Taroko Gorge, marble cut by a river

The Liwu River has spent millions of years cutting down through a mountain of marble, and the result is a canyon so narrow in places that the road has to tunnel straight through the rock. Taroko is Taiwan's most dramatic landscape: grey and white cliffs streaked with folded stone, a jade-coloured river far below, and swifts wheeling between the walls. The Swallow Grotto section is the classic ten minutes on foot, with pot-holes drilled into the cliff face by water and wind; the Tunnel of Nine Turns switchbacks along the deepest, tightest stretch of the gorge.

Other highlights sit just off the road. The Eternal Spring Shrine perches over a waterfall that falls straight into the river, commemorating the workers who died building the Central Cross-Island Highway. The Shakadang Trail follows a shallow blue tributary past boulders the size of houses, easy enough for anyone. The Baiyang trail ends at a water curtain inside a tunnel, and the vertiginous Zhuilu Old Road — a metre-wide ledge cut 500 metres above the valley floor — is the one experienced hikers come for.

Taroko is reached from Hualien, 30 to 45 minutes away by road, and the coast road continues north beneath the Qingshui Cliffs, where the mountains drop almost sheer into the Pacific. The gorge is also Truku territory, and the indigenous villages and roadside stalls around Tianxiang are part of what makes the valley feel lived in rather than staged.

Since the April 2024 earthquake, and later weather damage, the park has been only partially open, with strict access controls that change often and limited availability, and some of the trails and sections named above may be closed. Check the Taroko National Park website and the Highway Bureau's 168 road conditions service before you go.