A couple of bits of news from the Yushan National Park came out in the last week. The Paiyun Cabin, which has been closed for sometime now, is set to open in the spring of next year. It seems that the cabin will be divided into roughly 10 rooms of 8-12 people rather than the old barrack-style that it used to be. That should mean getting some sleep will be easier when you don’t have to listen to 60+ people snoring! The Cabin will also have a restaurant too and hopefully there will still be kitchen facilities for those who want to do their own cooking.
The only bad news is that the cleaning fee for staying at the cabin will rise to $700 for foreigners and will remain at $220 for Taiwanese. Given how much bad English and infrequent updates there are on the website, it seems a little rich for the foreigners to be charged more than 3 times as much. We’ll have to see what eventually happens. Fingers crossed the park authority see sense before the cabin opens.
Also earlier this week the dates for the resting period for Yushan were announced. Climbers will not be allowed to hike Yushan between Feb 1st and Feb 29th.
Well, they just know that all of us foreigners are rich and can afford to pay out the nose.
Lame.
I’ve never heard of foreigners being charged a higher price at mountain huts in Japan. What’s the rationale at Yushan for doing so?
I know it happens in a lot of poorer countries. The idea being that rich foreigners can afford it, while the locals cannot. Not sure what Yushan National Park’s thinking is behind it. They only get 1-2000 foreigners a year and so it’s not like it will be a big money spinner. Mind, it’s only a newspaper report and not official policy as yet so hopefully it won’t happen!
Is Paiyun Cabin open again?
Not yet, it’s almost finished, but it doesn’t look likely to open any time soon
Does that mean that it’s only possible to do the ‘one day’ hike, until it’s finished?