My blogging friend Lois at On Pets and Prisoners has invited me to participate the 7-Day Nature Photography Challenge. Lois is a wonderful blogger. Please visit her blog and say hi 😉

The mission is to post a nature photograph for 7 days and to nominate a fellow blogger each day. Since many bloggers have done this challenge already, I would like to invite anyone who is interested in this challenge to participate. It is fun!

4/14/2016
The day before yesterday, I posted a few photos I took at Yehliu Geopark. Yehliu’s rock formations are amazing, but the place grabbed me the most, actually, was Hualien County in eastern Taiwan. I love the mountains, the fresh cool air, and the quietness. Most of all, I like the feeling of embracing by mountains.

Hualien County is situated in eastern Taiwan Island. It faces the Pacific Ocean to the east, Central Mountain Range to the west bordering Taichung City, Nantou County and Kaohsiung City, Yilan County to the north and Taitung County to the south. It stretches around 137.5 km from north to south with its width ranging from 27 to 43 km long from east to west. Its area is about 4,628.57 km2 and occupies one eight of Taiwan total area.

Despite its vast area, only 7% of the county area occupied by people. The remaining area is occupied by rivers (7%) and mountains (87%). Mountains are composed of Central Mountain Range in the west and Haian Range in the east. The main rivers in the county are the Hualian River, Xiuguluan River and their branches. The plains stretch along the valleys between both mountain ranges with a width around 3–6 km. Due to the restriction of its landscape, Hualien people reside mostly on the alluvial fans of the Huatung Valley plains
— Wikipedia

One thing I had missed a lot, when I came to U.S., was this little heart-shape red seed I used to own. I was happy finding them in one of my trips back to Taiwan. I don’t know the tree name in English though ;-(

Thank you for vising my blog.