from Keelung back to Taipei I didn't see anything because I fell asleep.

Stay positive,

Yihua.

Trying to get the perfect picture...

...also on the way..

.. queuing up for a picture with the famous stones...

.. one of my favorite pictures, from a viewpoint.

From 16.-18th of October I experienced the wonderful nature of Taroko National Park (太魯閣國家公園). Now I know why it is called the jewel of Taiwan. It is a wonderful and almost magical natural reservation area. Interestingly, as I told some Taiwanese friends I am going to Taroko they didn’t know what I mean, the translation is not close enough to the Chinese word Tàilǔgé 太魯閣.

About four million years ago, the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Continental Plate collided, and the sediments of the former ocean rose as well as the already formed marble on top. The gorge was formed by the Liwu River eroding the marble millions of years. Due to the reason that it is sometimes harder on top many caves formed. You can see impressive high and steep cliffs, waterfalls and huge stones in the riverbed. You can also see the strength of a Typhoon, breaking huge masses of soil, stone and trees that slip down to the valley. It is a fantastic place and no one should miss it when being in Taiwan.

I went there with two other German girls, starting Thursday directly after class. We borrowed a tent from a shop very close to Shiyuan Dormitories. We didn’t know that going camping – especially without a guy carrying all the heavy stuff – is very uncommon in Taiwan. We were tourist attraction number one in every train on our way to Xincheng – the closest Train station to the National Park. From there a shuttle bus to park departs but we were too late to catch it and took a taxi that brought us to the main entrance of the park. Sun sets around 6pm these times and we arrived in the dark. With headlight and torches we searched a nice meadow to camp (took some time, but we found something). It is not too easy to camp wild in Taiwan because most of the time the ground is paved or stone with little vegetation or too much vegetation and many insects. The tent was set up fast but much unfamiliar noise kept us awake almost the whole night. After getting up early we had fast breakfast - glad we brought fruits and yoghurt because the café at the main entrance just sells cake and is very expensive. At the information centre we got a hiking map and a bus schedule (don’t trust it, it’s weird, not showing every bus and there is more than one bus cooperation driving through the gorge – we didn’t figure it out completely…). By bus we drove to a stop close to the Baiyang Fall Trail and found an Information Centre to store our tent and everything we didn’t want to carry during our first “hike”.

Baiyang Trail

I put “hike” because this trail is a “scenic type”, this means it is very broad, flat and mainly a nice walk. Due to all the very nice and beautiful butterflies we wanted to take pictures of we needed despite this nice walking conditions more than double time to do it. In a normal pace with some picture the trail we take about one hour – leisurely walk, one way. On our way back we were much faster – additionally I was very hungry so there was no time for taking pictures anymore – and just needed 20 minutes to the entry gate.

I already mentioned the butterflies – there are various and they are all stunningly beautiful. Every size and colour can be found. But it is a challenge to get them sharp on a picture! Despite this the trail offers many view points on the valley were Liwu River is making its way. Also several tunnels are passed – a headlight or a torch is sometimes useful.

The unchallenged highlight of the trail is of course the Baiyang Tunnel. You are going through a tunnel where a waterfall is inside! You are walking in a small – and nicely cool – river through the tunnel and you have to wear a rain protection to not be wet completely afterwards. Due to the high calcium content in the water the stones are not sharp or slippery inside of the tunnel – they are coated with chalk, which makes walking comfortable and easy.

Due to the reason that the trail took us longer than expected we didn’t have time for a second one that day. We decided to set up the tent, played, ate dinner and went to bed early. The next day we got up at 6am to make our first trail early.

Lüshui Trail

Due to the early time we had a very peaceful walk from Lüshui to Heliu and back to Lüshui were our camping area was. Two of us drove to Tianxiang to get food for the day – there is no other cheap possibility in the National Park because most of the visitors just stay for half a day or a day. As I said before, camping is not very common. I think it’s a pity because it is such a beautiful place for camping! The second camping ground in Heliu also offers showers, but you shouldn’t be afraid of cockroaches and bring mosquito protection.

The trail is also a scenic type so more a nice stroll than hiking but getting up was definitely worth it. We had a very nice few of the fog hanging in the mountains and it looked very similar to the fantastic floating mountains in Pandora – wonderful world of the Hollywood Movie Avatar. Seeing the mountains in reality was of course much better than watching a movie in the cinema.

Shakadang Trail – short version

The Trail is during normal conditions about 5km long, unfortunately we could only hike the first 1,5km because of a severe typhoon in July this year. The typhoon had led to various landslides and the trail could not be passed further. But the 1,5km we hiked have definitely been worth it: we walked very close to the Liwu River and again saw interesting animals for example a very little frog I would guess about 1,2cm long and 1cm wide.

Due to the reason we were so close to the river bed we were able to examine the huge rocks inside of it closely. I grasped the first time and just for a small moment the real dimensions of the gorge seeing my hiking partners standing next to the rocks in the riverbed in front of the cliffs and looking like ants.

Afterwards we also started a “hiking type” trail just to know what it would look like. Surprise, surprise, it looked like stairs, stairs and even more stairs. We didn’t have time to go up to the peak because we wanted to go to the Night market in Luodong. Luodong is approximately in the middle of the route from Taipei to Taroko so we thought it would be a nice stop-over.

The night market offered pizza shaped as ice cream in a waffle, papaya milk, spring rolls and many other delicious and interesting foods and other stuff.

Below pictures follow, enjoy the beauty of Taiwan; I hope my pictures grasped a bit of it.

Stay Positive,

Yihua.