Taroko Gorge

  Hualien, Taiwan
Sunday, July 15, 2007

brianne and gorge

Ksitigarbha Buddha

On Sunday we took a day trip down to Hualien, on the east coast of Taiwan, to see the famous Taroko National Park and Taroko Gorge.  "Taroko" means "magnificently splendid" and the area got its name when a tribesman saw the sites and cried "taroko!"  The scenery was beautiful.   I've never been to the Grand Canyon so I don't really have another gorge to compare it to, but the place was huge.

view from caves

bridge and shrine

  And, unlike the Grand Canyon, we didn't just go to a rock and look at it.  We took a 6+ hour bus ride through the gorge.  We saw sites such as the Tunnel of Nine Turns, the Eternal Spring Shrine, The Bridge of the Kind Mother, Swallow's Mouth, etc.  At one point we were dropped off and allowed to walk through a series of caves and the bus driver picked us up on the other side.

white statue of buddha

In addition we stopped and explored bridges, temples, shrines, waterfalls, and the magnificent views of the gorge.  I was surprised at the water running in the streams below.

3 small waterfalls

   It wasn't dirty, but more of a cloudy hue, as if someone had put chalk in it.  I researched the gorge on the internet since I've been back (since the tour and all pamphlets were in Chinese) and found the following information from Wikipedia: 
 

limestone and marble

"Taroko Gorge and its surrounding area are well known for their abundant supply of marble, leading to its nickname, "The Marble Gorge".

caves in the gorge

The rock now seen in Taroko began over 200 million years ago as sediment on the bottom of the ocean.  As the sediment collected, it was subject to increasingly large amounts of pressure which eventually hardened it into limestone. 

brianne by the marble rocks

Over the past 100 million years, compression between the Philippine and Eurasian tectonic plates supplied additional pressure that metamorphosed the limestone into marble. Uplifting forces from the plate collision pushed this rock above the surface of the ocean to where we see it today. In fact, the region is still being uplifted by approximately 0.5cm per year.

view of gorge

 


The gorge itself was carved into the marble by the erosive power of the Liwu River.

Eternal Spring Shrine

  Light reflected by the dissolved calcium carbonate gives the water in the gorge its striking blue color.   In addition, there are known to be mountains of jade in this gorge. This jade is only found in Taiwan and the jade from this area supplies the jade market in Hualien." 

Foliage

 
I'm glad we took the time to leave the city.  It was a 3 hour train ride each way, in addition to the 6 hour ride through the gorge, but it was definitely worth it. 


The views from the train ride alone were remarkably different from the bustling city of Taipei.  By getting out of the city, we were able to see how beautiful Taiwan actually is, and how much nature and natural resources it has to offer.  The coastline was pristine with its clear blue water, striking cliffs, and luscious foliage.  I wish we had been able to take the time to stop and see some of the beautiful beaches.

waterfall bridge

monk at the gate

 

red pavilion