Revisiting Taichung's Toubienkeng Bat Cave

Follow local route 136 — the road to Taiping (太平) — eastwards out of Taichung city center and keep following it as the last suburbs of the city fall away, heading east into the low, rolling hills. An interesting and easy diversion en route is to turn left down a signposted side road immediately before crossing Yichung Bridge (一江橋, just after Taiping town), 4.5 kilometers from Taichung train station, to the vividly named Dog Bite People village (狗咬人坑) nature trail, a network of paths through attractive wooded hills.

The trails lead to some good viewpoints, with the lovely Da Tanzi (大潭仔) lake as a fine centerpiece. Set in a wooded hollow about a kilometer from the main road, it’s a scenic body of water, and an interesting one: The lake was formed by a landslide triggered by the great earthquake of 1999, and despite its small size, is apparently very deep. The long, thin shape suggested its alternative name: Taiwan Lake, and it really does look like the outline of the island when viewed from one of the trails on the hillside above.

Route 135 follows the Toubienkeng Stream another 5.5 kilometers from Yichung Bridge to Toubienkeng Bat Cave, through some attractive rural countryside. Look out for a huge, old mango tree with a great, thick trunk standing right beside the road with an Earth God shrine sheltered underneath its spreading boughs, about halfway. Another 2 kilometers along the road, the grand modern temple of Lianhua Shan (蓮花山) is a magnet for day-trippers; its fine buildings and immaculately kept grounds are worth a look.

Just after Lianhua Shan, the road is elevated on stilts above the rocky bed of the Toubienkeng Stream for a spell as the valley deepens, low cliffs rising above its far bank. Built into a natural hollow in the cliffs above the stream is another temple, known as Fairy Cave (仙子洞), although it now stands inaccessible and overgrown, since the bridge that once provided the only means of getting there collapsed (probably another casualty of the great earthquake). Follow the road another 100 meters further upstream, and the twin black mouths of Toubienkeng Bat Cave open into the same cliff face.

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