Yung-Ho Shan Reservoir in Toufen Township, Taiwan
Also referred to by the Miaoli local government as “Yungheshan Reservoir”, Yung-Ho Shan Reservoir sits towards the southeast of Toufen Township.
Built in 1980 and sitting at an elevation of 89.5 meters, Yung-Ho Shan reservoir is the main source of water for Toufen and neighbouring Jhunan and Sanwan Townships.
According to the government, daily water consumption sits at around 95,000 cubic meters of water a day with treatment carried out at nearby Yongshin Water Treatment Plant.
One of the more interesting aspects of Yung-Ho Shan Reservoir is that it was the first reservoir built in Taiwan without a “sluice” (gate(s) to control the overflow of water when the reservoir is full).
Instead, on the otherside of the walkway that borders the reservoir you have a huge concreted slope, with the idea I guess being that the excess water drains off and runs into nearby Dongxing River.
As Mike’s comment at the end of this article explains, there seems to be a bit of confusion on the lack of sluice gates at Yung-Ho Reservoir. /end update
Not too sure what happens to the walkway when the overflow channel kicks in, but I’m guessing it gets closed off to the public.
After walking around the reservoir area itself, you can then escape off into the dividing mountain ranges between Toufen and Miaoli City, which continue to provide pretty decent views of Yung-Ho Shan Reservoir itself.
Look hard enough, and you’ll even catch some locals fishing (or swimming?) in the local water supply…
Not too sure what was going on there but they were doing it in plain sight and nobody seemed to care (the reservoir is supposedly managed by Taiwan’s EPA).
Speaking of locals, during our visit we also had these clowns completely destroying the serene atmosphere of the reservoir with their godawful KTV yodelling:
Access wise the road up to Yung-Ho Shan Reservoir is a bit steep but still totally doable on a bike:
Failing that there’s always taxis, scooters and even a bus service (running between Toufen and Miaoli City through the mountains).
Not bad for a half day trip, which is easily extendable to a day if you explore the surrounding area on foot or bike.
Better yet, pack yourself a picnic and just enjoy the view (and bring some earplugs to block out the awful singing)!
January 17th, 2013 at 12:26 pm mike(Quote)
That’s funny, I was just looking over my notes for that reservoir last night.
“One of the more interesting aspects of Yung-Ho Shan Reservoir is that it was the first reservoir built in Taiwan without a “sluice” (gate(s) to control the overflow of water when the reservoir is full).
Instead, on the otherside of the walkway that borders the reservoir you have a huge concreted slope, with the idea I guess being that the excess water drains off and runs into nearby Dongxing River.”
I think you’ve got this a bit mixed up. That “concreted slope” is the spillway and all reservoirs have them regardless of whether there are sluiceways or not.
The function of the spillway is to prevent excess pressure on the dam by releasing surface water during flood events and for this reason the spillway is always located just below the crest of the dam.
Sluicways may also perform this function to a more limited extent (limited because they are much narrower and can therefore carry lower volumes of water), but typically they are built so as to channel deeper water under and out of the dam in order to reduce sedimentation.
If Yongheshan has no sluiceways, then that’s something I must have missed (and I’d be surprised if that’s true).
It’s more likely that there is a mistranslation here: Yongheshan reservoir does have an “open-lip” spillway instead of tainter gates (e.g. as at nearby Mingde reservoir), and it may be that this is what is meant rather than “sluicegates” – i.e. Yongheshan’s spillway is not controlled by tainter gates (which have maybe been confused with “sluicegates”).
But, whilst it is only one of five reservoirs in Taiwan with this “open-lip” type design, it was not the first – the first one was actually Taiwan’s very first major reservoir: Wushantou reservoir in Tainan which was completed in 1930.
However the design at Wushantou is substantially different from Yongheshan, and so I suppose you could say Yongheshan was the first reservoir in Taiwan with this specific type of “open-lip” design – it is very similar to but predates the spillway designs at the second Baoshan reservoir in Hsinchu and the much larger Nanhua reservoir down here in Tainan.
January 18th, 2013 at 1:12 pm Oz(Quote)
You know way more about this sort of stuff than I do Mike
, thanks for the clarification!
January 18th, 2013 at 11:20 pm mike(Quote)
I was just there this morning and this afternoon as it happens. Just got back to Tainan earlier tonight.
January 18th, 2013 at 11:20 pm mike(Quote)
Took a few snaps of your spooky Mausoleum too.
January 20th, 2013 at 1:10 pm Oz(Quote)
@mike
Saw that! Looks like it’s had some construction done on the 2nd and roof levels (those big white looking things).
I wonder if they’ve made any progress inside?
January 20th, 2013 at 2:05 pm TaiwanTeacher(Quote)
You must be a Civil Engineer… I find your posts on this topic to be very informative.
