Taroko National Park is situated 1 hour drive from Hualien. Our guide picked us from the hotel around 8 am and we reached Taroko National Park at 9 am.
Taroko Gorge Arch Gate: The 1st stop of our trip was Taroko gorge arch gate. The gorge was created by the mountains and the powerful Liwu river. The arch gate is very famous place to take photographs. Taroko National park was located beyond this point. The roads in the national park was narrow and twisty. There were lot of red color bridges inside the national park. The red color was adding more beauty to the gorge.
Shakadang trail is a famous trail which goes deep around the gorge. I followed the trail and i noticed that there were lots of do not enter sign .They put the sign because it had been raining at the gorge for past 4 days and was unsafe to do the hike. I decided to turn back and reach our bus stop.
Eternal spring shrine -The Shrine is a memorial shrine complex situated in Taroko. The best view of the place is from a cafe which is situated on the other side of the mountain. The architecture of the shrine is similar to that of the tang dynasty shrine. The most beautiful part is the waterfall which runs through the middle of the shrine. I spend good time at the cafe drinking coffee while looking at the beautiful shrine.
Swallow Grotto – We reached Swallow Grotto after we had our buffet lunch at Taroko village.There are lot of holes created inside the marble mountain of taroko because of the erosion and the place has become a huge nest for the swallows because of that reason the place is called Swallow Grotto. Some part of the area looked like a cave because of extreme erosion. You have to wear helmet while walking inside the Grottto in order to avoid any falling rocks.
Qingshui Cliff – It started raining heavily and we finally able to reach the cliff after 1 hour ride from Swallow Grotto. The length of the cliif is around 21km. The cliff directly meets the sea and some part of the cliffs are more than 2000m tall. When we visited the place in the afternoon it was raining heavily and it was very windy but still the view was very good from the observation deck. Every hour a train crosses between the small opening in between the tunnels. I waited and i was fortunate enough to see the train crossing.
Qixingtan beach- We ended our day trip after visiting the famous Qixingtan beach. The beach has the shape of half moon. The beach is mostly covered with white and black smooth pebble. It is not advisable to swim at the beach because the water was very rough and deep. During our trip it was windy but the place was very scenic. It was a perfect place where the blue skies meet the deep blue pacific ocean.
Overall my 5 days trip to Taiwan was fantastic. Everything was reasonably priced in Taiwan. The people are extremely friendly. The country feature some of the unique scenery which is not found anywhere else in the world. It is not touristy or overcrowded like other places in Asia. It’s a great destination for family vacation and solo travelers.
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