Celestial Lake (仙湖)

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During the summer, when I’m not out lugging my camera gear around taking photos, I can usually be found on the hunt for mountainous waterholes to go swimming in. Over my years of living in Taiwan I’ve found that I’ve started to enjoy my time swimming in waterfalls, rivers and mountain streams much more than any of Taiwan’s various beaches.

I suppose I much prefer the freedom and solitude of the mountains as well as the cold fresh water rather than the party almost nightclub-like atmosphere you get at beaches in Taiwan where swimming anywhere deeper than your ankles is highly regulated and sometimes frowned upon.

I have quite a few places that I enjoy visiting and are close enough to where I live that they have become go-to swimming spots when I want to get out to enjoy a bit of nature and a swim. The area I live in has a couple of waterfalls and rivers that I frequent but the mountains of neighbouring Hsinchu county has quite a few locations that I enjoy visiting when I have a bit of time.  

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Sometimes when I hear about a location I can never actually be too sure about how viable it is for swimming, but thanks to the Follow Xiaofei blog I was actually quite confident that a visit to the so-called “Celestial Lake” (仙湖) would be one that would offer a pretty awesome swimming experience and also one that would be great for photos as well. 

When I made plans to go to the lake with friends, I started mapping out the roads and checking photos of the lake the night before we planned to go. I planned to not only visit the lake for a swim but also go to a nearby waterfall to take some photos as well. One of the things I noticed when I was checking out photos of the place is how the crystal clear jade-coloured water looked like what I saw when I visited Hualien’s beautiful Mugumuyu (慕谷慕魚) which got me really excited to visit the lake. 

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When we arrived and crossed the river, our first glance at the lake didn’t disappoint as it seemed as if the water was so crystal-clear that you could see the bottom at even the deepest points. The jade-green colour of the water itself indicated that not only was the water clean but would also be great for swimming, so after taking a few photos, we jumped right in and swam for an hour or two.

The water in the lake was a lot warmer than what you’d usually find in a waterfall or river stream and is actually quite deep meaning that you can safely do a bit of cliff jumping from the cliffs beside the lake - which I did quite a few times!

Considering that it took me just over an hour to arrive at this beautiful lake, I have added it to my list of go-to places that I’ll visit several times over the next few summers for whenever the weather gets so unbearable that the only alternative is to jump in a cold lake!

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If you need more information about how to get to the lake, check out Follow Xiao-Fei’s post with his excellent map that will help get you there!

If you go, remember to have fun and be safe

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Map / Location

 

Getting to the lake is quite easy if you have your own method of transportation.

There are possibly buses that will take you to Wufeng (五峰) from either Hsinchu or Jhudong but once you arrive in the beautiful old Indigenous villlage you’ll have to hike down the hill to the river, cross the bridge and then keep hiking to the “Celestial Lake Campground” (仙湖露營區) that is closest to the lake. 

If you have your own method of transportation, be it car or scooter it is quite easy to get to the lake but rather than me giving a long list of directions it would probably be better just to check out Xiao-Fei’s Map  

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Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots) 

Hsiang-Tian Lake (向天湖)

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A week or so ago my friends and I went on an all-expense paid day-trip to Miaoli which had us relaxing and chatting on a nice comfy bus all the way to Nanzhuang village (南庄) - a popular tourist spot with a Hakka old street and the ancestral home of the Say-Siyat indigenous people (賽夏族)

We started the day learning about Say-Siyat culture at a museum dedicated to the tribe and their history, then enjoyed some time at a mountain-top lake before heading down to have dinner at a Hakka restaurant and then making our way to the Nanzhuang Old Street. Today's post won't be about all of that though, it's just going to be a short one about Hsiang-Tian Lake, one of the destinations on the trip.

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Hsiang-Tian Lake (向天湖) which is also known in Hakka as "Yang-Tian Lake" (仰天湖) is a small lake on a mountain at an elevation of 738 meters above sea level. The rare mountain-top lake is surrounded by mountains and due to its elevation is often foggy or misty which makes it appear mysterious. The water in the lake has an odd green tint to it and the colour of the trees surrounding the lake change with the seasons. The lake is thus a popular tourist site and because of that coffee shops, small restaurants and stalls have been set up around it to cater to tourists.

Hundreds of years ago the lake was actually much larger and deeper than it is today - however due to some erosion that took place on the Great East River (大東河) tributary, some of the water receded and land appeared where there was originally water. This new land became an important area for the indigenous tribe to make their homes due to the fertile soil and next to a water source. 

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Today, the lake continues to be an important place for the Say-Siyat people and is home to their largest tribe. There is a museum near the lake that chronicles the history of the indigenous group and their culture. Near the lake and the museum there is a large field that holds a festival every two years (as well as a larger one every ten years) called the "Bas-ta'ai" or "The Sacrifice to the Short Spirits" (矮靈祭) which is a three-day festival that has a lot of activities, great food and traditional dancing to honour the "short spirits" at the end of the yearly harvest.

