A tentative spectator, eventually accepts the beautiful Atayal girl's proposal of marriage. The bride's mother dons her future son in-law in traditional garb for the ceremony, before the chieftain arrives to perform the nuptials. To pledge their eternal love, they raise the ceremonial wedding goblets and sip tea. The bashful bride is then carried away on a wooden chair upon her husbands back, to their future home in the mountains, and they live happily ever after.

Well, not quite. This is of course, just one of the scenes enacted at Wu Lai's Aboriginal Culture Village, for the benefit of the visitors.

Upon arriving at Wulai, the entrance is marked by an ornate archway at the car park. Traffic is barred in the village, so you will have to leave your car at the parking lot. The main thoroughfare is bursting with souvenir shops selling aboriginal handicrafts, and restaurants offering crayfish, dace and rainbow trout from the near by river. A stroll down this street only takes five minutes, the you come to another archway, ahead of Wulai Bridge which marks the parks entrance. You buy a ticket at a small booth next to the bridge for a nominal fee. Across the bridge, there are groups of taxi drivers offering to drive you to the aborigine village for NT$100.

Much more fun though, is a ride on Wulai's mini-railway. Just follow the steps opposite the bridge and you'll come to a little train station. A ticket for the five minute ride is NT$30. Or if you'd prefer, you can stroll up the road to the waterfall. The walk up is gradual and takes around 20 minutes.

You alight near Wulai Waterfall which plunges from the mountains into the Nanhsi river, 80 meters below. Further up the road, are more souvenir shops with salesgirls dressed in traditional Atayal wear. There is also an Atayal restaurant offering venison, wild boar ad eels for the adventurous gourmets.

A bamboo building next to the restaurant, stages aborigine cultural dancing. The show lasts around thirty minutes and features ten dances. For the last performance, the Tayal girls solicit the audience to join them on stage for a farewell dance. this entertaining show is staged four times daily at 10.30 and 11.30 in the mornings, 2.30 and 3.30 in the afternoons. Admission is NT$90, for adults and NT$60, for children. The ticket also entitles you to a visit in the folk art museum on the third floor which displays colorful Atayal costumes, pottery and carvings.

The exact origins of Taiwan's 260,000 aborigines is still until this day a mystery. Anthropologists who have studied the language, customs and physical features of these early explorers, speculate that they migrated from Malaysia or Indonesia in the distant past.

There are believed to be around 3,000 Tayal tribes people living in the Wulai area, out of a total of 50,000. they are the largest aborigine tribe in Taiwan, second only to the Ami tribe at Hualien.

After the show, I took the cable car to Yen Shien Aborigine Paradise, or "Dreamland," which is a small theme park at the top of the waterfall. the cable car's ticketing office is on the upper level, opposite the waterfall. the 382 meter ride costs NT$180. and NT$95 for children. This also gives you free admission to "Paradise".

The park, which has been in operation since 1950 has a small boating lake with an island in the middle, in the shape of Taiwan. large. Pot-bellied Coy carp follow the lakes row-boats in hope of a few flakes of bread. The park has various amusements such as Dodg'em cars, Pirate Ship and small roller-coaster, to mention a few. The price per ride is NT$35.

Another feature is a 32 stage assault course for the young at heart. here you can end your day at Wulai, enacting a scene from "Tarzan" on the rope slides across a small stream or on the swinging foot bridges on the hillside.

Getting there

Follow Roosevelt Road southwards on to the No.9 highway. Go through Hsientien and look for the Wulai sign just after Hsientien. Turn right on to Hsien Wu Road. The road then meanders through rolling hills along the course of the Hsietien River. Hsietien Wulai bound buses ply this route every 10-15 minutes, departing from Kungyuan Road stop, near the National Taiwan University Hospital. The trip takes around an hour.