I had the great pleasure of heading up to Baguashan [八卦山] this morning to check out the Tung Blossoms on the Wolongpo [臥龍坡步道] and Tengshan Trails [藤山步道]. These trails are two of several scenic areas visitors can flock to for the 2009 Hakka Tung Blossom Festival [2009客家桐花祭]. There were several booths as well as a stage set up in front of Fengtian Temple [鳳天宮] for the event. I arrived before any of the vendors, so there was nothing distracting me from starting my walk down the Wolongpo Trail [臥龍坡步道].
There were only a handful of people on the trail, but that would soon change.
At the bottom of the trail is a parking lot and the entrance for the Tengshan Trail. This trail was much more popular than the previous one. Being a lovely Saturday morning, many families were enjoying the trail.
The trail has a platform to view the Changhua Plain and the Taiwan High Speed Rail:
Since this trail has no steps, it is also popular with cyclists [I’ve been here before]:
That’s Fengtian Temple in the background:
The trail brought me back up to where I started. A sign at Fengming Pond [鳳鳴池] stated that this pond is used by local farmers to collect rainwater for irrigation. It also boasts a handful of endemic species of plants and frogs. That of course didn’t stop anyone from throwing tires or bottles of Whisby in.
Here’s a map of the area. It’s easily accessible from Changhua City or Nantou City via County Road 139:
Todd nice photo essay. Your photos are nicely composed. So many people take their nice camera and just point it and shoot stuff but much of your stuff has sense of composition and point of view-keep it up!
Thanks Mark, I owe much of my improvement in composition (not that I don’t still have a long way to go) to my wife. She’s brutally honest and won’t hesitate to let me know when my pictures suck.
Very Impressed with your Chinese!
That is one of wive’s primary skill sets 😀
Interesting. Any clue how 八卦山 got its name?
Nathan – I have to take pictures of signs to remember places, sometimes I need to ask my wife if I don’t know a character, otherwise I try typing what I can read into Google and hoping I can find a site that has the whole name.
Mark F. – 🙂
Mark – I checked Chinese Wikipedia and got nothing concrete. If you find the origin, let me know!
Great report and pics Todd.
Thank you Craig!