Yushan and the New Rules for the Paiyun Cabin

Sunrise as seen from the peak of Yushan

When the new Paiyun Cabin for Yushan opens (if that ever happens!) there’ll be a new policy of charging foreigners $700 to stay there.  Locals will continue to pay the usual $220 as before.  I’m very much against this as I think it’s unfair and it will damage Taiwan’s reputation.

The reason given for the increase is to pay for the new English services, but a blanket charge for foreigners will affect those coming from non-English speaking countries too.  How do they benefit?  I also worry that we’ll see no changes to the poor English on the website/signs in the park etc.

In addition to this change it is also rumoured that when the cabin opens, foreigners will no longer have the option of climbing Yushan as a single day ascent, regardless of experience.  I can only think that this is because the park wants foreigners to stay in the cabin to extract money from them.

If you too are against this, Richard Saunders has set up a petition for anyone who would like to sign it.

Online Petition

Also you can email the national park directly to ask about the new pricing policy.

Email the Yushan National Park

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March Group Hikes

We’re got a couple of great hikes coming up in March.  The first is on March 9th to 11th and we’ll be heading the Shuiyang Forest and the Thousand People Cave in Nantou County.  This is a 2 day, 2 night camping trip.  Sign up via the facebook group!

The Shuiyang Forest and Lake was created during the 921 Earthquake

We'll be camping out under this giant over hanging cliff

The second trip is to Taroko Gorge where we’ll explore some of the gorge’s lesser known and more exciting trails as well as spend an afternoon gently freewheeling our way down the gorge by bicycle.  For this trip we’ll stay in a small B&B in Xincheng for 2 nights.  Again we’re organsing this one through facebook.

Cycling down Taroko Gorge is an unbeatable experience

A bridge that leads to the natural Wenshan Hot Springs

Also, although we’ve been going for a while, I’ve never officially announced the founding of Taiwan Adventures, an outdoor adventure and hiking company.  There are four members of the team, myself, Neil, Ross and Phil.  We’re mostly aimed a hiking, be it day trips around Taipei or longer hike mountain excursions, but we also run photogrpaphy trips, sightseeing tours, eco-tours etc.

Check out the website for information!

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Taiwan Adventures Mobile Guide for iPhone and iPod

Well it’s finally here!  Our mobile guide to Taiwan for the iPhone and iPod is available in the app store now.

The features include;

• More that 900 points of interest that cover everything from hotels to hot springs to hiking.
• More than 2000 photos, many of which you’ll only see in the app
• Online and offline maps to make finding you way around so much easier
• Street addresses with both in pinyin and Chinese
• Easy to use:  Search by district, category, distance, map or just browse through our photo albums.

One thing that we’ve really tried to push with the app is Taiwan’s superb outdoors.   You’ll find that may of the points of interest are waterfalls, hikes, forest recreation areas, swimming holes, beaches, wild hot springs etc. and with the online and offline maps, it’s so much easier to find these hidden gems.

The Taiwan Adventures app can be downloaded from the app store for free.  Inside you’ll find a free database containing information about Bali and Danshui and from the store, you can then make in app purchases for the other areas of Taiwan.

Hope you enjoy it!  And look out for updates coming in the very near future!

The entry for the Bishan Temple near Neihu

Entries all have info regarding prices, opening hours and the address in Chinese and Pinyin as well as links to websites

The map shows your location in red and all of the entries are in blue.

Zoomed in the map give enough detail to find your way around

The free database contains info about Bali and Danshui. The rest of Taiwan has been divided into 5 areas, Taipei, Northern, East, Southern and Central

I personally really like flicking through the photo gallery to look for interesting places

Available in Chinese and English

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Happy New Year! – 新年快樂!

Taipei 101 on new year's eve

Happy new year to everyone!  Hopefully 2010 will be as good a year for hiking as 2009.  I’ve been to so many wonderful places and hiked so many great trails this year and writing the blog has certainly inspired me to get out there and find more interesting things to do.

Looking back on the last year, I’d have to say the 4 day trip we did as part of the tourism bureau’s promotion of Taiwan was definitely the highlight of the year for me.  However as far as hiking is concerned the trip we did to Jiaming lake at Chinese year was the best and hopefully that area will reopen soon after the damaged caused by Typhoon Morokot.

To everyone who has ever read this blog, thank you and enjoy the new year!

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