Confirmation At Taoyuan

I've been meaning to get back to Baihe reservoir again at some point to try and do a lap of the whole reservoir, which would necessitate a very early start, but for various reasons I haven't got around to it. One of those reasons is that I decided to spend more time on the diversion for Tseng-wen reservoir. On Friday night, whilst lying in bed sick and half-awake I came to the tentative conclusion, from having read engineering plans, and from having visited the site several times already, that the east tunnel has been abandoned and that there is nothing to see in Taoyuan. But I couldn't rid myself of all doubt, for one thing because I know certain types of things (especially e.g. tunnel mouths) simply cannot be seen directly on google earth, and that the associated structures which would normally allow you to infer their presence can be misleading. I was also plagued by questions concerning what I might be able to see if only I took a closer look - for instance, would I not be able to see signs of preparation for the tunnel mouth? With all of that in mind, I drove back out to Taoyuan again today - with what I intend to be the last trip out there for some time.

I left Tainan at 12.35 p.m. and rolled into Chinghe village just outside Taoyuan at about 2.30 p.m., which is excellent time considering the distance. I parked around the back of the last little building in the row (a KTV place) and walked down the gravel track and into the immense river bed to have a poke about. Looking upstream past the long-ago buried suspension bridge...

Another view of the noisy rapids looking upstream (northeast)...

Looking directly across the river to the cleft between spurs where the stream from a waterfall I visited a few years back finds its way out to join the Laonung...

I noticed something odd in the tree above one of those spurs; at least two of the upper branches appear to have "fused" together to form a solid object. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like that before...

Looking directly northward at an angle across the river to the approximate point at which, according to the Water Bureau plans, the east tunnel should have its' entrance. The only thing noteworthy is the rightward slope of the land toward the riverbed, indicative of a track...

Once more looking northeast directly upstream; the river is only a few yards across at the moment, but when it flooded during typhoon Morakot in 2009 it must have been an absolute monster...

Later I left the riverbed, and drove slowly up along the highway for a short distance to get more pictures. Here is confirmation of the track that slopes down to the riverbed - notice that it carries on rightward...

... it then passes this small dried-up stream falling down from the cliffside...

... and perhaps carries on interminably along the cliffside...

... and around the corner before the next major tributary valley...

My guess is that the road has been used for geological surveillance and probably little else, since all heavy equipment (trucks and the like) must be brought in from the highway, not the tiny precipitous cliffhanger track that precedes this thing down to the riverbed. In any case with the reading I've done and with what I've seen with my own eyes both yesterday and today, I am satisfied with the conclusion that the east tunnel has either been suspended or abandoned entirely.

As much as I like being out there in Taoyuan district, it is a pain in the arse to drive all the way out there and then back again. I won't be making a return trip for a long time I think, unless I get the opportunity to go looking for eagles in the Yushan National Park this Chinese New Year.