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Updated Thursday, September 13, 2007 0:00 am TWN, By Richard Saunders, Special to The China Post

Venture into deep mountain areas of Luchang

After crossing the stream, swollen by heavy rain the night before, the sides of the valley steepen into cliffs, and the narrow, delicate plumes of several waterfalls plunge out of ...

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Venture into deep mountain areas of Luchang

Arguably, the best time to visit is after a period of heavy rain, when the combined water of the two streams pouring over a fall wider than it is high present a spectacular sight. The falls can also be reached by following the road upstream from Stone Gate Gorge towards Luchang for a kilometer to a parking area left of the road, where a short, surfaced footpath leads down into the valley.

Recent improvements to the path down to the falls, with steps and hand rails, and a long suspension bridge spanning the gorge just below the waterfall, makes viewing much easier and safer than before, although it’s no longer possible to clamber around the rocks above the falls.

Above Shen Shien Valley the road forks, each branch heading off to aboriginal villages further up in the hills. Turn right and this road climbs high above the valley, for a kilometer to reach Luchang itself. This is the main settlement in the area, although it’s nothing more than a compact cluster of wooden houses, a few home stays and an old, half-ruined church, also built of wood.

Follow the narrow road ahead, climbing high up the mountainside, for another three kilometers, and it ends at a parking area marking the trailhead for the 2,220 meter-high Mt. Jiali, a popular but challenging hiking route (it takes three hours to reach the summit with its spectacular views). The views are already panoramic from the car park area, extending down the valley which links Luchang with the outside world. The sea, thirty kilometers away, is clearly visible in good weather.

It’s best to park the car in the center of Luchang settlement before attempting to see the remaining sights nearby. Take a narrow, single track lane which leaves the village by following the valley of Fongmei Stream. The road is suspended high above the stream, in places cut into the side of the gorge with a perpendicular drop of nearly a hundred meters below. One kilometer in a wooden signpost points to Duhua Pool (毒花潭; literally ‘poison flower pool’).

A rough dirt path descends into the gorge, joining the stream as it plunges over a low fall into a deep blue pool, inaccessible at the foot of sheer rocky walls. There aren’t any poisonous flowers here (the name comes from a species of little fish, the duhua (毒花) that live in the pool), but it’s a suitably quiet and romantic place to linger and contemplate the day’s journey.

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