Some trees on the mountain were younger and smaller, but the largest was around 50 feet tall! I visited a few weeks before their fall foliage reached its brightest yellow, so I saw the very beginning of the color show these trees put on every October.
Hiking during the end of summer in Taiwan, the sun gets very strong at high elevations and heats up the air quickly. I was feeling a little sluggish when I finally made it to the Taiwan beech forest, but these trees brought out a playful side of me. I was all alone on the trail, but as I continued walking, I started dancing, singing and letting myself enjoy the playful mood this forest put me in! I gazed in wonder at a tree close by me. I looked over its shoulder and saw the huge river valley below. At the end of the trail, there was an area to sit and bring your attention to the forest around you. I listened quietly as the leaves shifted in response to the wind picking up. I breathed big breaths of the high altitude air through my nose and rested my hands on the rock-solid bark for a while. This created a vivid memory I can return to in the future.
Taiwan beech is currently known to live in three regions: Sichuan province in central China, Zhejiang province in eastern China and Taiwan. It often grows in areas with high humidity on mountain slopes in the range of 3,200 to 7,500 feet in elevation. The stand of Taiwan beech I visited was at about 5,900 feet in elevation. That's pretty high, as the highest point in Pennsylvania, Mt. Davis, reaches only 3,211 feet!
