Hegu Waterfall, the first waterfall on the trail

When I woke up on Sunday the weather in Taipei wasn’t too bad, just a slight drizzle and so I had high hopes for our hike.  However, the further east we got, the heavier the rain became and when we finally arrived at the tiny station of Sandiaoling, it was pretty much a persistent downpour.  Still, everyone was in high spirits as we headed along the tracks and got onto the very muddy trail.

You can’t get that close to the first waterfall, but the view of the Hegu Falls 合谷瀑布 from the trail is spectacular.  From here the trails cross several new rope bridges and follows a stream up to the next fall.

Hiking up a small stream towards the next waterfall

My favourite of the waterfalls in this area, the Motian Waterfall 模天瀑布 cascades over a cliff with a cave behind it and smashes into rocks at the bottom.  After all the rain we’ve been having recently the fall was just amazing as was crawling through the cave to get behind it.

Motian Waterfall (was this one once called Sandiaoling Waterfall?)

The cave around the back of Motian Waterfall

From here the trail gets rougher with a few fixed ropes, some very slippery slopes and a wooden ladder of sorts before finally coming to the last fall, the Papi Waterfall 杷枇瀑布.  It too has a cave behind it but you can’t climb into it.

The last waterfall, Papi Waterfall

A steep and slippery climb to the top!

It’s a short scramble up to a concrete track above the waterfall.  We turned left here and followed the track, criss-crossing a road a few times before finally get to the small village of Xinliao 新寮.  Just before the village we spotted a group of Formosan Magpies in a field but by this point my camera and I were much too wet to get a shot of them.

At Xinliao we made another left and followed the road to Yeren Valley 野人谷, which looks very much closed and dilapidated.  We took the stairs to the right of the building and climbed up and then down to the red bridge which finally leads to the train tracks on the other side.  The stairs are lethally slippery and almost everyone fell on the way down. (I didn’t!)

On the Pingxi Railway Line tracks heading towards Shifen

At the tracks you can go left to get to Dahua 大華 and right to Shifen 十分. We turned right and shortly arrived at the Shifen Waterfall.  It’s $80 to get in to see the falls, but we’d seen enough water and waterfalls and instead made our way to the town of Shifen to catch the train back to Taipei.

They have sky lanterns in Shifen too!

Practicalities

Trains – You can get a train from Taipei directly to Sandiaoling, but the trains are not very frequent and so it’s best to check the timetable first.  Make sure you select “all types” under train types or you won’t get any results.

Coming back you need to take the Pingxi Branch Line to Ruifang and then change to get back to Taipei.  Again the trains can be quite infrequent and it’s a good idea to print out the timetable in advance.

Technically it’s illegal to walk on the tracks but everyone does it.  Take care, keep an eye out for trains and keep the timetable handy so you know when it’s safe to enter the tunnels.

In the winter when it rains, you don’t get that much water and so it’s OK.  However I would avoid coming here in the summer on a rainy day.

Snow Mountain is Taiwan’s second highest peak and a great climb.  Some amazing scenery!

Snow Mountain Facebook Event

Dabajianshan is probably Taiwan’s most distinctive mountain.  Look on the back of a $500NT note, that’s the one!  It’s a great 3 day hike to this huge mountain and back.

Dabajianshan Facebook Event

If you’re interested in joining us on either hike or on some gentler day trips around Taipei, then join the facebook group, Taiwan Adventures – Group Hikes.

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

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.

Snow Mountain, Taiwan

Next month Taiwan Adventures are organising a group hike to Snow Mountain, Taiwan’s second highest mountain.  We’ve already ran trips to Nenggao, Jialuo Lake and Songluo Lake and this will be our first group trip to the Sheipa National Park.  If you’re interesting in joining us, please sign up at our facebook page.

The plan is to leave Taipei on Friday 25th November at 7pm and return on Sunday 27th November 7pm.  The trip involves spending 2 nights in cabins on the mountainside.  Total cost for the trip is $4500NT and this includes transport, permits, insurance, food and guiding.  The trip is limited to 10 people so please sign up ASAP!

Itinerary

Friday – Meet 7pm, drive to Wuling Farm and then hike at night for an hour to arrive at the Qika Cabin.

Saturday – Up around 8am, breakfast and then hike up to the 369 Cabin passing by Snow Mountain’s East Peak. Sleep at the cabin.

Sunday – Up sharp (2/3am) and head to the main peak for sunrise. Hike back down to Wuling Farm and then drive back to Taipei. We expect to be back around 7pm.