The photos of the lake that I'm posting today were taken with the idea that I would make an attempt to honour what the Sai-Siyat people respected it for - the reflection of the sky. Most of the shots are 10-20 second exposures taken with a wide-angle lens and they capture pretty much the entire width of the lake with the reflection of the mountains and trees near behind it.

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The beauty of the lake depends on the season you visit and it seems like most people are greeted by fog and mist. I was lucky on the day we went to have a somewhat clear day, but I was greedy and hoping for a day with blue skies! I hope that when the next "Bas-ta'ai" festival happens that I can visit again and that the weather will be better!

If you have any questions or comments don't be afraid to comment below.

Sun Moon Lake (日月潭)

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For most North Americans who come to Taiwan it can be a bit of a strange feeling seeing how excited Taiwanese people get when they talk about how large and beautiful their 7.93 km² Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) is even when the smallest of our Great Lakes, Lake Ontario is 18,960 km² in comparison. 

That being said, everything is relative. The Great Lakes are polluted and are frozen nine months of the year, and as all arguments like this go: Size isn't Everything. 

Sun Moon Lake is majestic and even though its not actually that big, its easy to see why it is the pride of Taiwanese people from every part of the country.

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Oddly enough, Sun Moon Lake is so popular that it also appears on one of the pages of the most recent version of the passport of the People's Republic of China (not to be confused with the Republic of China) despite it not even being within the territory that it actually governs.

That is almost tantamount to Canada having Mount Rushmore in our passport. Nevertheless, that whole predicament is an argument for another day. 

The lake is situated in Taiwan's Nantou County (南投縣) and is surrounded by mountains on all sides.

Nantou happens to be one of my favourite places in Taiwan as its one of the most scenic areas for hiking with the Alishan scenic area (阿里山國家風景區) and the Yushan National Park (玉山國家公園.)

The county is directly in the middle of the country and gives easy access to some of the highest points of Taiwan's Central Mountain Range (中央山脈) with 41 of Taiwan's 100 mountains which have peaks over 3000 meters high.   

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The lake is considered holy land and the area surrounding it is home to the “Thao” (邵族), one of Taiwan's Indigenous tribes which has unfortunately become one of Taiwan's smallest remaining (recognized) indigenous groups. 

Like many other indigenous groups in Taiwan who are still unrecognized by the central government, it took far too long for the Thao people to actually get the recognition they deserved when it came to their home and their claim that Sun Moon Lake is part of their holy land. 

Over the past century, they have had to endure the Japanese occupation which considered all indigenous groups “savages” and then the latter half of the century with the Chinese Nationalists who did their best to “sinicize” all of Taiwan’s indigenous people by forcing them to learn Mandarin and changing their way of life. 

They fortunately received recognition in 2001 as one of Taiwan’s ten different ethnic indigenous groups and the population has slowly started to rise due to efforts to preserve the culture.  

Lalu island (拉魯島), a small island in the middle of the lake is especially important to the Thao people, but has been used in the past as a popular place for weddings by other ethnic groups who came to the island.

Even more unfortunate is that the island has suffered over the past century due to the construction of a dam that raised the water levels in the lake and the effects of the devastating earthquake on September 21st 1999 (九二一大地震) which rocked central Taiwan and wreaked massive destruction. 

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Since the cooling of hostilities between the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China (China) tourism has become a major source of income for the area and what was once a very relaxing and peaceful area to visit has now become laden with development and littered with tourists who take boat rides across the lake ultimately causing a lot of pollution. 

When I first visited the lake years ago I thought it was a perfect escape from the bustling cities in the north. You could sit on the board walk and watch the sun rise or the sun set in perfect quiet.

When I visited this time however every five meters that I walked I was asked by somebody if I wanted a boat ride, which made me feel like I was touring somewhere in South East Asia.

The lake itself, despite all of this however is still beautiful. I visited on Christmas, and while most Canadians oddly wish for a white Christmas, I was perfectly happy with my colourful Christmas with the emerald green waters of the lake, the blue sky and the green mountains that surround it. It was also a nice escape from the weather in the north of Taiwan which at the time was pretty dreary. 

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I didn’t have much time during this visit to Sun Moon Lake as I was just stopping by for a few hours before making my way up into to the mountains. I did have a nice walk around half of the lake and had an excellent view of the lake from the Starbucks by the boardwalk. 

I sincerely hope that the Taiwanese central government and the Nantou county government has the foresight to curb some of the development around the lake and do more to preserve the pristine beauty of the area so that future generations can enjoy it as much as we do now. 

If you have a chance to visit Taiwan, make sure Sun Moon Lake and Nantou is on your list of places to visit. 

Gallery / Flickr (High Res Shots)