Taroko Gorge + Chishingtan

太魯閣 + 七星潭

Note: This is review post on my trip to Hualien, Taiwan. FYI, I went on this trip with my friends, Calvin and Jason. Subject on Taroko Gorge(太魯閣) and Chishingtan(七星潭).

Hualien is located at the east area of Taiwan and it's one of the beautiful part of Taiwan too. Well, I came here to enjoy many nice scenery, now, I shall tell you guys more of Taroko Gorge(太魯閣) and Chishingtan(七星潭). Seriously, it's a wonderful and nice place to relax. The scenery is really breathtaking.

At Hualien visitor centre.

Taroko Gorge is a bit of distance from Hualien city, so it's either you book a tour with an agency or you choose to go free and easy with a cab. Well, we did the tour with one agency. The whole thing weren't too bad. I still like and enjoyed the trip. People say free and easy is better as the cab driver will drive you around and he will give you more time to explore the place. I advise you guys to choose which ever that suits you best. It's doesn't matter whether is it by cab or bus. The experience will be different. (:

The tour starts at 8.30 AM and ends at around 4 PM. The tour include many popular spots in Taroko Gorge and also the last stop of the tour ends at Chishingtan(七星潭). FYI, I book the tour with an agency named, Merry tour bus. You can find this bus tour on this website, http://www.taiwantourbus.com.tw//About/.

This is our tour bus for the day.

Our first stop is at the main visitor centre of Taroko Gorge. There are many nice sceneries around at the first stop, I think it's like at almost every stop, the scenery is always amazing. Hahas, I don't know how to use my words to describe it to you, so I guess you got to come here to see it yourself.

Mountain view at the top of the first stop

We then explored around the area. Each stop, the driver would give you around 45 mins to an hour for yourself to walk around to explore. To me, the time given was quite ok, it's not very rush either.

The park's stone sign

After the first stop, we come to the second one which is the Bu Luo Wan(布洛灣). At here, we can either explore at the main visitor centre area or go up to visit the village minsu(民宿). At the minsu, we can see photos and woodcraft of the tribe villagers(原住民). There are a cafe / restaurant that is opened to the public too. Well, there are dogs wandering around too but these dogs will not bite you or show signs of aggressiveness.

Bu Luo Wan(布洛灣) 's stone sign

On our way up to the minsu. Hahas, the photos don't even look like that I'm in Taiwan, more like in Japan.

At the minsu...hahas, even the minsu is crazy about Jeremy Lin (林书豪)

The next stop is Swallow Grotto(燕子口). We stop by here and we walk over to the end of the trail to meet up with our bus driver again. The walking trail is really amazing. We get to see the cliffs on closeup and the beautiful caves. It was a really good experience that you cannot get in Singapore. I really love it. Anyway, after walking for quite some distances, you will come to a place for resting, from there, you can see the Indiana John's Cliff. It was named that, because from some angle of the cliff, you can spot a side-view of the Indiana John's face.

Swallow Grotto(燕子口)'s engraved stone at the entrance of the cave

Photos that I took during the trail

The next stop is actually at the Tunnel of Nine Turns(九曲洞之鬼斧神工), but due to heavy rocks and stones fall, the plan to there was taken out. Well, as the driver explain to us, there are a lot of turns and curves so that's why it was named that way. Hmm, quite interesting. Anyway, as this stop was taken out, we were brought to another spot before having our lunch at Tiansiang(天祥).

This is the place, but I had no idea what is it called. Hahas.

Then, after our lunch, we were brought to this place which is below Tiansiang(天祥). The driver gave us time to explore around again. Well, because that the Tunnel of Nine Turns(九曲洞之鬼斧神工) was taken out. So we had more time...dots.

This is the place. Hmm...not bad. I did some good exploring here.

From the top

Our last stop at Taroko Gorge is Changchun Shrine(長春祠). It is the famous spot at Taroko Gorge and it's a must-come when you visit Taroko Gorge. The whole scenery looks like a painting as many people had said. Seriously, it's true. Take a look at some of my shots there.

The main scenery at Changchun Shrine(長春祠)'s area.

Us with the shrine.

The shrine. FYI, you got to walk a distance to reach there. (:

Finally, our last stop is at Chishingtan(七星潭)'s beach. The beach is one of the finest in Hualien and it's really famous too. We were here to take some photos and enjoy the beautiful sea scenery. Btw, you can bring home one little pebble to prove that you had came here. Well, I took one and it was quite a good one, definitely, I'll be back some day. Hahas.

The beach and the map of Chishingtan (七星潭)

Another nice shot that I took there.

That's summarised both my trip to taroko gorge(太魯閣) and chishingtan(七星潭). I hope you gained some knowledge here and there. Do stay tuned for my next review on Zi Qiang Ye Shi(自强夜市) and Hualien City(花莲市). (: