Taroko National Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Taroko National Park | |
|---|---|
| IUCN Category II (National Park) | |
 |
|
| Location: | Taiwan |
| Area: | 9920 km² |
| Established: | November 28, 1986 |
- "Taroko" can also refer to the Truku aboriginal tribe.
Taroko National Park (Traditional Chinese: 太魯閣國家公園; pinyin: Tàilǔgé gúojiā gōngyuán; Taiwanese POJ: Thài-ló·-koh kok-ka kong-hn̂g) is one of the six national parks of the Republic of China (Taiwan). It spans cross the counties of Hualien, Taichung, and Nantou. It was established on November 28, 1986, named after Taroko Gorge, the landmark gorge of the park.
Sights include:
- Tunnel of Nine Turns (九曲洞 Jiuqiu Dong, pictured at right)
- Eternal Spring Shrine (長春祠 Changchun, pictured below)
- Swallow's Mouth (燕子口)
- Jinheng Park (靳珩公園)
- The Bridge of the Kind Mother (慈母橋)
- Tianxiang (天祥)
- Jueilu Precipice (錐麓斷崖)
- Lioufang Bridge (流芳橋): 1,666 meters above the riverbed
- Hill of Yu the Great (大禹嶺)
- Buluo Bay (布洛灣)
Contents |
[edit] Origin of the name
The name, Taroko, means the "magnificent and splendid". Long ago a tribeman of the Truku aboriginal tribe saw the beauty of the azure Pacific when he walked out of the gorge. Astonished by the elegance of the scene, he cried: "Taroko!". And so it became the name of the place, in fashion not dissimilar to how the island, Formosa, got its name.
[edit] Geology
Taroko Gorge and its surrounding area are well known for their abundant supply of marble, leading to its nickname, "The Marble Gorge". The rock now seen in Taroko began over 200 million years ago as sediment on the bottom of the ocean. As the sediment collected, it was subject to increasingly large amounts of pressure which eventually hardened it into limestone. Over the past 100 million years, compression between the Philippine and Eurasian techtonic plates supplied additional pressure that metamorphosed the limestone into marble. Uplifting forces from the plate collision pushed this rock above the surface of the ocean to where we see it today. In fact, the region is still being uplifted by approximately 0.5cm per year.
The gorge itself was carved into the marble by the erosive power of the Liwu River. Light reflected by the dissolved calcium carbonate gives the water in the gorge its striking blue color.
[edit] Pictures
 Tunnel of Nine Turns, Taroko National Park |
 Eternal Spring Shrine, Tailuge(Taroko) National Park, Hualien on the east coast. |
[edit] References
↑ Landform and Geology. Taroko National Park Official Website. Retrieved on 2006-04-03.
[edit] See also
 |
This page contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. |
[edit] External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
