Taroko Gorge, Taiwan

March 2023

The disorienting thing about coming from a country that insists on using its own measuring system, is that I have no point of reference for distance or temperature or elevation anywhere else in the world. So when a hiking trail is 3 kilometers long and 500 meters above the Liwu River on the edge of a canyon, I have no idea if that’s a lot or a little.

Taroko Gorge National Park 太魯閣 is on the east side of Taiwan, about an hour’s drive from Hualien 花蓮 city. The park encompasses 360 square miles, 27 peaks and two mountain ranges, rising abruptly from the Pacific Ocean to high mountain pine and cedar forests at almost 10,000 ft elevation. It includes the marble gorge of Taroko, made of colliding tectonic plates, carved by the powerful erosion of the Liwu River, and weathered by sub-tropical rains, to create the steep and narrow canyon. As river and stone grinded away over millions of years, the gorge also saw human stories flitting by, mere blips in the geologic history, but significant to the people whose triumphs and tragedies took place here. The gorge was once the home of an indigenous people, the Truku tribe. The Japanese came and went. There was war, and defeat, and finally something that wasn’t quite peace but wasn’t war either. I stand on the edge of the cliffs and wonder who else walked these trails, and why, and how they spent their brief moments on this rock we all momentarily call home. There are plaques and gravestones and old stone foundations throughout the park that hint of sadnesses. The indigenous people did not leave willingly, and their stories are mostly untold.

The Zhuiliu Old Trail 錐麓古道 follows an ancient road that once connected Truku villages. It used to go on for several more miles, but over the years, earthquakes and typhoons damaged sections that were never rebuilt. It is now an out-and-back total 6km (4 mile) trail following a narrow footpath cut into a steep marble canyon. It was widened in 1917 (by the Japanese, using conscripted indigenous labor) but is still only a few feet across, hugging the side of a vertical cliff. Turns out, 500 meters is more than 1600 feet, and is a very far ways up from the canyon floor. The trail crosses several vertigo-inducing suspension bridges. There is a permit system, allowing only 96 persons a day on the trail, and ominous signs imploring you to “grip the rope at all times.” We hired a hiking tour guide, mostly to help navigate the permit system.

When you hire a private tour guide in Taiwan, you get a driver, a permit-navigator, a historian, a botanist, and apparently, a professional photographer, all in one. The latter job is taken very seriously, and as per local custom, candid shots are out; carefully posed shots in photogenic spots are in. He will shoot as many takes as it requires to get the social media-worthy shot, even if you are perilously close to the edge of a 2000 foot vertical drop to the river below, with a traffic jam of hikers clinging on to a thin rope behind you. We have an album of hilarious campy photos of us, unpracticed in the art of cute poses, looking like we would very much rather just finish the hike. Gratefully, he did take some awesome photos, and was able to capture a bit of the grandeur of the gorge, the spectacular marble cliffs, and the laboriously chiseled trail.

March 4, 2023