I’ve visited the Dragon and Phoenix Waterfalls [龍鳳瀑布] of Zhongliao Township in Nantou County several times in the past few years. I’ve made frequent stops there on cycling trips through Zhongliao and taken my family there a few times for recreational hiking and firefly viewing. In recent years Nantou County Government has taken steps to turn the county into a tourist wonderland by initiating the construction of several projects like the one I’m featuring here.

We snagged a parking spot in the rapidly filling lot because the children managed to get out of bed at a decent hour. Once arriving visitors have three options:

1. Walk to the Dragon and Phoenix Waterfalls (highly recommended) – they are beautiful and it’s an easy hike with the exception of a section on the Dragon Waterfall side that requires you to take your time and watch your step.
2. Take a shuttle bus from the parking lot to the skybridge (more below).
3. Walk to the skybridge (more below).

If you arrive early there should be no line for the shuttle bus. We decided to walk to the skybridge. The first section was a trail – it was paved, then unpaved, then steps.

All too briefly the trail ends and meets up with a road. At this point my son demanded to be carried. It’s a narrow rural road which receives absolutely no traffic…
…with the exception of the shuttle buses taking guests to and from the parking lot and the skybridge. Now you know why my three year old didn’t want to walk anymore.

The picture at the top of the post is the best view offered by the scenic route to the skybridge. In fact, the view from that spot is better than that offered by the skybridge itself.

My son, having conserved most of his energy this morning leads in the final few meters.

I thought the whole point of the skybridge was to give visitors an incredible view of the waterfall, but no, you can’t actually see the waterfall at all.

The mighty Zhangping Creek [樟平溪]

I’m sure this was an excellent idea on paper but at some point engineers must have told county government officials that the waterfall wouldn’t be visible from the glass bottom bridge that was proposed and it was rubber stamped anyway. What do you expect? This is the same county government that is currently allotting land to build a dinosaur theme amusement park in Caotun Township.