Hiking on the Caoling Ancient Trail

Hi everybody!

So the other day, it was a Sunday to be precise, I was lying in bed pondering on how to spend the day. On the one hand, I somehow felt really exhausted and just wanted to slumber away the whole day, on the other hand I did not want to waste the given time to explore Taiwan. Upon weighing up these choices, I finally decided I had to cherish every moment while I am here, thus  forcing myself to get up.



A friend had told me about a nice hike path, the Caoling Ancient trail (草嶺古道) not far away from the farm, leading through tranquil green woods and up the mountains of northeast Taiwan, featuring a spectacular view from the peak of the mountains. She had also warned me, that hiking up the mountains on this trail in summer could be pretty grueling. "Fair enough" I thought, "I need the exercise anyway after three weeks hanging around in the office."

Half an hour later, I was already standing at Fulong station (福隆站) where my walk would start. Despite the trail already being marked, I still decided to make sure and headed to the visitor's centre first to pick up a guide including a map. It turned out, though, that this was most unnecessary, as I realised that English signs marking the way are seemingly very comprehensive in effectively even the remotest corners of Taiwan.

Nonetheless, the map at least revealed to me that I was not on the actual trail, yet, and that it was still a good five kilometres walk till I would reach it. But I did not mind - and who would, if they saw the path before them looking like the picture to the right?

However, there were other interesting, thought-provoking things to discover along this trail.
Namely, a power station, the shape and installation of which immediately reminded me of a certain power plant very prominent especially in German news coverages since last year: Fukushima Daiichi.
So I did some research and the result was: What I saw is the Longmen nuclear power plant, Taiwan's fourth NPP and currently still under construction but already in the testing phase.
The view on the sea and the power plant before my eyes, the thought crossed my mind, that the nearby starting point of my hike and biggest city in the area, Fulong (福隆), and Fukushima (福島) have the first character in their name in common: 福, meaning "good fortune" and "happiness". Oh, the irony... I wonder if mentioning this notion to Taiwanese would disturb them, superstitious as they are?

Back to topic: Eventually, after an hour's walk I arrived at the starting point of the actual, roughly nine kilometres long Caoling Ancient Trail originally designed to cut through the mountains and allow travellers and merchants to avoid taking the risky and longer coastal trail. At first, I was a little disappointed as the "trail" started off as an asphalt road. An old stairway of stone, however, soon indicated that my expectations would not be disappointed, but rather exceeded.

On my hike, I noticed that the ratio of foreigners among passersbies was unprecedentedly high, not even in Taipeh had I seen so many. Stereotypes have it that Taiwanese generally do not like hiking or unnecessary movement. But I suggest most of them do not go there, because almost every student has had a school trip including a hike on the Caoling Ancient Trail at some point of their career. This in mind, I was glad that I did not meet any school classes.
Instead, I met a group of American students that invited me to join them on their way up, making my trip a lot more enjoyable.
Looking at the coastline of Yilan county and Turtle Island from the peak of the trail, we enjoyed the fresh breeze blowing over the mountain ridge from the Pacific Ocean and admired the fantastic view. The walk up was truely exhausting, but the panorama more than compensated for our endeavours.

On our walk down to Dali (大里), final point of our hike, in the late afternoon, the weather changed and the formerly sunny sky was then shrouded in dark clouds. I have observed this pattern a couple of times now and I think it is typical of the weather in Taiwan: sunny and hot from morning to noon, then changing to cloudy and sticky warmth in the afternoon. It seldom rains, though.

We had another companion we picked up on our way to the top of the mountains, and she stayed with us until we got the train. She was one of the many stray dogs in Taiwan. I have no clue why there are so many stray dogs here. If there ever was some time in history that Taiwanese ate dog meat, then I guess they should not have stopped it. Or they should have taken better care of their dogs. These stray dogs are really importunate...

Thanks for reading and see you next time!

Niklas