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Updated Thursday, July 12, 2007 0:00 am TWN, By Richard Saunders, Special to The China Post



	The little Neihu Stream doesn’t flow for very far, measuring less than five kilometers from its source on the border between Nantou and Yunlin counties to its mouth, where it flows into the much larger Clearwater ... Enlarge Photo

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The short but eventful life of Neihu Stream

None of this, however is visible from the footpath until stepping onto the new suspension bridge which crosses the stream at the base of the great rock face, about ten minutes’ walk from the car park. Standing on the bridge looking upstream, the little watercourse looks too small to have carved such a deep and jagged slot in the hard rock. In the other direction, downstream, and the stream plummets over the abyss to fall thirty meters over Tongxin Waterfall into a far bigger canyon below.

Stepping stones cross the smooth but sloping (and in places very slippery) rock above the brink of the waterfall, then wind along the wooded face of the deep gorge, eventually climbing back to rejoin route 149 about 500 meters below the car park.

When the rock is dry, it’s possible (with great care) to walk to the edge of the canyon below the waterfall and peer into the depths. Once a trail, cut by the army, descended to the bottom of the gorge, but this was wiped out years ago, and getting to the base of the waterfall remains impossible for the time being.

The hills rise high and steep above the stream, and covered in a thick layer of undergrowth they look as if they’ve always looked that way. However the skyline has changed remarkably since the great earthquake eight years ago. A friendly local resident pointed out that, prior to September 21st 1999, the high ridge to the east of the stream, which now has two peaks with a big depression between them, was a single long flat ridge.

The ‘V’ visible against the sky today was once taken up by the summit of Caoling Mountain, which slid bodily down the mountainside beyond, killing tens of people and forming Caoling Lake. It’s a sobering reminder of the unimaginable violence of that event, and in a location filled with the evidence of Mother Nature’s immense abilities, perhaps the most awe-inspiring of all.

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