The Smangus is in Hsinchu County of Taiwan. The native peoples who live here are of Taiya race which is one native race among nine different native races. Hsinkuan is at the opposite side of Smangus cross the river Taqrking (hope I spell this correctly). The sun rise from the Smangus side and shine on the Hsinkuan, that's why the later one is called Hsinkuan (means new light in chinese).

The peoples live in both place are of two sub-races of Taiya, the former one is called Mrqwang, and the later one is called Knazi. Both races are of the same ancestor called Mangus. Long time ago, a hunter of Mrqwang was mistaken as a deer during setting up trap on the mountain and got killed by hunters of Knanzi. Since then, both races kept fighting until the end of the World War II.

This area is a part of the Central Mountain Chain of Taiwan. And, because of the late development of the area, there still are very old and giant divine trees (some oldest are around 4000 years). According to official reports, the 2nd ~ 4th largest divine trees are in this area. It takes 2~5 hours of hiking from both places to these giant trees.

Besides the giant trees, the sceneries are very beautiful of this area. The cloud sometimes is floating below the area over the valley, and makes it looks like a floating cloud river. And, it changes very soon, sometimes it's full of cloud and next minute the cloud is gone. The most beautiful season of this area is around end of Autumn to mid winter, because there are trees of maple, cherry, peach, and pear. And, sometime in winter, the area will snow. The best part of this area is that the area is newly developed and is not so commercialized.

I suggest this place should be put in your must visit list of Taiwan. Here are two links for some informations of the area (very sorry it's in chinese).

WWW.hcwt.gov.tw/p6/index.htm

www.smangus.net