Exploring Baghuashan Mountain Range

Uphill, gears and sweat

The Baghuashan mountain range is a collection of mountains that run south east of Changhua City, at it's starting point is Baghuashan mountain, home to the giant Buddha statue that sits proudly overlooking the city below, this part of the range is where all the tourist who visit Changhua city like to congregate, my focus is further south of this long range of mountains, towards the forests and temples which are not in the guide books and amazing views of the eastern Taiwan flat lands.

This adventure was back in early October of 2017, I was seeking a local adventure so I thought I should go and explore my local mountain range more, not too much is said about this range and I couldn't find much information on the tourist websites or either in the local tourist information center, so I thought this sounds perfect for me, to see what beholds on the top and on the other side of these beautiful mountains.

I cycled past Changhua stadium which is on the edge of the city and the starting point of the mountains, it didn't take me long before the city was behind me and more trees started to appear, Changhua city is such a small place, I am rather lucky that it doesn't take long to get out of the city.

My first destination was to find this small taoism temple called 'Sanqing Palace'. Cycling up Baoshan road was hard and tiring work, my leg muscles were burning as I haven't cycled up a mountain in months, this also didn't help with my bike gears suddenly breaking on me halfway up the mountain; the temperatures are still hot here in Taiwan in October, as I was fixing my bike gears on the side of this road with no shade, I could feel my ears burning, I remember concentrating so hard on fixing my bike, I didn't take much notice of all the cars and trucks swiftly moving past me, the birds were chirping in the surrounding trees, sounds that I had never heard of before, but I couldn't enjoy the moment, because if my bike was broken then this adventure would be called off and I would of had to push my bike all the way back home; after some time I had managed to finish fixing my bike, my hands were black from the chain's oil which I tried to clean with the crunchy leaves on the side of the road, I didn't want to waste my valuable drinking water as I wasn't sure if there was anywhere on top of the mountains for me to buy more.

Sanqing Palace

The small lane to Sanqing palace had the typical road gate you see in this part of the world, a large arch way of Chinese design with decroative colours, the lane itself was small and shaded from the sun thanks to the many trees, on some occasions red Chinese lanterns were hanging across the street which really made you have the feeling of being in the far east, sometimes when I see small random items like the Chinese lanterns, I stop and think about how far away from home I am, being all away in these distant lands.

Sanqing palace was small and no different to the other temple like buildings you see in the city, the only thing that made this one more superb was that it had a sky deck overlooking the valley below. There were many visitors here who have hiked up the mountain or have come to the local market which strangely in Taiwan always seems to be on mountains, but I was the only foreigner amongst this crowd of Taiwanese. Occassionally you would see someone stand in front of the palace looking at the small statues in the center, putting their hands together and giving two or three bows, this was the typical type of worship that you would see in buddhism.

From the sky deck you could see the top of the forest trees, birds would fly in and out of the gaps, the scenery had an array of different shade of green, some trees had dark l

eaves and the other had lighter, some trees had colourful flowers on them whilst others had giant leaves the size of my whole body, in the far distance you can see the other side of Changhua city, but it is the edge of the city so the white buildings are seperated by large open green areas instead of being congested with buildings.

Logan Forest

Logan forest was a forest that was situated right next to Sanqing palace, it has many tracks that you could walk along called the 'Dragon and Phoenix Valley Forest Trail' but I had no interest to follow these worn down tracks, it was in constant use of local visitors marching there way through the forest with their walking sticks and shorts which were too high for men to be wearing, some Taiwanese when exercising like to carry a speaker with them and

slowly walk past blaring cheesy Taiwanese folk music, it was somewhat irritating, I didn't feel like I was in a tropical forest, rather a local city park, I needed to escape the trails which everyone was taking and delve deeper into the forest, I had a choice of two tracks, one was the popular more well used newer trail, and the other was a more overgrown, ragged path, that one seemed more me.

