Zhuilu Trail Half Route
Today, we will try the most beautiful single day hiking in Taiwan: Zhuliu Old Trail.
07:00 Getting up for breakfast, preparing for necessary stuff for the hike.
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08:00 Starting from Hualien City with the permit.
車子的照片 / 入山證照片
09:00 The road from Hualien City to trailhead is around 50minutes. However, the scenery varies from ocean, valley to high mountain. Ten minutes from Hualien City, we pass by Qingxintan, a beautiful beach with pebbles and blue water. The mountain is around 2400meters (nearly 8000 feet). In the afternoon, we will visit the Qingshui cliff at the foot the giant mountain after the trip.
七星潭清水大山照片
Hualien is an area located right on the boundary of Euro-Asia Plate and Pilipin Sea Plate. The frequent earthquake (counted by week) make the mountain so steep, standing tall and upright from the Pacific Ocean.
花蓮市和清水大山sunrise
What surprise me is that ten minutes later, we passby a valley with crystal clear water, it is a paradise for river tracing activities in Taiwan.
三棧溪山谷的照片
Another ten minutes passby, we see the main valley of Taroko Gorge. Taroko Gorge is the largest marble gorge in the world. It is also one of 7 asian wonders. The size of the valley is bigger than other lovely valley in Hualien. The mountain“三角錐”(2607m) is right in front us. 三角錐山谷的照片
Today, we will walk the trail on its south area where the ridge end with a giant marble cliff. Looks amazing, right?
錐鹿大斷崖照片
Driving through the gorge, the scenery in the gorge is great. Green mountain with white marble on the river.
山下看
溪畔
層層山巒
大崩必
And we stop somewhere to borrow the helmet form National Park. It’s free for that for safety. Because sometimes there are some small falling rock on the road.
安全帽照片
Fianally, we reach the trailhead. The starting point is a long suspension bridge across the Li-wu river.
吊橋照片
09:30 After checked the permit by the staff of Taroko National Park. We get into the bridge with great view of Taroko Gorge.
吊橋看峽谷的照片
However, the mountain in this are is so high, you cannot sea the whole massive gorge if you just stay at the bottom of the gorge. That’s why we choose this trail, to walk on the mountainside and see how giant and deep the whole gorge is.
往上爬的路徑
The half-route of the hike is a round-trip 6.2km. It take 5.5hr to complete, suitable for beginner hiker. The board mark “high level of difficulty”. Actually, the half-route is easier and safer than the whole route (10.3km, 7.5hr), which is really high level of difficulty and more suitable for experienced hiker.
高難度指示牌
Then we follow hundreds of step until 1.0km from the starting point.
好多階梯
We take a rest at 1.0k place and take a short break. This place you can see the surrounding green mountain. The weather is nice, hiking in Taiwan is not like tropical country, the temperate climate with breeze is always comfortable for hiking.
1.0好展望
This is also the place where old Japanese old police station located. The name is “Badangang outpost”. In the past, there are more than two hundred of Japanese soldier live here. We can see the construction structure left here.
舊遺跡門口
舊遺跡地盤
As we can still see the tall marble wall upfront, we know that it is still a long way to go (total 3.1km one way) .
往上看
Keep moving forward and ten minutes later. We reach Badangang Suspension bridge. The view here is very nice. One side you can see the giant marble mountain like castle with cloud on it. The other side you cann see the lovely shape of the mountain.
往東看
往西看
The scenery on the bridge is so nice. However, we need to keep going for fear of the afternoon thunder shower.
往下看
After the suspension bridge, upslope comes again. It is another streneous hike. Keep fighting. Hard work will pay off.
上坡上坡
As we ascend, the view become better. Some place we can see the highway where we start. Now I already know how high we had ascend.
看到公路了
I see our car which is park at the touristy suspension bridge. Wow! We already climb so high. The car is so tiny.