Have you ever seen the “sluiceways” in Hualien County? There is one on the way to my favorite “bend in the river” that’s good for family outings, a BBQ, and watching fish nibble at your toes. When the weather warms up, c’mon over!
January 20th, 2013 at 3:35 pm mike(Quote)
“You must be a Civil Engineer…”
Nope.
“Have you ever seen the “sluiceways” in Hualien County?”
Irrigation canals? Not sure what you mean. I know about the lake to the southeast of the city, but I’ve never been there.
January 20th, 2013 at 4:20 pm TaiwanTeacher(Quote)
No. It looks like a square concrete cave going into the side of a mountain. Every once in awhile, one can see a large waterfall coming out of it and falling into the river far below. I’m guessing it’s something the Japanese constructed long ago.
I have no idea of where the water comes from; perhaps a Google Earth search can show a reservoir somewhere up in the mountains above it.
January 20th, 2013 at 4:22 pm TaiwanTeacher(Quote)
They used it for power generation from what I gather by looking at the powerlines nearby. Like a hydro-electric plant INSIDE a mountain???
January 20th, 2013 at 7:12 pm mike(Quote)
Do you mean the Lushan waterfall (廬山瀑布)? Otherwise I’m not sure what you’re referring to – if you could get the name of the place, then that might help.
January 21st, 2013 at 1:01 am TaiwanTeacher(Quote)
The facility is located on the MuGua River at coordinates:
23deg 58.15min N
121deg 29.24min E
On Google Earth, you can see 3 pieces of this thing.
1)There is a tiny reservoir behind a dam to the north (up the mountain) that discharges into a ladder-type spillway extending down the mountain.
2) There is what looks lke a hydro-electric plant near the river, below and to the east.
3) There is the water gushng out of the mountainside near the river, below and to the west.
What the heck is this thing?
January 21st, 2013 at 1:03 am TaiwanTeacher(Quote)
To all: It’s a very nice area to visit…
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g297907-d550671-r140020050-Mugua_River_Valley-Hualien.html
January 21st, 2013 at 3:30 am mike(Quote)
I found your coordinates, and there is what looks like a hydroelectric plant there (with pipes channelling water down the mountainside – similar to those at Sun Moon Lake), and I found the little waterfall to the west of the thing but I didn’t find a “tiny reservoir behind the dam to the north”.
I did find two little reservoirs to the west of that location (following the river back upstream), but they are some distance away from the coordinates you gave for the facility.
I would guess that the pipes are channelling water from a large aquifier in the mountainside down into the hydroelectric plant with exhaust water passing out of the plant into the river.
I don’t think the small reservoirs to the west have anything to do with that, but instead probably perform a flood control function.
January 21st, 2013 at 9:17 am TaiwanTeacher(Quote)
You made of it about the same as I did. I just have a little trouble understanding how the aquifer could provide enough water volume to run the plant, considering the small size of the reservoir behind the dam.
Also, the bypass that generates “the waterfall coming out of a cave” remains a fascinating feature. All in all, it’s some nifty engineering that I thought you’d like to see.
January 21st, 2013 at 1:56 pm mike(Quote)
TT, an aquifer is a reservoir, a natural one lying underground.
Anyway, it is definitely a hydroelectric power station – it’s called Tongmen (銅門 – meaning copper gate) power station. However, it seems that rather than channelling water downhill from an aquifer, those pipes are used to pump river water uphill to drop it into a channel for a generator unit inside the mountain.
According to one piece I read, construction began in 1977 and was completed in 1985 with 36 workers having been killed. It was designed for a maximum power rating of 67MW which is fairly large for a hydroelectric plant (the largest one in Taiwan is 90MW – at Shihmen reservoir).
There was also something about it being built on the site of an old British factory but I couldn’t find out much about that. The Taiwanese bloggers were mostly interested in a kind of ice cream you can buy there.
January 21st, 2013 at 2:51 pm TaiwanTeacher(Quote)
Wow! Great research on this facility! Thanks, Mike!
I’d thought it was a rather odd looking thing, but had never really investigated it.
January 21st, 2013 at 5:10 pm Tom(Quote)
Fishing (and boating with a petrol motor) are allowed on a number of Australian reservoirs. So that part of the story isn’t that unusual. The bad 80′s music on the other hand….
January 21st, 2013 at 7:19 pm Oz(Quote)
Really? Everytime I’d seen reservoirs mentioned in the Australian media they’d always made a big deal about pollutants and what not.
Thanks for that insight, I know these reservoirs are out there in nature and all that but I really would have thought fishing would have been a no-no.
January 22nd, 2013 at 12:18 am mike(Quote)
Tom is even more right than that; at most reservoirs in Taiwan, there is a designated fishing area and boats (usually makeshift rafts) are allowed – both those with paddles only and those with engines. However, there are people who fish outside the designated areas and go uncaught and/or unpunished.