Parts of the complex sank deep into the earth, leaving only pillars and fallen walls above ground. A highway surrounding the huge lake is covered by fallen rocks and mud. Driving south to Puli from nearby Tsaotun, alongside a 20-kilometer stretch of highway one sees mountains with their tops or sides slashed away. The brown slopes are an alien sight in a landscape where trees remain green throughout the year. Damage was worse still in steeper mountains to the west.
Passage is impossible on many roads that have either caved in or been blocked by mudslides.
Those that weren't destroyed were badly damaged. Camping in tents outside orchards of bananas and guavas, many of Chichi's 11,000 residents are lamenting the loss and damage to historic sites that were preserved because the rural town was largely left out of the economic and construction booms of the 1970s and 1980s. The landmark Chichi train station, built in 1933 by the Japanese colonial government, was destroyed. A tilted roof with loosened black tiles dangles on a damaged structure. One is Lin Garden, known for its exquisitely carved pavilions and corridors.