Qualla: Chiaming Lake

Chiaming Lake: Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Bunun people gave it a name that does not exaggerate: *Cidanuman Buan*, mirror of the moon. On still mornings, when mist clings to the ridgelines and the sky above Taiwan's Central Mountains turns from grey to gold, the oval surface of Chiaming Lake reflects that transformation perfectly. Sitting at 3,310 meters above sea level in Haiduan Township, this is the second highest lake in Taiwan — and one of its most difficult to reach. The 13-kilometer trail that winds up to it from the trailhead is the only way in. No roads, no cable cars. Just altitude and effort, and at the end, a pool of water so strikingly blue that generations of Taiwanese have also called it 'God's lost sapphire.'

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Chiaming Lake: Born from Ice

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Chiaming Lake did not form by chance. During the last ice age, glacial movement shaped this hollow in the high mountains, carving out the basin that the lake now fills. The surrounding terrain still bears that glacial imprint: the smooth, rounded ridges above the treeline, the bo...

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Chiaming Lake: Three Names, One Lake

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Chiaming Lake carries three names, each revealing something different about how people have understood it. The Bunun name, *Cidanuman Buan* — mirror of the moon — is the oldest, earned by the way the lake's stillness captures the night sky in high altitude clarity. The name 'ange...

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Chiaming Lake: The Long Walk In

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The trail to Chiaming Lake is 13 kilometers, and that number matters. On paper it doesn't sound extreme; in practice, at high elevation on mountain paths, it means most hikers spend a night at one of the lodges near the lake before making the journey back down. The trail passes t...

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Chiaming Lake: Stillness at High Altitude

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What hikers find when they finally arrive is not dramatic in the way that mountain summits are dramatic. Chiaming Lake does not demand to be conquered. It asks you to stop. The forest encircles the water, dense and green, and the ridgelines above press the sky into a smaller fram...

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Chiaming Lake: A Place Worth Protecting

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Taiwan's forest authorities have been careful with Chiaming Lake precisely because its remoteness is part of what makes it worth visiting. The periodic closures for ecological restoration are not interruptions to the lake's story — they are part of it. The Bunun relationship with...

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