Asia Mega Tour II - Further Down The Eastern Coast And Into The Riff Valley

We took our second all day tour from Hualien yesterday. It took us further south along the coast then over the Coastal Range and back up through the Riff Valley that stretches for about 115 miles north to south along the Eastern part of the country and is the boundary between the Philippine plate and the Eurasian plate. On the East side of the valley is the Coastal Mountains and and the West side is the Central Mountains.

Let's get into the pictures

Sea Coast...Lots of Sea Coast

Eastern Riff Valley

No so much. The haze was terrible

Geology

More than you could shake a stick at (what the hell does that expression mean?)

Our guide took us to this place where there was a confluence of igneous (volcanic) activity along with the metamorphic activity of the two plates colliding causing some while rock formation.

There's all kinds of folding 

Odd rocks that were found in other media

And sedimentary rock

Plant life

 Photographer not happy to be caught in plant life

Anthropological study of a special species of Great Ape clambering on coastal outcrop.

Anthropologists

Guide

Locals

Plant based dragon from park attached to local low security prison the prisoners maintain...I kid you not

A site dedicated to a former logging operation set up during the Japanese rule period that now focuses on returning good ecological practices to the forest. There were buildings that were restored and those that were original. And a lot of artwork done using the natural woood.

And finally

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

You know the term 'happy as a clam'?

Clearly here is the role model

Taiwan has a serious problem with wave misbehavior

Clearly groping between couples is a big problem

Asia Mega Tour II - Pictures From Taroko National Park And Eastern Coast

As I mentioned I took a butt ton of pictures. Wife's post does a much better job of describing exactly where we were. However, whereas she said she would not bore you with a all her pictures, I on the other hand have absolutely NO QUALM what so ever about boring you with all my pictures!!!!

Actually what I'd like to do is give you more of the feel of where we were.

Ocean

The east coast of Taiwan drops precipitously into the Pacific Ocean. There are plateaus that jut out under the water after which there are steep drops. You can see this in the color of the water. The ocean is so dangerous on the east coast that swimming, diving, surfing have all been banned. The water also has the most amazing blue/blue-green color.

The effect of earthquakes and typhoons

This part of Taiwan gets more earthquakes than any other. It is right at the boundary were the Philippine and Eurasian plates are hitting. They also get hit by lots of powerful Pacific Typhoons. As a result road, bridges and tunnels are constantly having to be repaired and rebuilt.

Beautiful tunnel entrance

Made to replace one recently destroyed by landslide from Typhoon

New bridge that replaces bridge destroyed by earthquake

Indiana Wife and The Mountain Temple

Our intrepid photographer faces the death defying bridge

To make her way to the golden Bodhisattvas

And is finally rewarded

More temples and shrines in the gorge

This valley was once a much more gentle one but the extremely rapid up thrust of the mountain building has caused the river to carve almost straight down.

Trying to give you a sense of the depth of this place and its unique geology

And no post is complete without

SIGNS OF THE WORLD

In Asia one of the big problems in tourist sites is the hordes of East Asian tourists who insist on posing endlessly in front of the prime photo op sites either for their friends to take pictures of them doing stupid poses or they doing selfies of themselves. Thank goodness Taiwan has taken a stand against posing pollution as one can see from this NO POSING sign.