On the way to Taroko national park in Hualien, my dad and I picked up one of his former students from over 20 years ago.
His former student who lives in Taitung, a city on the south eastern part of the island, drove us in his big and comfy 15 years old Mercedes along the green, scenic road along the coast. Slight rain came in the early morning, but the sky cleared when we arrived at the park some 3 hours later.
The pictures I took at Taroko most definitely don’t do justice to the majestic beauty of the canyons and the amazing size and colors of the marble stones.
Comparing the canyons here to Colca canyon, the world’s deepest, in Arequipa, Peru, I would put them side by side and say that Taroko puts me more in awe simply because the two canyon walls are so close together and the road into Taroko threads through the bottom of the canyon. At many points along the drive, we simply had to stop and admire the awesomeness of the huge rock wall. Much like this one here.
My dad told me that over 40 years ago, when he was just a junior in college, his classmates and him hiked a whole week here from Taichung in order to collect botanic samples. When they got to Taroko, they saw the huge marble rocks at the bottom of the canyon. They made their way down the canyon slope and slept on the warm rocks, heated the entire day by the sun.
Look at the different shades and layers on the marble!
On the way back to Taitung, we found one of my dad’s army buddy, who is from an aboriginal tribe in Taiwan. When he got to the army, he didn’t speak chinese and couldn’t write. With my dad’s help, he could read and write letters home by the time he left the army. Til this day, he still calls my dad his teacher. Admittedly, he’s been drinking the whole day when we arrived.
At the ripe age of sixty something, he still goes hunting wild boars. Here you see a rack of boar jaws hanging on a string. He hunted all of these in one year alone!Â
Having met my dad’s army buddy and hearing him speak Mandarin, I was very proud of what my dad did.
