Water Curtain Cave springs to life from classic Chinese literature

Return to the road and, if you have nerves of steel coupled with a scooter or four-wheel drive vehicle, follow it on up the valley. Less daring drivers should park the car in the parking area 500 meters further up the road and walk the remaining three kilometers to the trailhead. At first the tarmac widens and is a relief after the narrow squeeze lower down, but it shortly narrows greatly.

Follow the road ahead up the valley at all junctions (most junctions are signposted) and take extreme care in the later stages: this one-lane track must be one of the hardest public roads to negotiate in all Taiwan; there’s hardly enough room for one car to squeeze through and the option to the left is a sheer drop.

A walking trail on the right passes a mapboard and wanders up the valley to the Water Curtain Cave, passing underneath a fine waterfall (a mere prelude to greater wonders a little further on) then climbs to cross a suspension bridge spanning a short but awesome canyon cut through the mountains at the foot of Water Curtain Cave. From here a breathtaking waterfall nearly a hundred meters high can be seen, plunging gracefully over the sheer cliffs off the canyon wall into the main stream below.

Water Curtain Cave is still out of sight, but follow the path over the ridge beyond and down the other side to see the full force of the main stream plunge 60 meters free of the cliff into the canyon. The sight of the spectacular fall and an even higher one plunging down the canyon wall opposite make this a place of rare spectacle. And as it turns out, monkeys DO inhabit the lush jungle that cloaks the sides of the gorge here.

1|2

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email