A Gentle and Scenic Lake Trail
This loop in Taitung’s Chishang Township offers some stupendous mountain scenery without having to break a sweat (unless you visit in the summer). A well-surfaced trail loops around the whole lake, meaning it’s suitable for walking, pedalling, or other forms of wheeling.
Distance: About 2.7km.
Parking: There is a carpark with at least one accessible space for a car and at least one for a scooter.
Ascent: There’s almost no elevation gain on this route (my tracking app registered just 5 metres).
Trail conditions: There is an inner and an outer trail. The inner trail has an uneven surface, but the outer trail is beautifully smooth asphalt. It is used by both walkers and cyclists, and is about two metres wide the whole way around. (Electric bikes and buggies can be rented from the nearby village.) There are very few benches along the way.
Bathroom facilities: There are toilet blocks with accessible bathrooms at the start and about halfway around the lake.
Food and drink availability: Several food stalls were set up in the carpark when we visited.
Shade: There’s dappled shade, but on a hot day, I was cooked. (If you’re in one of the rented buggies, you’ll have the benefit of sitting under its canopy.)
Mobile network: Clear network throughout.
Enjoyment: The views of mountains, clouds and deep blue skies reflected in the pond are truly breathtaking. There are a couple of neat sculptures too.
Route type: Loop
Jump to the bottom of this post for a trail map and GPX file.
We began our clockwise loop from the southwest corner, which is the same point that most travellers on rented bikes or electric buggies start from. (It’s also diametrically across from the carpark where people arriving by car tend to start.)
You’ll find one of the walk’s two toilet blocks here, as well as a sculpture by Taiwanese artist, Quan De-Fu (全得富).
The piece, which is according to the little information board, is entitled “Grandma’s Reminds” (阿嬤的叮囑), shoes a tousle-haired boy hunched over with his back to the path. At first glance, it looks like a sad or lonely pose, but as you walk around it, you can see that he is carefully releasing a toad. The sculpture references a legend from the Bunan Tribe (布農族) which tells how the tribespeople were spared from a flood no thanks to the inept assistance of a toad. Despite the toad’s inability to solve the tribe’s problem, it is still honoured for its good intentions, and Bunan elders will still remind young children not to kill toads.
From the little child and its toad, the path strikes inland and we watched the reflected mountains shimmer in the very slight breeze.
The second installation that we came across is another seated humanoid. This one seems to be lost in a reverie, gazing up at the clouds. It was created by Japanese Atsushi Yoshida, and is called Waiting (等待). The figure, which is made from the oddly fibrous trunks of betel nut trees, is larger than a person and it’s possible to walk inside. The artist intended for observers to be able to stand within the giant’s body to watch egrets with it, or lie down on the slanted board and watch clouds drifting past the upper window. However, despite a notice asking people to remove their shoes, the board is now a little bit too grubby to be inviting.
An egret spotted a little further around the lake.
There were lots of birds in the trees and on the lake. On the left is a white-bellied green pigeon, and on the right is its mini-me, a Japanese white-eye.
We stayed on the inner path the whole way around the lake. Anyone on two or four wheels seemed to stick to the smoother outer path.
One of the sculptures on the West Bank had been taken out by a recent typhoon, but this piece by Jaakko Pernu, a Finnish artist. The piece is called The Rounding Error and it’s imperfect near-spherical form questions how humans and nature shape each other with their symbiotic relationship.
Close to the carpark, there’s a little jetty where you can rent out a couple of different types of vessels. In the day’s hot sun, there were no takers, but I bet it feels lovely to be out in the middle of the water and surrounded by nothing but birds and mountains.
As well as boat rentals, there was also a coffee shop and a couple of stalls selling snacks. It’s also where you’ll find the second toilet block.
Some more of the birdlife seen on the way. On the left is a black drongo. These guys are superbly acrobatic hunters. They sit on a perch, waiting for a tasty treat to fly by, and then they launch themselves after it, twisting and turning in midair in an attempt to catch their quarry. On the right is a black bulbul. These aren’t so acrobatic, but they are certainly noisy. Generally speaking, you’ll know a flock of black bulbuls is nearby because you’ll hear them tweeting up a storm.
An hour and a bit later, we arrived back where we had started and scootered off to a nearby coffee shop to hide from the heat for a while.
How to get to Dapo Lake
Google Maps address: We started our walk from the road east of the lake, but the main carpark is on the western edge. You will find accessible parking and toilets in this carpark.
Public transport: The closest form of public transport is Chishang Train Station, which is about 800m from the main carpark. You can walk from the station to the lake, but there are no pavements, no shade, and no seating along the way.
Bike and buggy rentals: The majority of visitors to Dapo Lake rent electric buggies or push bikes from one of the many nearby shops renting them. The benefit of doing this is that you can combine your trip to Dapo Lake with a jaunt down Mr Brown Avenue and Paradise Road. We didn’t rent bikes, so I have no recommendations on this front, but they all seem to offer more or less the same services.
Dapo Lake Map
GPX file available here on Outdoor Active. (Account needed, but the free one works just fine.)
Taiwan Trails and Tales 