I was the only one on this trail, it was out of the way of tourists and it was well hidden, close enough if I got into trouble but still far enough to not see anyone, the path was so overgrown with plants that my legs were being scratched by the plants, I was hoping at that point that none of them were poisonous, sections of this path clinged to the edges of this steep hill, below was a high drop into the canopy below which would of made it difficult to scurry out again, the path was also starting to erode away and at this point I realised why the people don't come this way, but I still found it perfect, the light beams of the sun were dancing between the leaves of the trees, I still felt hot but at least there was some protection, I burn easily so it was nice to walk through this deep forest.

Eventually I waddled out of the path, my legs scratched and stung and my lungs feeling exhausted, but it was well worth it. I had made my way to a jungle rope bridge that was built over this opening in the forest, as I started walking across it, the bridge would do a slight swing, the ropes would ever so slightly creek to the extra weight that was put on the bridge. I slowly put one foot before the other, holding onto the edges so I didn"t fall through the gaps to the floor below, the fall wasn't high but it was still high enough to cause some damage. It was so quite on this side of the forest, only two people had walked past me my whole time, I felt far away from everyone, I came to a red sign which was all in Chinese which probably said that the path was closed but I just played the dull foreigner card and really wanted to see why the path was closed, after a two minute walk through plants which were higher than me I had my answer, the path has totally gave way to the forest below the hill, along with collapsed trees, the path was totally gone, if I wanted to go to the other side I would have to climb down the hill and make my way back up again on the other side.

Realising I can go no further I retraced my steps back to the palace to carry on with my adventure of exploring the Baguashaun mountain range.

The 139 - The road on top of the mountains

I left the little lane of the palace and headed further south following the road across the mountains, the road was hard work, being the main road that connets all the small villages to the city below it was constantly bombarded with motorists, the sun hit me hard as I now had nowhere to hide, the view below was mostly blocked from trees and large bushes and now and again I would be surprised with a challenging hill in my way, I was curious to know how high these mountains go but I didn't want to have to cycle up one to find out.

I cycled through one little mountain top village called Huanshan, there wasn't much there apart from this open cafe with motorcyclist sitting outside drinking tea, still in all their protective gear, apart from that there were some homes in shabby looking buildings and a splendid view of Changhua county. I stopped and took in the view, I was now so far down the mountain range I was out of view of Changhua city but looking over the smaller townships that are connected by main road and farmland, the land looks so flat from up here with views all the way to the sea, cycling on the flat lands all the time got boring in the end but now I am cycling up steep roads I was starting to miss it, the forest was still below me with a mixture of palm trees and other trees which didn't look so tropical, bugs buzzed past my face and the sweat was rolling down my cheeks, I couldn't stay to enjoy the view for too long, the sun was still blaring down it's heat at me making me scurry away in search for shade or a cool breeze.

I was getting bored of the main road and wanted to see what was on the other side, I came to realise that with this mountain range, any of the interesting sights were on the edges of the mountains rather than on the top, but if you ever find yourself in this part of the world, you should still go to the top just to be able to see the view below.

Big leaves, big birds and even bigger spiders!

I followed this trail that started off rather pleasant to cycle down, as I was now heading down the other side of the mountain I didn't need to use my legs, only my fingers to press the break when the bike was gaining too much speed, the lane would curve left and right and the cold wind would wipe away my sweat from my forehead, it felt good not to feel the heat, I looked as small buildings and trees passed me and the sound of the mountain top road slowly disappeared into the sound of wind and birds whistling their tunes.

But that all came to an immediate halt, the track had now turned rocky with some rocks having sharp spikes pointing upwards which could quite easily puncture my tire, or even worse, me. Because it was autumn the leaves had already started to fall leaving a blanket of rotting, brown leaves on the floor, my bike wheels would slide and skid along them almost making me fall off, I didn't want to have an injury as it looked like no one had been down this road in a long time and probably no one will come for the whole day, so to stay safe I got off my bike and started to walk down the mountain.

I was back in the dense forest again but this one was a totally different forest, tall bamboo shoots towered high above me, all huddled together, birds of many colours would fly past me like military jets in the sky, I stumbled past a pheasant like bird hiding in the bushes, I kneeled down to go and see him but didn't get any closer because I didn't want to scare him, we gazed at each other for a minute, I was looking at him with amazement as I had managed to get a little close to him whilst he was probably thinking 'are you going to eat me', eventually he wandered away into the shrubs behind him now completely camouflaged from view.