Equipment

You will need;

- At least a 40L backpack
- Pack cover
- Sturdy hiking shoes or boots (Sneakers won’t cut it on this one)
- Fleece
- Raincoat
- Warm pants
- 3 pairs of socks
- Warm hat
- Gloves
- Sleeping bag (winter bag – it will be very cold  at night, possibly below zero)
- Rain gear
- 2L of water
- Flashlight (preferably a headlamp)
- Toiletries and personal items
- Sunscreen

If you have trouble getting anything, let us know and we’ll see if we can help you out. We’ll provide all the food with the exception of lunch on Saturday.

Notes

It’s important to note that although hiking Snow Mountain doesn’t involve any technical climbing, any high mountain hike where you are carrying your own gear is tough.  Please consider your fitness and ability before signing up.

We will require a deposit of $1000NT from anyone who wishes to come.  This is non-refundable unless we are forced to cancel because of the weather.

We must receive the deposit before 25th October otherwise it will be too late to apply for the permit.

The view from the East Peak as the sun comes up

Almost at the peak

Looking towards the Central Mountain Range

The Black Forest in winter

Filed under: Hiking, Overnight trip ]]> http://hikingtaiwan.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/group-hike-to-snow-mountain/feed/ 12 25.093596 121.594077 25.093596 121.594077 Stu Snow Mountain, Taiwan Snow Mountain, Taiwan Snow Mountain - 雪山 Snow Mountain, Taiwan Snow Mountain, Taiwan http://hikingtaiwan.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/taiwan-advetures-the-online-guide/ http://hikingtaiwan.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/taiwan-advetures-the-online-guide/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 06:17:56 +0000 Stu http://hikingtaiwan.wordpress.com/?p=793 ]]>

It’s been a hectic and crazy year for us, but finally our comprehensive online guides to Taiwan are finally ready.  Myself, Neil Wade, Ross Tweedie and my brother, Phil Dawson have spent the last 8 months or so building the two guides.  There is one in English and one that we have had translated into Chinese.

It’s been hard work to say the least.  Working full time jobs and then spending the evenings writing and the weekends travelling and visiting places, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.  It gave me a real kick up the arse to get out there and visit some of the places that I had been meaning to go to for a long time but had never gotten round to.

Some of my personal highlights include Guguan which I knew nothing about but absolutely loved, especially the hiking, getting the car stuck in snow at the top of Hehuanshan,  and motorcycling up and down the east coast between Hualien and Taidong with Neil this summer.

Each guide is divided up into 5 main areas, Taipei, north, east, south and central and then each area is divided up into specific places, such as Kending, the North East Coast or Danshui/Bali.  You can use the site to search for what’s near you or to plan a trip to another part of Taiwan or simply browse through the categories for things that interest you.

We have some 900 places listed including hotels, hikes, hot springs, transport etc.  Each place is listed on a google map and the address is in Chinese and English to make it easier to find.

Hopefully next week the mobile app version will be released in the itunes store and each area will be available for download to your iphone, ipad, or ipod. The app version will have online and offline maps so getting directions will be even easier and there are some 2000 photographs included.  We will continuously update the app and so, unlike a guide book, you won’t have to wait 3 years to pay for a new version., the update be available for free!

We hope that people find these guides useful and we’d love to hear some feedback about how we can improve them – info at taiwan-adventures dot com

A view of Nenggao Mountain on the Central Mountain Range of Taiwan

Neil and I revisited the Nenggao Historic Trail this weekend taking a group of 7 people with us.  This was a first go at guiding people on an over-nighter and we were lucky enough to have great company, weather and some fabulous views near the top of the Cilai South Peak.  It was a great weekend out away from the cities and into nature.

Some information about the Nenggao Trail and its origins;

The Nenggao Cross-ridge Historic Trail runs east-west over the main ridge of the Central Mountain Range, between the Cilai and Nenggao mountain systems.  It was originally used by the Seediq branch of the Atayal tribe for migration and trading purposed.  When the Japanese mounted the Taroko campaign in 1914, their troops used this trail to attack the rebellious Taroko people from the east and west.  In 1917-1918 the Japanese expanded the original pathway into a garrison trail to better control the local tribes.

In 1925 the Hualien Harbor and Nantou government offices rebuilt the trail along its entire length…. Several garrisons were set up along the trail, along with 5 hostels….. most famous was the cypress built Nenggao Garrison, which was known as “Nenggao Cypress Palace”.  When the Taiwan Power Company built the east-west power line in 1950-1953, the tranmission line generally followed the Nenggao Cross-ridge Historic Trail

The trail is now open to hikers and cyclists giving people easy access to the central spine of Taiwan.  The old Japanese Cypress Palace was burned down during the Wushe Incident of 1930 when the local tribes people rebelled against Japanese rule.

