Taiwan’s Central Cross-Island Highway is a spectacular engineering feat completed after World War II, though at a cost of 225 lives, many of them returned soldiers. The road cuts through the steep north-south mountain range that bisects the island, and shortly before it reaches the eastern coast and Pacific Ocean, winds its way impossibly through the magnificent Taroko Gorge. Formed by the clash and enormous pressures of two of the earth’s tectonic plates, the Gorge’s colourfully striated marble walls rise to hundreds of metres in places.
In nearby Hualien where we had arrived by train from Taipei, we hired a taxi for the day to take us through the Gorge. Along the way there are several picturesque walking trails and we hiked a few of these – the first took us around and through the photogenic Eternal Spring Shrine, a memorial to the 225 men who lost their lives during the highway’s construction. Big landslides sometimes occur in the area; the shrine has been totally destroyed twice, so the current building is the third incarnation. Further up the road visitors are advised to wear hard hats to provide some protection against possible falling rocks along the gorge faces. And not to linger in those places with particularly bad track records.
For us, Taroko lived up to its tourist hype; it truly is spectacular and well worth visiting. The soaring gorge faces and Buddhist buildings reminded us of two of our favourite destinations in mainland China – Emei Shan in Sichuan province, and Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan.
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