I carried on further down the path looking at the giant leaves when I nearly walked straight into something that would make my mother faint if she would of had been there, it was a giant golden orb weaver, a spider with long black legs with yellow markings on it's joints, it was around 20cm in width, it was just casually sitting in the middle of this large web waiting patiently for it's dinner, something I did not want to become, I walked around the spider looking at it from all angles, I find spiders fascinating and would love to go searching for the different spiders here on the island of Taiwan, but that was not my goal today.

I was nearly out of the forest, the land had now become flatter and I could see this magnificent building poking above the trees, it wasn't in any tourist map so I thought it might be worth a look, I was looking forward to leaving the forest now as further up the mountain I accidentally disturbed what seemed like a gathering of giant mosquitoes hungry for human blood, they had already started attacking me all the way down the mountain.

Bumping into a god! - The Ganesha Buddhist temple.

I had found a surprising temple on the other side of the Baghuashuan mountain range which I am surprised is not on a tourist map as it is the sort of place tourist would like to come to, it was a huge temple that was built on top of this hill, it had many buildings all connected with each other and a very old looking tree next to a pond, it was rather beautiful and very eluring.

I started walking up the steps of the temple, I saw many statues of the Buddha himself painted in gold along with other ornements such as giant colourful fish facing to the sky, the further I explored the temple the sooner I came to realise who the temple was for, it was for the hindu god Ganesha who is the god that looks like an elephant, now I know this might sound confusing, you are probably wondering what is Ganesha doing in a buddhist temple; Ganesha also appears in buddhism, Ganesha has two different forms, Ganesha is known as the buddhist god Vināyaka, but he is more known for being in the Hindu religion, you may find pictures and sculputres of Ganesha in buddhist temples from the late Gupta period.

Statues of Ganesha were found through out the temple, it was truly a surprise to find such a place and I was so happy to have this huge curiosity to find out what is on the other side for if I didn't have that, I would of followed the tourist and just seen the giant Buddha statue on Baguashuan mountain back in Changhua city, one of the benefits to being constantly curious.

The temple had such peaceful surroundings, water was trickling from the fountains and the birds were still tweeting away, I sat there under the shade of a tree and was thinking how does the world portray buddhism and the buddhist people, the world sees it as a peaceful religion and rightly so it is, just like all other religions but whilst I was sitting there amongst the buddhist's I couldn't help but think what the buddhist's were doing to the Rohingya muslims in Myanmar at that time; torturing men, women and children, burning their homes down, hastly pushing them across the border into Bangladesh which has now caused a humantarian crises in a country that probably cannot handle this influx of desperate people, These were the true buddhists, the ones that I had surrounded myself around not the ones who were causing terror in Myanmar, but that goes for all the religions, as soon as a person does a violent act like that they are no longer part of that religion.

I left the temple and got back onto the saddle of my bike and headed for the county border of 'Changha - Taichung', I was determined to cross the county today as there is a small stretch of border just across the main road.

A New County - Taichung

I thought as I am on this side of the mountains, I might as well do my first ever county border crossing on a bike in Taiwan, I could see on the map that there is a small section of Taichung not far from where I was so I headed straight for it.

There was a yellow gate that seperates me from crossing the county, and once you go through the other side a bridge takes you across the Maoluo river into Taichung,

I cycled fast over the bridge looking left and right as I could see the whole mountain range behind me in all it's glory, the river was looking murky and brown and the vast open blue sky stretched far beond me, like I said before this is only a small section of Taichung county, carry on going staight and you will find yourself going back into Changhua county. The land was full of rice fields and farms, there wasn't much to see, I cycled as far as I could, cycling between the fields on my side, I eventually stood on the river bank looking back into Changhua county from Taichung and saw the whole stretch of the mountain range before me, there was a part of me that wanted to go back on top of the mountains and carry on going south but I thought I could just leave that for another day, I have already seen some interesting places and things that the average tourist wouldn't see, from the crumbling trails of Logan forest, a colourful spider, a hindu god in a buddhist temple, in the middle of a forest and now I am next to the Maoluo river, a life of exploring is surely the best way to live a happy life, and it is something I plan to continue doing long into my life.