Caoling Historic Trail

A very nice hiking trail with a variety of paths and scenery along the way. Better to start at south end from Dali to Fulong as best scenery at Dali end which has good but more inclined steps up. From the Tiger Tablet it’s a long gradual decline and easier than long gradual incline if starting from Fulong, which also has a long ways to go if walking (can taxi it to the trailhead to save time as it’s a considerable ~50 initial walk on narrow road). Also note one section can be rather narrow and rough stone and dirt incline (if heading to Fulong). Can be slippery if wet so I would avoid rainy days. Also expect 3-4 hours for Dali-Fulong hike. I traveled alone and went fast with a couple breaks and made it in 2.5 hours. Resting and viewing stops along the way as well as clean restrooms but no water fountains except at visitor information and rail stations. Free parking at the Dali entrance near the temple so can park there to start the hike and take a NT15 train back from Fulong to Dali station.

Special note for those first time visit to this trail, do not start your journey from Fulong railway station (only get to the first Trail), but drive direct to the main entrance of the trail (best way via Formosa gasoline station which you can see the clear direction, will take within 10 minutes drive)nn1. Caoling Historic Trail (yuanwangkeng)n2. Caoling Historic Trail (Tiger Inscription)nnAlso not recommend in rainy season as there are many steps made of stones, will be very slipperynnWe had bad experience by start our trail walk from Fulong railway station, even follow the signage but we wasted nearly two hours back to the station, at the end we did visited the right area, but only small part of it, due to getting dark, we decided to revisit next time

My recommendation is to start at Dali. While it's a bit of an uphill slog, of course, it's worth it for the views at the top of that part of the east coast. There's basically two ways up from Dali. The trail, which starts on a road, or just stay on the road. The full length of the trail is well marked all the way from Dali station and paved with large stones (which likely become slippery when wet). At the top you can continue on the Taoyuan trail, which itself is about 4km, and has some pretty intense uphill sections, at least the first km, which is as far as I took it before running out of time if I wanted to do the rest of the Caoling trail and reach Fulong in daylight. Some cows up there. They seemed pretty indifferent to hikers, or at least to me. From the tiger inscription to Fulong it's mostly downhill on the trail then later on mostly level streets. The last km or two between the end of the trail and Fulong is along a somewhat busy street, so not all that fun of a walk, though I never felt it was unsafe. If starting in Fulong, maybe save some time and take a taxi to the trailhead, as it's about 4km, according to the trail signage. I did see a couple taxis around Fulong, so it should be possible given it's a touristy place with the nice sand beach. If doing the trail north to south, it will be a very long gradual uphill hike. If I revisit, I will do the full length of the Taoyuan trail and skip the valley section of Caoling. It was nice to do once, but IMO all the interesting stuff is at the Dali end up at the top. There are some toilet facilities along the way, but no food or drinks, so be sure to bring enough. Google said the hike would be 2.5 hours between Dali and Fulong. Trail signage stated 3-4, which was more accurate. It took me about 6 hours including the 1km in and back on the Taoyuan trail, and stopping a lot to take in the scenery and do some photos. A lot of the trail has no phone reception, except at the top.

Great path to like! From gongliao to daxi pretty long distance but the scenery was good!!

caoling historic trail