YeinJee's Asian Journal

Taroko National Park was supposed to be one of the highlights during my Taiwan tour, but it turned out to be a huge disappointment.

Most of the scenic spots could only be fully viewed via foot trekking… and we didn’t have the luxury to do so due to time constraint. Well, that’s the downside for travelling via an organised tour.

The Eternal Spring Shrine

The Eternal Spring Shrine was one of the very few highlight scenic spots we visited, and this too was under renovation during our visit… it’s not our day obviously

The Eternal Spring Shrine (also known as Changchun Shrine) was built commemorates the 212 personnel, mostly military veterans, who died during the construction of the Central Cross-Island Highway (1956~1960).

The 198 kilometres highway, which connects the east to the west of Taiwan, was one of the most ambitious construction projects at that time, with people opening tunnels and clearing tracks at stiff cliffs using just primitive tools like axes and chisels etc.

East Arched Gate of the Central Cross-Island Highway

The East Arched Gate of the Central Cross-Island Highway

This gate is the eastern entrance to Taroko National Park and could be seen in many Taiwanese movies made from 1960s to early 80s. Most of the Taiwanese stay on the west coast of the island; and the gate was often used to symbolise the end of a long journey for travellers from the west coast to the eastern cities like Hualien etc.

Although we didn’t manage to get to the highlighted spots, the scenic scene
around the area was pretty nice nonetheless