Qingshui Cliff () is a 21 kilometer length of coastal cliffs averaging 800 meters above sea level in

Xiulin Township Xiulin Township / Sioulin Township () is a mountain indigenous township of Hualien County, Taiwan. It is located northwest of Hualien City, and is the largest township in Taiwan by area (1,641.86 km²) with 9 villages. It has a popula ...

Hualien County Hualien County (Mandarin Wade–Giles: Hua¹-lien² Hsien⁴; Pīnyīn: ''Huālián Xiàn''; Hokkien POJ: ''Hoa-lian-koān'' or ''Hoa-liân-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Fâ-lièn-yen''; Amis: ''Kalingko'') is a county on the east coast of Taiwan ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

. The tallest peak, Qingshui Mountain, rises 2408 meters directly from the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

. The cliff is located at the southern part of the

Suhua Highway The Suhua Highway (), also called the Suao-Hualien Highway, is a section of the Provincial Highway 9 in Taiwan, starting at Su'ao Township, Yilan County and ending at Hualien City, Hualien County. With a portion built alongside very steep c ...

that connects the counties of Yilan and Hualien in eastern

. It is considered to be a very scenic area and is the highest coastal cliff in Taiwan. It is located within Taroko National Park.

Geology

The formation of the Qingshui Cliff was caused by the orogenic movement, with the Philippine Plate and the

Eurasian Plate The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...

forming a fault line. The outcropping above sea level is composed of metamorphosed limestone

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorpho ...

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures a ...

, and green

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes ...

, and is classified as a metamorphic complex area of Dananao on the geological map. Because there are very few coastal cliffs in the world that exhibit such a great elevation drop, the natural landscape of "high cliff valley" makes Qingshui cliff a rare coastal cliff. The coast of the Qingshui Cliff is continually beaten and eroded by the sea water of the Pacific Ocean, and the rock walls on it are subject to natural forces such as earthquakes and typhoons. The beaches below are full of different sizes of marble stones, from giant boulders to grains of sand.

Political disputes

The depiction of Qingshui Cliff is featured in the newly issued passport of the People's Republic of China in 2012, a move that triggered protest from

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Biogeographic significance

Qingshui Cliff can act as a dispersal barrier. It separates the eastern and western clades of brown tree frog (''

Buergeria robusta ''Buergeria robusta'' (robust Buerger's frog or strong stream frog) is a species of frog in the family Rhacophoridae. It is sympatric with ''Buergeria japonica'' but is much larger in size. Habitat and distribution The species is endemic to Taiw ...

'') as well as two sibling species of ''

Takydromus ''Takydromus'' is a genus of lizards, commonly called grass lizards or oriental racers. Species of the genus ''Takydromus'' are endemic to a large part of Asia. Members of this genus are noticeable because of their slender appearance and their ...

'' lizards, '' T. viridipunctatus'' and '' T. luyeanus''. In the latter case, the separation occurs over a single river, the

Liwu River The Liwu River ( zh, t=立霧溪, p=Lìwùxī) is a river entirely located in Xiulin Township, Hualien County, Taiwan. The deep gorges of Taroko National Park are formed by this river. Etymology The origin of "Liwu" comes from the Taroko wor ...

Transportation

Qingshui Cliff is accessible southwest from Heren Station of the Taiwan Railways. On April 2, 2021, a ''Taroko Express'' train derailed at the entrance of Daqingshui Tunnel near the cliffs after it collided with a truck that rolled down onto the tracks, killing at least 51.

Gallery

File:蘇花公路清水斷崖 - panoramio.jpg File:清水斷崖（崇德休憩據點）.jpg

References