Rajeev's World: On The Shakadang Trail...

An hour's drive from Hualien Station brought us right into the heart of Taroko National Park. All along the way, we were kept entertained by Josephine's well-intentioned, light-hearted banter, the only problem was she was quite loud!

The Taroko region is home to an aboriginal tribe called the Truku. Tribes like the Truku have been a lot like pawns in the hands of powers that ruled the island. The Japanese during the occupation played one tribe against the other. More recently, with the establishment of democracy on the island, the tribes were used as votebanks, with the policy of indigenization. In fact it was alleged that the official recognition of the Truku was done for political reasons, with the majority of Truku mountain townships voting for the current president, Ma Ying-jeou. This sounds quite familiar to the votebank politics that plays out in India before each election!

The Taroko National Park has an amazing diversity. The park stretches from the Pacific coastline to the rugged coastal cliffs and forested canyons to subalpine coniferous forests, in central eastern Taiwan. In about 60 kilometers, the landscape rises from sea level to over 3400 metres - the park is home to some of the tallest peaks in Taiwan!

The unique landscape of the region is littered with deep marble gorges and canyons. This unique sculpting is the result of tectonic action that has been shaping the Earth's landscape over millions of years.

The rocks in Taroko are over 200 million years old and began as sediment on the bottom of the ocean. The sediment was subject to high pressure which eventually hardened it into limestone. Over the past 100 million years, tectonic compression between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate metamorphosed the limestone into marble. The collision between the plates eventually uplifted these rocks above the surface of the ocean. Scientists believe the region is still rising approximately by half a centimeter each year.

Ah! This reminded that we are at one end of the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is living proof of how our planet is constantly evolving.

Taroko Gorge and its surrounding area are well known for their abundant supply of marble, leading to its nickname, "The Marble Gorge". The rock now seen in Taroko is over 200 million years old - it began as sediment on the bottom of the ocean. As the sediment collected, it was subject to increasingly large amounts of pressure which eventually hardened it into limestone. Over the past 100 million years, tectonic compression between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate metamorphosed the limestone into marble. Uplifting forces from the plate collision pushed this rock above the surface of the ocean to where we see it today. The region is still rising, by about 0.5 cm (half-centimeter) per year.

Incredible nature, it's always on the move...

And we arrived at our first stop, the Bridge of The 100 Lions...

The first glimpse of the marble gorges...

Learning more about Taroko...

The trails around the park...

Smoky grilled sausages, anyone for it?

The Bridge of 100 Lions...

(Photo courtesy: Bernard Gagnon, Wikipedia)

The Liwu River flows below us...

Getting on the Shakadang Trail, a trail on which you can literally hear the force that , which has carved much of the landscape here - the Liwu River...

Underneath the Bridge of 100 Lions...

The sounds of Nature are indeed music to the ears - the gurgling river below us, the rustle of the leaves as the breeze snakes through the gorge and the chirping birds...

Here you can see the rocks sculpted by Nature, the folds and the sharp edges. Even the hardest of rocks can be shaped by a persistent stream, incredible Nature tells us that...