Taiwan Hiking Journal: White Dragon Pool (Bailong Tan) and the Dezikou Stream

White Dragon Pool, tucked away in an upper part of the Dezikou stream, is a pristine, tranquil pool fed by a thin foaming stream of white water. It's a peaceful spot to visit at any time of year but its particularly nice to sit here in the shade on a summer's day after a dip in the water. The hike is not hard but feels wild and secluded. This walk explores part of the Dezikou stream and one of its tributaries. We started at the Wufengqi Scenic Area parking lot, walked the Lin Mei Shipan Trail 林美石磐步道, had lunch and a soak at the pool and walked to another beautiful swimming hole for one more bath before heading back to our starting point.

Distance/Time: 9 km/ 5 hours 37 minutes -- which included lots of rest time and the extra optional loop around the Lin Mei Shipan Trail. More information as well as a map can be found here: http://rblr.co/Oej3L

The Trail:

This moderate hike is just outside of Jiaoxi, in Yilan. It is not a hard walk but some of the terrain is rough and parts of the trail are overgrown. There are some not-too-hard sections with attached ropes and some parts that pass close to cliffs. There is very little ascent--just two short sections that get the heart rate up a bit. The traction is very good. Mostly it's a peaceful shaded trail that you can take your time and enjoy. On the summer day that we visited the forest was teeming with life: birds, huge butterflies, dragonflies, lizards, bees, grasshoppers and fish in the clear stream. We heard barking deer several times and startled small animals in the underbrush.

We started at the Wufeng Qi Scenic Area 五峰旗風景區 parking lot. Lot's of people come here to see the Wufeng Qi Waterfalls or to climb Shangmu Feng 聖母登山步道 (908 meters). Our route took us a different way but the waterfalls and the peak are both well worth a visit. The walk to the waterfalls and the Our Lady of Wufengqi Catholic Church is suitable for families. The peak is a much more challenging walk up seemingly endless stairs. It's a unique spot with a statue of Jesus on a cross, views and green, eroded hills.

The Lin Mei Shipan Trail 林美石磐步道 is a picturesque trail that follows the rocky stream gorge and passes the Shipan Waterfall 石磐瀑布. However, it is very popular and crowded. We walked the approximately 2 km loop trail before getting back onto the quiet trail to White Dragon Pool but if you have been there before or you just don't have the tolerance for the crowds you can give it a miss.

White Dragon Pool 白龍灘: Tony Huang has a video on his channel in which he translates the name of Bai Longtan as Bailong "Beach." I will put a link to the video at the end of this post. Even though the character for beach 灘 and pool 潭 have the same sound, they are different tones and different characters. Still I've taken the liberty of calling it a pool in English because I think it's more evocative and describes the place more accurately.

It is an apparently less well known location. We saw few other people on the trail to the pool. It's an amazingly peaceful place. There is a long, calm pool of water with a stone slope next to it and a high orange-stained rock wall on the other side. There are lots of fish in the clear water that nibble at your legs.

A stream of swirling white water flowing down a narrow rock channel feeds the pool and above it is another pool and some small cascades.

Yuemeikang Waterfall Trail swimming hole: A short walk and wade up the trail to the Yuemeikang Waterfall is a paradisaical natural swimming hole beneath a small cascade.

What to bring: I took a pair of sandals and a change of clothes. My hiking shoes were soaked after all of the stream crossings. I swam in my clothes and changed clothes and shoes after the hike in the bathroom near the parking lot.

Transportation: We took Capital Star bus 1572 from Taipei City Hall bus station to the Jiaoxi bus station. The ticket is NT$96 and takes about an hour or sometimes more depending on traffic. We took a taxi to the Wufeng Qi Scenic Area parking lot. There is a shuttle bus but the taxi took less than ten minutes and cost NT$160. It is also possible to walk the 3.4 km from the Jiaoxi bus station to the parking lot--- which I have done before.

It's not easy to get a taxi from the parking lot but we got the business card of the driver and called him to pick us up after the hike. We caught a 3:00 bus back to Taipei.

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The hike:

We left the parking lot heading west toward green hills with a stream below on the left and soon passing a hotel on the right.

We passed a weir with three deep pools. Some people were swimming in one of them.

