Cingshui Cliffs 清水斷崖

Famous cliffs that drop hundreds of metres to meet the Pacific.
again, I was here only two months ago, but it is worth going back. Such beauty feels different everytime

Taroko II

Bulowan village III

moth...

...a green bamboo viper. Small, thin, green with red eyes and a triangular head. A very venomous snake common in bamboo forests...
there was another bamboo viper nearby, smaller, but no less deadly!

a type of taro plant. Wild boars love to eat its roots. When you see the leaves of these plants moving, RUN! Especially with young, the female boar is very dangerous, as their tusks have poisonous edges that can cause human skin to rot...

a banyan tree, whose roots have strangled a huge boulder. This tree, as legend has it, grew from a seed that was excreted by a flying bird. Over the years, it grew big and strong, and even other species of trees and plants have shrouded themselves around the tree

bamboo, used for building huts and hunting tools, also for cooking and eating

The Maple Myrtle, with its rough skin is difficult for monkeys to climb on, so it is also known as "Monkey-don't-climb"
The tree is very drought resistant, and at night the roots secrete a sweet nectar that attracts a myriad of insects and beetles.

Onderschrift toevoegen.

Bulowan, meaning "echo" in Truku language

The Formosan Ash, indigenous to the island, is also known as "bare wax tree". the bark is smooth and looks like its peeling. It is often used as firewood by the aboriginals, because the wood ignites easily. However due to regulations of the national park, it is forbidden to cut down these trees... another form of government infringement into the lives and ways of the aboriginals...

Bulowan village II

snake
toad
fluffy tail of a flying squirrel. We went on a night safari....

Aboriginal food, with rice cooked in bamboo, grilled mushrooms and paprika, pumpkin and tofu, and soup Orange Daylily 金針湯


At night, the staff became singers and performers and put on a great show to showcase their rich and beautiful culture.

Bulowan village

Bulowan, meaning "echo" in Truku language, is an aboriginal village deep inside Taroko. The hotel has only 37 wood cabins, and is entirely run by Truku aboriginals. Quite an experience, and comes highly recommended!

The Truku people no longer live in the mountains, and much of their language and culture is fast disappearing. With the arrival of the Han and Japanese people who claimed the island, the Truku, like most of the aboriginal peoples native to Taiwan, w ere pushed down to the plains so that they could be better "governed". The fate and future of aboriginals in Taiwan is comparable to that in other countries, though here in Taiwan the government has in recent years begun to recognise the importance of preserving the rich cultural heritage of the natives.


owl


aboriginal dancing, holding hands and stepping from side to side

Formosan macaque




hunter and his dog

Taroko

I have been to Taroko so many times, but every time it looks and feels different. Taroko, in the local Truku aboriginal language, means "beautiful and magnificent". And the place truly is.

Drive through the Eastern Rift Valley

Millions of years ago, a piece of stray island collided onto the main island of Taiwan, and as a result there are two mountain ranges on the east coast with a wide open plain between them where the sea used to be. One mountain range is what you see in the distance, the other is where I'm standing on This resulted in the creation of the Eastern Rift Valley, which is famed for its rich soil and agricultural produce, and stretches for around 200km from Hualien to Taitung.







Li-ci, a lookout point named after the Amis tribe word for "sunrise"


Morning crawl...