看到車子
After 2.3km, the trail become less steep. And we see a tunnel. It is time to stop and wear helmet. Because later we will pass through the most beautiful and dangerous part of the trail. Not only should we wear the helmet, but also need to be noticed the potintial risk on the trail and emergency precaution.
到隧道了
After the tunnel, we gradually go through the forest with a vast view of vision. You will also see the first sight of the giant cliff. It is amazing that we will walk on the trail built on that kin of marble cliff.
第一眼的大斷崖
The scenery along the trail is gorgeours. Here are some photos. However, the photo cannot easily offer you the feeling when you step on the trail in the wonder of nature.
放幾張照片
We can also see some Japanese word on the marble rock. It is left by Japanese when they construct the road. Time flies, old soldier fade away but the word left forever.
日文字
After passing through a tunnel along the cliff, we reach the most breathtaking part of the whole taril. The trail is just half of meter in width, but next to you is more than six hundred meters high cliff. It is higher than the highest building in Taiwan “Taipei 101”which is 508 meters.
最驚險處照片
If you are not afraid of height, try some awesome photo here. Now I know the reason why this trail is not suitable for acrophobia, heart attack, hypertension, pregnant
驚險的照片with人
More photos on the trail.
最驚險處照片
After twenty minute of exciting hike on the cliff, we finally reach the turning point. This is also the place where we have lunch.
悠閒的吃午餐
The place named “Cliff Outpost”, is one of the small outpost along the old road. We can see a mounement marked a name of Japanese officer who was killed by local aboriginal people.
紀念碑
Looking through the forest, we can still see the giant marble wall. Don’t we ascend to a reletively high place? How come we can still see a high giant marble wall at this point?
大崩壁
You can understand how massive taroko gorge is only by walking on this trail. The normal sightseeing place can only see the very bottom part of the gorge.
看全程照片(this photo is taken from the whole route)
On the returning way, we can see the most magnificent part again. That is one of the good thing to do the half-route hike.
再放一些回程照片
The return way is all hiking down. It is physically easier, but it need mor focus on every step down.
下坡
Spot a monkey on the tree. They are not aggressive. They are the native animals here, please don’t feed them to keep their instinct.
猴子
After the exciting hike and the boring downstairs, I will take you to experience something that might be the most memorable thing along the hike. (Based on previous customer’s saying)
吊橋穿過樹林模糊
The most relax moment has passed, now we are energized again for more downstairs.
更多下坡
Fianally, we reach the trailhead. Standing on the bridge the feeling is quite good. Because all the tourist from tour bus are wondering why we can walk on the bridge. (The tourist cannot go on the bridge because they don’t have a permit) Yeah, it is a achievement for our team to conquer the hike and come back safely.
吊橋回看揮揮手
吊橋很長
We need to walk back to our park parking on the touristy spot “swallow grotto”. It is not easy to get used to the crowded scece since we came from a paradise with very few people.
很多人
Walking on one of the best spot in Taroko Gorge“swallow grotto”, the scene become normal after the zhuliu old trail and giant cliff. At swallow grotto, what I can see is the bottom of the gorge and the crowded tourists.
峽谷風光
However, the trip is not over yet. Later I will take you to some secret spots, where we can see the trail from the highway. Cool! You will feel the sense of achievement and realize how amazing Taroko Gorge is again.
路上看
Now, I guess you might feel nothing would be special in Taroko Groge after experiencing the giant cliff. I will show you another amazing spot after the hike. Qingshui Cliff, the second largest sea cliff in the world.
清水斷崖
Sitting on the beach and listen to the wave from the largest ocean in the world “Pacific Ocean”. Most people would medicate or think something. They just sit on the peddle beach without saying anything. Not only are they touched by the great scene in Taiwan, but also gain something for themselves from nature during the trip.
清水斷崖海灘
That is why I am proud of my job. Great service is not enough, the service which can touch your heart is what I always aim for. Yeah, I make new friends again during the trip.
沈思照片