Lowland Yilan isn't famous for its tea, and if you mention Yilan tea to people from other parts of Taiwan, chances are they've never heard of it. Neverheless, there are quite a few tea farms on the hills and mountains in the southwest part of Dongshan township south of Luodong.
Tea is an attractive crop, and the sight of neatly trimmed hedges of tea sloping down hillsides creates a unique and appealing landscape. For anyone interested in exploring this tea region, there is no single destination. You just need to drive into the tea country and look around. If you're brave and speak some Chinese, you can just knock on a tea farmer's front door and ask if they have any tea to sell. People here are incredibly friendly, and you will surely be invited in to drink tea and chat. If you sit there a long time, it would be polite to buy at least a token amount of tea.
The easier option is to look for someplace set up to serve tea for tourists. There are several places here set up to serve and sell tea, and looking for them provides an excuse for exploring this unusual agricultural landscape.
To find the tea farms, you should drive south of Luodong on road 9. At some point,you need to turn right and just drive down the narrow roads and keep your eyes open. The little country roads here have miserable signage, so it's impossible to give proper directions. However, periodically you will come across brown signs set up for tourists. These will point the way to the tea area. There are several dozen farmers growing tea, and the tea area stretches across the entire southwestern corner of the township.Alternatively, you can follow the signs to Lake Meihua 梅花湖. The tea region is south of the lake.
This used to be a major tourist destination because of the beautful setting and two scenic waterfalls. Unfortunately, the valley was badly hit by typhoon Parma in 2009, and parts of the trail leading to the waterfall collapsed into the river. Due to the fragile geology of the area, the government has decided not to rebuild the trail for the time being.
Officially the trail is closed to the public. However, this being Taiwan, you can go there anyway. In fact it's fairly popular on weekends.
As you walk up the trail, you will encounter three barriers which are supposed to keep people out. You can easily walk over or around these and keep going. The trail to the waterfall is short - you can get there in about 15 minutes. There are a couple of spots where you have to watch your step, but most of the trail is ok.
The valley is extremely beautiful, and the waterfall is impressive. Of course the size of the waterfall 
varies depending on recent rainfall. If you visit after it has been raining, you will get a better show.
The observation platform for the waterfall has been washed away by the typhoon. And the trail up to the second waterfall has been blocked by landslides.
Given the condition of the trail, I wouldn't recommend going too far out of your way to visit this waterfall. But if you are staying in Luodong, or visiting the trails around Renshan, the waterfall is worth a quick sidetrip.
To get here, follow the road to Renshan (see my post). When you get to the parking lots in front of the Renshan Botanical Gardens, just keep going along the road which follows the river until it dead ends in front of the trail entrance.
This is the highest and most isolated portion of a network of hiking trails which go along one side of a little valley southwest of Luodong. The first part of the climb isn't all that impressive - there were dump trucks mining the nearby river for gravel, which can be heard from the trail. And there are also some huge pylons supporting electrical transmission lines. But after half an hour, you're beyond the pylons and gravel mining, and inside a tranquil forest. The forest is quite pretty, and I heard some animals stirring around in the bushes in several places, and saw some feces on the trail. If you're lucky you can probably see large mammals here. There are a lot of tung trees 油桐樹 on the mountain, and these bloom in April and May, which is the best time to visit.
The climb up and back takes about 2 hours. The distance is 3.6 kilometers. You're going up pretty much the whole time, to a height of 440 meters, so it's not the easiest trek in Yilan. The path is so so. It varies from just plain dirt to crushed rock held in place with logs. Parts are fine, but other places are a bit rough and some patches need maintenance. The mediocre parts of the trail make the descent a bit slow. If you like, after you reach the peak you can keep going down the mountain on the other side, where the trail eventually connects to the Renshan Botanical Gardens on the other side. (The Botanical Gardens aren't that great.)
This isn't the easiest place to find. To get there, you start from downtown Luodong. Take highway 9 south. After you leave town you will see a brown sign pointing the way to Zhongshan Leisure Farm 中山休閒農場. Turn right at the sign. This road is called Yi 30 (宜 30). You have to turn several times - just follow the brown signs to the Zhongshan Leisure Farm. When you get to the farm, start following the brown signs to the Renshan Botanical Gardens 仁山植物園 or the Renshan Nature Trail. Eventually you will turn onto road Yi 34 (宜 34). This will take you to a large parking lot for buses. This is parking for the Renshan Botanical Gardens 仁山植物園, a tourist trap which sometimes attracts a lot of visitors even though it's not that great. On the road leading to the botanical gardens, there are places to eat if you're hungry.
To get to the hiking trailhead, stay on the road next to the river and drive upstream. The sign marking the turnoff to the trailhead is no longer there - it looks like it blew away in a typhoon. So you have to 
keep looking to your left whenever you see a little road leading toward the mountain. A large wooden cone, which can be seen from the riverside road, marks the start of the trail.
There are three ways to get on to the Renshan trail. I took the shortest route, which goes straight up the mountain. There are two other entrances to the trail - you can get there by walking all the way through the botanical gardens, which connects to the trail leading up Renshan, or you can find another trailhead downstream from the botanical gardens. If you start at one of the other entrances, you will be able to walk for a couple of kilometers in the lowlands before starting up the mountain.
