The Tear an Angel Dropped on the Mountain

There are some landscapes Taitung does not hand over easily.

Jiaming Lake is one of them. It sits high up at 3,310 metres, and you have to spend three days on your feet to earn the right to a single glimpse of it.

The Angel's Tears

Jiaming Lake lies in Haiduan Township (海端鄉), Taitung County, along the ridgeline of the South Section Two (南二段) of the Central Mountain Range — one of the highest alpine lakes in Taiwan.

It carries a name you remember the moment you hear it: the Angel's Tears. The story goes that an angel, passing over Taiwan, let a single tear slip and fall — and it landed here, on this slope of grass three thousand metres up, where it set into a sheet of blue.

How it came to be is, to this day, a mystery. Some say it is the crater left by a meteorite; others, the relic of an ice age — nothing is settled, and somehow that suits it. It is a thing science has not fully explained, a thing you can, for now, only stand before in wonder.

A Lake That Does Not Flow

The strangest thing about Jiaming Lake is that it has no obvious inlet and no outlet.

Rain and snowmelt come down and gather quietly; in dry spells the surface shrinks, baring the grass that rings the shore. So it rises and falls with the seasons, like an eye of the earth, opening and closing in turn.

When the weather is fair and the wind drops, the whole lake becomes a mirror — the sky bends down here and lays its own reflection into the water. In that moment, you cannot tell where the sky ends and the water begins.

「

Three days of walking, and in those last ten minutes no one spoke a word. Because words would have woken the lake.

」

Three Days on Foot

Jiaming Lake is not a "sight." It is a journey you have to prepare for.

Most people set out from the trailhead at the Xiangyang National Forest Recreation Area (向陽國家森林遊樂區), passing Mount Xiangyang (向陽山) and Mount Sancha (三叉山) — about 13 km one way, with steep, relentless climbs. The trek usually runs 2 to 3 days, with nights spent at the Xiangyang Hut and the Jiaming Lake Emergency Shelter.

After dark, Formosan sambar deer often step quietly down to the lake to drink. They are the original residents of these heights — watch them from a distance, do not feed them, do not draw close. Like the Lisong gorge, this is a place to be treated with a light touch (read our other high-mountain story: Emerald in the Deep Gorge of the Southern Cross-Island | Lisong Hot Spring).

How to Reach Jiaming Lake

• Location: Haiduan Township, Taitung County; South Section Two of the Central Mountain Range, at roughly 3,310 metres
• Route: Xiangyang National Forest Recreation Area trailhead → Mount Xiangyang → Mount Sancha → Jiaming Lake, about 13 km one way
• Duration: usually 2–3 days, with nights at the Xiangyang Hut / Jiaming Lake Emergency Shelter
• Permit required: the Jiaming Lake National Trail caps entry and hut numbers; you must apply online and enter a lottery for hut spaces (Forestry Agency, Taitung Branch). It books out fast in peak season, so plan well ahead
• Fitness and safety: high altitude and major ascent, requiring alpine-hiking experience and solid training; watch for altitude sickness, and go with a companion or a qualified guide
• Leave No Trace: carry all rubbish back down, do not feed wild animals, do not damage the alpine vegetation

Afterword

We have grown used to "convenience." The views we want should, ideally, be reachable by car, fitted with a viewing deck, and done with in ten minutes of photos before we move on.

Jiaming Lake is the exact opposite. It hides itself at the end of a three-day walk, using altitude, using distance, using the barrier of permits to filter out anyone who only meant to "have a quick look."

And it is precisely for that reason that, when you finally stand at the lake's edge — legs aching, lips cracked, yet looking at a sheet of water blue beyond belief, holding the whole sky within it — you will understand: some tears can only be seen by those who walked all the way here on foot.