Just beyond the weir we came to a wide shallow part of the stream. A series of concrete tubes forming a bridge could be seen. We turned left and crossed the bridge.

After crossing the bridge we turned slightly right onto a trail. Even early in the morning there were already quite a few day trippers around the area near the parking lot. But as soon as we crossed the bridge there was no one else on the trail. It took a little over ten minutes to reach the trailhead.

In about 15 minutes we came to a Tudigong (Earth God) temple. Just past the temple there was a fork. We turned left up a short hill.

This trail was narrower and passed through thick forest. We sometimes passed wide open glades with thick undergrowth on the forest floor and birds nest ferns in the trees. Sometimes there were views of distant mountains through the trees on the right.

After about 40 minutes we came to a fork. The right fork was to White Dragon Pool but first we went straight to visit the Lin Mei Shi Pan trail with is about a 2 km loop.

Emerging onto the wide trail we saw lots of people and we turned right joining the flow. It is a nice trail but it was so crowded that we sometimes had to wait in line to get around knots of people in narrow places. We made sort of a quick circuit because we wanted to see it and get back to the relative peace of the other trail.


Some parts of the Lin Mei Shipan trail made me feel I was back in Taipei. Which MRT station is this?

The lower part of the trail was the most crowded. After the waterfall the trail was wider and we were able to walk faster.

Shipan Waterfall

We came out near our starting point but before rejoining the trail to White Dragon Pool we first walked a short distance down a wide trail on the right to a viewing platform on the shore of Cao Nan Lake.

Then we retraced our steps and rejoined the trail to the pool. It took about an hour to walk the loop.

In just a few minutes we came back to the fork to White Dragon Pool. We turned left, and soon dropped down into a peaceful spot where the trail crossed a tributary to the Dezikou stream--the lower part of the stream we had explored on the Linmei Shipan Trail. We stopped for a rest and a snack.

After this came the steepest part of the hike. We climbed for about 20 minutes, finally coming out to a clearing under a huge electricity pylon.

At the top of the hill flags marked the trail to the right. In about another 20 minutes we reached the Dezikou stream and crossed.

At this crossing we crossed the top of the waterfall

Just after the first crossing we came to a fork. The right fork goes back to the Tudigong (Earth God) temple by another route. We continued upstream, crossing two more times and soon arriving at White Dragon Pool.

I walked to the top of the slope while my friends took a dip in the pool. There was a similar but smaller pool above, some small, pretty cascades and then a very pleasant stretch of stream. That is as far as I went before going back down.

It was time for a bath and some lunch. The water was about thigh high in the deepest parts. The rock slope just under the water was extremely slippery but we gingerly stepped over that onto the gravel bottom or just slid in. Sitting next to the pool in the breeze and feeling refreshed I didn't feel hot at all even though I knew it would be sweltering in my apartment back in the city. We talked about how we lucky we felt to have the place all to ourselves.

We stayed for about an hour. Then we walked downstream and took the fork we had seen just after the first stream crossing. It was now on our left.

This trail took us away from the stream and in a rough semi circle to intersect it again downstream. We passed I think three trails coming in from the left. In any case we always bore right keeping toward the stream. In about 15 minutes we came to a trail on the right and took it.

Entrance to the trail to Yuemeikang Waterfall

This narrow trail leads to Yuemeikang Waterfall. When we came to the stream we crossed some rocks, waded through the water, joined another trail and in a little over ten minutes came to a wonderful natural swimming hole.

Time for another swim! This area is more well known and as we were swimming, we saw at least 5 people coming back down from the waterfall. One young boy who was wearing a life jacket and hiking with his mom called down to us and asked if the water was very deep. I waded out to show him the depth which about to my shoulders. And showed him where there were no big stones. He took a leap and plunged in.

We decided not to walk to Yuemeikang Waterfall this day. It's an amazing waterfall but the path is eroded, sometimes goes over slippery rocks and you need to walk in the water in some parts. The last time I came here I turned back because the stones were very slippery, the water high and I was alone.

Here is a photo from my first visit.

From here we retraced our steps to the main path and turned right now going downhill.

We crossed a concrete bridge, crossed the Dezikou one last time over an arched metal bridge, came to the Earth God Temple and then back to the parking lot in about 20 minutes.