Landscapes of Taiwan! -North Taiwan-

Well okay, since Taiwan's just a little, mountainous, tropical island, the variety of landscapes is actually somewhat limited. If you really wanted to, you could probably sum most of it up with 3 words: green, water, mountains.

Still, there's an amazing amount of natural beauty crammed into this tiny space. And it's even more amazing when you take into account that Taiwan's about 80% urban by population. In general, it's visually very interesting--especially if you're in the suburbs of America, whose natural landscape I would describe as "dominated". Taiwan's, on the other hand, looks to me mostly like mountains of lush, tropical foliage eating a small civilization.

Anyway, it's kind of an irrelevant observation since I'll be focusing more on natural landscapes for this series, which starts in northern Taiwan.

These first few are from Yangmingshan, a mountainous area between Taipei and New Taipei City.

The area was previously mined for sulfur, which is also why there're so many natural hot springs in northern Taiwan. It also partially explains the large plume of vapor here (this is included because it's the only photo in which it's clear that it's steaming from the ground and not just low fog):

It was difficult to distinguish between the geothermic steam and mist/fog that day, as the humidity at the time was 99% (welcome to Taiwan!).

I do really love the green here...the greenery in California's mostly a sickly yellowish-green. These greens are actually very similar to the hilly forests in the American South (e.g. Tennessee).

Luckily, there was just enough wind to momentarily clear up the views at high points from time to time. I was told that this was, in fact, lucky, because at this altitude and season, there's barely any visibility (again, due to the excessive humidity).

Now that we've covered "green" and "mountains", it's time for the last third of Taiwan's basic landscape features--"water"--with which I'll start at the northeast corner of Taiwan, in Yilan. From the coast, you can see Guishan Island (Turtle Mountain Island), named for its apparent resemblance.

If you're having trouble seeing it, it may be possible that I didn't get the best angle of the island there...

Anway, here's the beach at sunset, with the last few surfers heading in:

I don't have the exact locations for these last two, but I believe they're both near Beitou, a district of Taipei that's also known for its natural hot springs.

And that's it for the north. I'll update this series in the future by going down south, hitting Haulien, Chiayi, and Tainan. But I'm thinking of either abstract or street photography for the next post.

Later!