Changchan Shrine

While on my way exiting Taroko Gorge National Park, it is sometimes ok to be a tourist and stop at the places the tour buses stop. In this case, out of the hundreds of temples I have seen on my travels throughout Asia, this was the most breathtaking. Changchan Shrine or translated as the Eternal Spring Shrine, however just because it is a tourist site does not mean you have to experience it as a tourist.

In the early morning hours I watched bus after bus pull up, take a picture and move on. Some stopped and walked to the temple and back. I decided to ascend the gorge cliffs to Changguang Temple and do my own tour of this spectacle. The temple was a peaceful place with not a single tourist in sight. The arduous uphill hike to Taroko Tower left me drenched in sweat but the chance to view the other side of the gorge where the tour buses were stopping to take pictures. It made me feel proud to know that the hundreds of tourists below would never see or experience this and that I would be a dot in all of their photos.

At Taroko Tower I again was the only person around. Although it overwhelming smelled of rotting larvae paying tribute on the towers steps, the view and the serenity of the gorge was reason enough to stop for lunch in the top of the tower, watching the people below snap pictures, hop on their air conditioned buses and continue on a tour without ever experiencing the sensations of the places they are seeing.

I continued down the now downhill cliff trail towards the Eternal Shrine Temple only stopping once to allow a viper to slowly move across the trail. The temple was completely mesmerizing. With two red, gold, white and blue temples to each side build into the rocks and a majestic waterfall rushing out from the cliffs in the third, center temple, falling into the gorge below. It is a place that seems to connect the earth with the sky and the gods, with a simply indescribable beauty and charm.

Upon returning back to the tourist stop I went from sweaty adventurer to instant fame. Eating a snack on the side of the road waiting for the public bus back to Hualien, tour bus after tour bus pulled up and I conversed with the tour guides and they made me part of the tour. I was the 24 year old world traveler that just hiked descended the cliffs of the gorge. Group after group of little old Chinese tourists asked to take pictures with me, a truly hilarious end to the day!