After having a day of rest, we decided to head out for
another day of hiking. Our hike for today was the Caoling Old Historic Trail.
This was a longer one – about 6 or 7 miles – and instead of going through the
jungle, it goes up into the coastal mountains. I am so glad we did this hike. I
read online that if you only do one hike in Taiwan, this is the one to do. The
route is the only remaining part of an old foot highway built over 220 years
ago that connected Taipei to some of the villages on the east coast. We started
the hike in a smaller city called Fulong. The trail began by going through some
backcountry village streets. We saw some nice rice fields, birds, and lizards
along these small roadways. The lizards we saw were really cool. They were brown
for the body, but had really long blue tails. They would run away as soon as
they saw us though, so it was kind of hard to get a picture of them. About ¼ of
a mile in Christian told us he felt sick. Then about 1 mile in, one of Agnes’
sandals broke completely. But we were all committed to keep going. With some
encouragement, Christian started feeling better – well he had some more energy
at least, I don’t know if he was feeling better because he did end up throwing
up when we made it to the peak. With her broken shoe, Agnes required some
carrying for several of the steep parts, but she was able to manage on the flat
sections by dragging one foot (the one with the broken sandal) on the ground.
About half way to the peak we got to stop by a stream and soak our feet for a
bit. Then we got to see some cool rock carvings one of the ministers from China
had made back during the Qing dynasty when he came to check on the place. My
favorite is one that says “Boldly Quell the Wild Mists”. It is supposed to be
the largest stone inscription in Taiwan.
When the minister got to this part of the trail during his visit, the
mists and winds were so bad that the company had trouble continuing. He had
this sign made to commemorate those who worked hard in the winds to build the
trail and to ward off evil wind spirits. He also had another rock inscription
done at a different spot of the trail of the character for tiger. Tigers are
supposed to be the animal in charge of the winds. It wasn’t very windy for us
on our hike, so perhaps the inscriptions are doing their job.
My favorite part
of the hike was as we got to the peak of the pass. Because of the elevation the
hills were just grass covered up there. We could see all up and down the east
coast and had a great view of Turtle island. We even saw some wild water
buffalo up there. From the peak of the pass there was another trail that stayed
up at the ridgeline of the mountains for a few more miles. I read online that
that trail is really beautiful too and I was tempted to have us do it, but we
decided it would probably be best if we ever come back when the children are
older – or at least when none of them are sick and they all have working shoes.
From the peak we just had a short, but steep trip down to another small city
(Dali).
From there we caught the train Shirfen. This city is known for their
sky lanterns. The train goes right through the center of the main street. It
was pretty cool looking to see all of the shops built right on both sides of
the railroad tracks with just a foot path on each side. This village was super
crowded!!! There is only one county in Taiwan where you can light the lanterns
any time of the year and this is the city that everyone does it at. The
lanterns that they do here were about four feet tall. They first hang them up
for you and let you write wishes on each side with a Chinese calligraphy brush.
The tradition is that the higher your lantern gets, they closer your wishes get
to the gods and the more likely that they will grant them. One lantern only
costs about $5 and they help you take pictures and light them and everything.
Although it was kind of touristy, it was a cool experience and definitely worth
it.
The train ride leaving the city was very crowded and we had to stand for
much of it. Luckily, the kids were all exhausted so they didn’t do their usual
running and playing around on the train. We made it home and all of the
children fell asleep right away. It had been a long and fun day.
At the start of the day while we were waiting for the train station an older man a bag of delicious onion pancakes. This was probably all of his meals today and he was so generous in wanting to share.
At the start of the hike they had some cool statues.
The hike began on a paved road.
I don't know if you can see the lizard in this one. I kept on trying to get pictures of them, but they were pretty fast.
About 2 miles in we came by these rice fields. Being up in the mountains, they were really pretty.
The stream we stopped out to cool our feet off.
Back into the jungle.
The large rock with the "Boldly Quell the Wild Mists" inscription on it.
About a mile from the top we found this rest area. The kids loved the men and women signs for this bathroom.
Inside almost all of the men's bathrooms in Taiwan are signs asking the men to stand a little closer to the urinal. They often also have a second sign with some type of interesting or funny quote. I thought these two were particularly wise.
Not too far from here to the top.
The grassy areas were particularly beautiful.
The tiger inscription.
The view from the top.
It is hard to see in this picture, but we did see some water buffalo at the top.
Again, hard to see, but there is a spider in this picture that the children thought was particularly cool looking.
The temple at the bottom of the hike.
All tired out back at the train station. This is actually at a transfer station. Our trains did not line up right, so we had to wait here for about an hour.
Here is a movie poster of a Chinese movie that they had filmed at this train station.
Coming in to Shifen.
Painting our lantern.
There is our lantern up in the sky. The children were all proud that our lantern made it pretty high up.
A large suspension bridge in the town.
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