The breathtaking Taroko Gorge is a must-see. We took an early express train out of Taipei Main Station to Hualien.
The beautiful Yilan countryside, seen from the train.
The weird thing about Taiwan is that public trash cans are few and far in between! BUT there is hardly ever litter on the ground. The few businesses with trash cans are really quite territorial about them. Most people carry their trash around with them? I don't know.
If you know me, you know I am a bathroom nut. The single most horrific Taiwan memory I have was from 16 years ago, the Hualien train station restroom. I cannot tell you the horror that was inside. On the walls, even.
I am happy to report the Hualien train station was recently renovated and expanded (maybe 2, 3 years ago, according to our driver). It is now a glistening, modern facility with FANTASTIC restrooms. ADA restrooms, family restrooms, the works. The family restroom even has little toilets and little sinks, and a child seat. (I don't know what that last thing on the end is.)
Most places have both the Asian style squatty potty and the Western style seated toilet. Almost all were clean and provided toilet paper! This was not the case the last time I was in Taiwan.
The entrance gate to Taroko. No admission fee!
Shanyue Suspension Bridge, spanning the Liwu River, is the longest and highest suspension bride in Taroko National Park. It's fully accessible for wheelchairs and strollers. Outside the restrooms, we saw another family dressed in shorts. They were visiting from Vermont.
Yanzikou (Swallow Grotto) no longer has actual swallows living inside, thanks to climate change.
The windy two-way road was so narrow, in some spots, only one car could pass at a time. Our driver told us the road was built by hand. There's no machine for this. You can still see the chisel marks on the rock wall. It was originally built, with American money, as a quick escape route from Taichung on the western side of Taiwan in case of a mainland Chinese invasion. You're still on an island, but at least you've got a mountain range in between to buy you some time.
The potholes on the marble cliff are leach holes hollowed out by groundwater seeping into the gorge.
Liwu River, which continues to carve out this gorge.
Baiyang Trail ended up in a dead end due to a recent landslide. But we got to see beautiful butterflies along the way. It's like we were at the Tropical Butterfly Room in the science center, except this was for real nature.
Surprise visitors at the parking lot: Formosan macaques! Don't let them see you opening your backpack or your car trunk, or they assume you have food and will follow you.
Qingshui Cliffs is a long stretch of rock that rises nearly vertically out of the Pacific Ocean. Like the rest of the island, these cliffs were created by the collision between the Philippines and the Eurasian tectonic plates about 6 million years ago. It's so pretty it doesn't even look real.
Our driver is a man of many talents; he's also a part owner in an ATV rental/pony farm/photo studio place. Exhilarating and probably not very safe! We got very wet and had an amazing time.
If there's one thing Taiwanese people excel at, it's posing for photos. They call it "pai zhau" and all the sweet old aunties and uncles will give Tyra a run for her money. The setup was kind of kitschy, but the photographers were efficient and nice. "Cross your right ankle over your right! Point your toe! Tilt your head!" I'd forgotten about the Taiwanese poses: the V for victory fingers and the chef's kiss. These were taken on an iPhone resting on a mirror.
