shei-pa national park guanwu recreation area

Sheipa is well of the most beautiful of Taiwan's brilliant national parks. The home of Daxueshan the second highest mountain after Yushan and considered more beautiful (and far harder to ascent).The Guanwu Recreation area has an excellent visitors centre that has films about ecology in the region and English speaking staff. The exhibition room is open between 9am and 4pm and is worth some time.There are 5 main trails around the recreation centre. All are fairly easy (I done 4, one was closed). My favourite was the Kuaishan Big Tree Trail which has five 1000 year old Chinese Cypress trees and is 4km long (it is also possible to link up to the longer Leshan trail from here) and also has a number of protected indigenous plants. Give yourself a few hours to complete this trail. The shorter Yuanwu Trail has views of the western side of Daxueshan's summit.As far as I know (?) there is no public transport to Guanwu. By car (great trip by the way..half the fun) Zhulin exit off of Highway 3, head towards Zhudong, after Tuchang take the Dalu Forest Road to Guanwu (go steady on this road, its narrow but it doesn't stop some pretty crazy drivers hurtling down here and also be wary of the little 18 seat tour buses).I recommend it.