The traveling nifty fifty visits Taiwan’s mountains

I’ve been updating the blog with photos taken from all over the world with the traveling nifty fifty and it was finally time for the lens to visit me.  I was of course a little nervous about it because everyone only has a few days to take photos with the lens before shipping it to the next destination.  What if it rained all weekend like forecasted?  What if I didn’t find anything inspired to take a photo of?  I chose to travel deep within Taiwan’s mountains while continuing my neverending quest to visit all of Taiwan’s waterfalls.  Overall the weekend went great and I at least matched the high bar that had been set by previous nifty fifty photographers.  For more photos of the trip visit the two photoblogs on my website.  Hwy 16 and Shuanglong Waterfall and Shuiliandong (Water Curtain Cave) Waterfall

Dili is a small aboriginal village located along Hwy 16.  When I got out of my car to take statue pictures a grandmother working on her farm started waving me away.  I waved back and then I realized that she didn’t want me to take pictures of her.

 

Despite Taiwan’s close proximity the Chinese didn’t start settling the island until the 17th century.  Taiwan had been known to the Chinese for several hundred years but the Chinese were largely isolated during their history and lacked a navy or boats to settle and control Taiwan.  Instead Taiwan’s original inhabitants can be traced back to the Austronesian peoples that settled Polynesia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Oceania.  For thousands of years they lived without any interference from the Japanese or Chinese.  The Chinese began settling Taiwan in the 17th century and the aborigines now mostly live in remote mountain regions and make up only 2% of Taiwan’s population.

After a slightly unsuccessful waterfall adventure near Dili I drove 20-30 kms southwest where I found an excellent hiking trail and waterfall.

This was the view when looking down from the red bridge.  The waterfall is just around the corner of the gorge.

Shuiliandong waterfall.  I might not have considered or taken this photo if I wasn’t making a special effort to take a waterfall photo with the traveling nifty fifty.  I might have bumped the focus a little but I really like this photo.

My last destination was the very popular Sun Moon Lake since it was nearby.  I was unimpressed since the waters are usually a bright blue-green on sunny days but this is a really nice photo in a different kind of way.

 

 

 

 

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