Hidden treasure: Shengmaoshu Waterfall

The clouds drop most of their rain before ever reaching the cities of the western plains, while ensuring the area remains fertile and well-watered, courtesy of a plethora of streams tumbling down from the highlands. If only Taipei had been built a little further southwest, it too would have benefited more from their protection and would no doubt have been a sunnier place!

All this rainfall has to find its way back to the sea somehow, and on Taiwan it’s often a long and obstacle-ridden journey, which, of course, is why there are so many waterfalls on this island. It’s doubtful anyone has any idea just how many waterfalls of significance there are on Taiwan, as it seems every year new ones are ‘discovered,’ but there are certainly several hundred that can be easily reached by a reasonably fit walker, although many remain to this day the preserve of the well-equipped river tracer.

One sizable waterfall that until just a few years ago was inaccessible enough to be out-of-bounds to all but the most determined explorer is the impressive 110 meter, two drop plunge of Shengmaoshu Waterfall (生毛樹瀑布), tucked away in a deep, densely wooded gorge in a northern corner of Chiayi County. The impressive great ravine in which Shengmaoshu Waterfall lies is by no means unknown to hikers and visitors to the area, which is known collectively as Ruifeng Scenic Area (瑞峰風景區).

The Dragon Palace Waterfall (龍宮瀑布) and Water Curtain Cave (水濂洞), both in the lower reaches of the gorge have long been popular local tourist attractions, although until new paths were built a few years ago, even they weren’t very easy places to reach, involving a long and very steep climb down the face of the gorge.

Several extremely destructive typhoons which wiped out parts of the original trail into the gorge meant that a new, and far easier trail has been built up to the magnificent Dragon Palace Waterfall, and a new path continuing a kilometer or so further up the gorge finally gives easy access to the well-hidden Shengmaoshu Waterfall, which was previously very difficult to reach.

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