2008-06 Taipingshan Forest, Taiwan

Along with his co-workers, Ray visited the Taipingshan forest national park and Sandie Falls near Taipei, Taiwan. Taiping means welcome, and shan means forest in Chinese.

We took a bus ride of about 2 hours from our hotel to the entrance to the national park. Along the way we followed a very wide river that was almost empty, despite the fact that it had rained for almost a week prior. In one of the towns we stopped and met a delivery truck which had our box lunches on board. Our first stop was at the main entrance to the park. They had a couple of cars from a train that used to run in the area.

As we worked our way up the mountain in the bus, we stopped at a tree along the side of the road that was about 2500 years old and still growing. It was bundled up with rope to help keep it from splitting. It had many hollows and gaps in it. Many of the upper limbs have broken off over time.

We arrived at the top of the mountain at the visitor center and had to climb a long string of steps to get to the train station for the next leg of our trip. The train was a narrow gage train that had an engine on each end and passenger cars in between. This allowed the train to go back and forth without turning around. The train is called a beng-beng train for the sound it makes as it makes it way down the track.

The train ride took about 20 minutes to reach the trailhead for the hike down to Sandie Falls. There were 2 trails at the trailhead, one to the falls and another shorter loop around the train station area. We opted for the trail to Sandie Falls. As the map indicated it was about a 2.7km round trip, or about 1.6 miles.

As we started downhill the trail was smooth and not to steep, but as we got farther down the trail, it got a little rougher and was paved with stones. We noticed the trail was marked with distance markers from the top every 200 meters and as we saw the 1.2km marker we felt we should be close. Then we saw a sign that said we still had 1.4km to go and should asses our ability to continue. It was then we realized the trip was 2.7km each way. Oh well, we decided to keep going. The last 800 km were very steep with the stone path became a series of wooden steps, but by now we could hear the falls and were anticipating viewing them.

The forest was very dense and beautiful, with lots of ferns on the ground and moss on the trees. There were plenty of natural resting points along the way created by trees, rocks and grounds. These would be more important on the way up!

Once we made it to the falls, we found them well worth the effort. The top falls were over 70 feet tall and fell into a large clear pool. Below that was a series of 3 smaller falls that emptied into the river bed below us. The cool water felt good as the temperature was much warmer down at the falls than up at the train station. The group was spread out over about 20 minutes as they arrived at the bottom. After our stay and photos, we headed back up the trail to catch the train back to the visitor center and our bus. We knew now what would lay ahead of us and figured it would take about 1.5 hours of climbing as the trip down was about an hour. We had about 1200 feet of elevation to climb.

The first 800m upward were very difficult due to the many steps and required multiple rest stops. Once we made it to the stone path, the ascent rate was much faster. The group I was with regrouped at a rest station about 400m from the top and made it back in time to catch the next to the last train out.

The hike was a challenge, but well worth it in the end. When we returned to the hotel, some of us went to the hot spring pool which was filled with small fish that nibbled at your feet and toes to give them a good cleaning. It was hard to keep your feet in the water as it tickled so much.



While in Taipei City, we went downtown for dinner and saw the Taipei 101 building, one of the tallest in the world. It is styled to look like bamboo with the joints every 15 stories or so.