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J

UST BEFORE IT REACHES THE
Pacific Ocean, the Liwu River
welcomes its last tributary: the
Shakadang. It curves under a red
bridge to pour its uncannily blue
waters into the Liwu. The current it joins is
a churning slate grey, a hint of the power
that has carved out the most impressive
valley on the island: Taroko Gorge.
The highest peaks here top 3,000 metres,
and the plunge to the ocean is swift. Hiking
paths are everywhere in Taroko National
Park’s 355 square miles – some trodden by
hundreds of feet a day, others requiring a
permit. Cheng Hsiao-ting is a local teacher,
but today she has volunteered to answer
questions from hikers on the Shakadang
Trail. ‘I came here a lot as a visitor,’ she says.
‘I appreciated the service from the staff,
so now I want to give something back.’
The trail behind her is one of the easier
ones, leading along a valley of marble walls
and boulders huddled in riverbends. The
first part is a gallery carved out of the cliff
face, water dripping from the rock overhead.
‘The park is a moody place,’ says Ms Cheng.
‘When the weather isn’t good, many trails
are shut. But today it is happy to let
everybody get close.’
In the mountains beyond the Shakadang
Trail are two tiny communities of Taiwanese
aborigines: the indigenous inhabitants of the
island. Their ancestors are thought to have
been the origin of the world’s Austronesian
peoples, who fanned out across islands as
far apart as Madagascar, New Zealand and

2. Taroko Gorge

Natural forces have shaped a wonder that slices deep into

the untameable interior of this mountainous island

Silks Place Taroko is a rare hotel inside the

park, at the higher end of the gorge. The three-

floor 1960s building has been made over in an

elegantly understated take on traditional Chinese

design (from US$262; silksplace-taroko.com.tw).

Taroko National Park is free to enter (taroko.

gov.tw). Meals at Dajili Tribal House cost around

US$9 (dageeli.ehosting.com.tw).

Essentials

Hawaii. Members of the Truku tribe, which

once inhabited the area around Taroko

Gorge, helped blast many precipitous routes

out of the rock in the early 20th century.

Beyond the foot of the Shakadang Trail,

Highway 8 leads upriver through the park.

It’s one of the very few roads crossing the

mountains of Taiwan’s interior. Just before

the gorge gets truly vertiginous at the

Swallow Grotto Trail, there’s a roadside stall

where visitors are encouraged to borrow

hard hats in case of falling debris from the

cliffs. The landscape is the result of a contest

between the rock being thrust up by tectonic

plate movements and water bearing ever

downwards. Taroko Gorge only gets deeper.

In the 16th century, Portuguese sailors

passing Taiwan named the island Formosa

(‘Beautiful’), a name which stuck in the

West until modern times. Taroko Gorge and

the Qingshui Cliffs on the seaward side of

the national park are Exhibit A. On a hillside

on the way to the cliffs, Dajili Tribal House

is a restaurant serving Taiwanese aboriginal

cuisine and also the studio of Truku elder

and artist Wen Gui Guo.

‘I make sculptures from driftwood I find

after typhoons,’ he says. His paintings are

still-lifes of flowers and landscapes easily

inspired by a studio that looks out onto both

mountain and ocean. ‘In my paintings I try

never to have houses or bridges, only big

nature,’ he says. ‘If you include manmade

things in a landscape, your eyes are drawn

to them and you don’t think of the natural

beauty.’ Then with an apologetic glance at

The winding cross-island drive to Tainan is at least

6 hours. Better to double back to Taipei, then take

the High-Speed Rail to Tainan in 1½ hours.

the vase of flowers on the canvas behind

him, he adds: ‘You need a vase there as the

cut flowers have to have something to stand

up in. At least it’s made from earth.’

It’s easy to take his point in the national

park, where some of the most photographed

scenes include an artfully placed pavilion or

small temple. At Changchun Shrine, a veil

of water cascades from under a bridge into

the Liwu River. A small belltower is just

visible above the treetops. Reached by a rope

bridge and a steep walk, it sees few visitors.

A staircase inside leads to a balcony, looking

out over a great bend in

the river. A rope hangs loose beside the bell,

waiting for pilgrims to sound it. When the

bronze boom echoes out, it fills the valleys

for a long moment, then all is peaceful again.

A small pavilion

and a stone lion by

Cihmu Bridge at the

higher end of Taroko

Gorge. ABOVE RIGHT

Local artist Wen Gui

Guo in his studio