The last time we did this hike there was a horrible looking corrugated iron shack there.  That has now been pulled down and a new cabin, by far the largest I’ve seen in Taiwan, is being constructed.  I would guess it’ll have enough space for 200 people.  However at the moment the cabin area is a disaster zone and it so we decided to camp up on the ridge by the Tianchi Pond.

It proved to be a good decision.  We saw a rainbow, seas of clouds pouring over the mountains, a lightning show way off to the west which thankful never came near us and millions of stars.  It was a truly spectacular evening to be camping in the mountains.  Deer even visited us during the night, though no-one was alive enough to get up and see them!

The next morning we were up early and tried to get to the top of Cilai South Peak for sunrise, but the clouds rolled in and we missed it.  Still, the views of the Central Mountain Range just before were superb.

A big thanks to everyone who came on the hike.  Our jobs were made so much easier by everyone helping each other and I hope we can all get out together again in the near future.

Clouds rolled in as we hiked towards Tianchi

The large landslide at the 5.5km mark is now wider and safer than before

A much scarier landslide around the 10km mark. I'm sure this will get fixed soon as it seems to have halted building at the new cabin.

Cyclists on the Nenggao Historic Trail

The 200m waterfall just before the Tianchi Cabin

Construction of the new Tianchi Cabin. I'm it will be great when it is done.

Taking a break on the Nenggao Historic Trail

Almost seems like the sky is on fire

Camping at Tianchi on Taiwan's Central Mountain Range

Neil doing what he does best

Crossing the huge landslide

Finally finished after 2 tough days of climbing, well done guys!

For practicalities see my original Nenggao post

More photos

If you’re interesting in hiking Nenggao, take a look at the Taiwan Adventures Website

The Baiyang Waterfall and suspension bridge

The fantastic Baiyang Waterfall trail in Taroko Gorge was once an easy walk along a flat wide road, but since the mountain above the first tunnel collapsed, it’s now a much harder and longer climb to get there.  The trail began it’s life back in 1984 when the Taipower Company built the road to explore the valley’s potential for hydroelectric power.  Outrage at the planned damming and diversion of water led to the project being shelved and finally abandoned in 1986 when Taroko Gorge regained its national park status.  The road was then opened up to the public as a hiking trail.

With the first tunnel closed, anyone wanting to hike to the waterfall must begin at Tianxiang,  There are 2 entrances that very quickly meet up.  The first starts behind the Church and other at the Houran Pavillion path next to the Youth Activity Centre.

The church at the start of the trail in Tianxiang

A steep climb up

It’s a very steep climb up with chains and ropes provided for the steepest parts.  Near the top there is a flat section and this area was once a village of the Truku People, the aboriginal tribe that lived in Taroko Gorge.  The Japanese forcefully evicted all the tribes people and all that remains now are some derelict walls and pits.  It was interesting to learn that at one time over 193 villages could be found in the gorge.

The remains of a pen for keeping pigs

A formosan macaque

For a about 1km the path flattens out and has some nice views of the valley below.  It’s a little precarious in places where the path is less than a metre wide, but very beautiful too.  After a steep walk down some steps, we arrived that the other side of the first tunnel.  From there the trail goes through a further 6 tunnels before arriving at the waterfall.

Hiking the Baiyang Trail

One of the tunnels leading to the Baiyang Waterfall

Bats inside the tunnels

The first tunnels had loads of bats in them which kept flying towards us.  They seemed to be eating some kind of yellowy-orange bug and were exceptionally ugly!

Man, they are ugly!

The broken section of bridge

Fast flowing water rushing passed the brige

It took us about 2 hours to get to the waterfall.  Unfortunately the final concrete bridge that leads over to the viewing platform has collapsed and there’s no way to get across to the other side for a better view of the falls.  I guess that it won’t get fixed until the first tunnel reopens and when that happens the trail will be overrun with people once again.  Still it’s a great hike!

The suspension bridge below the Baiyang Waterfall

Practicalities

Take care on the climb up and down to the abandoned road.  It’s steep and would be very slippery in the wet.

Don’t try to cross the river at the broken bridge, it’s not worth the risk.

The tunnels are fairly short, but you might want to take a torch anyway to help find your way through.

There’s a bus that runs up from Hualien and Xincheng to Tianxiang, however it is infrequent to say the least.  I really don’t understand why a national park such as Taroko Gorge doesn’t have a free (or very cheap) shuttle bus system to reduce the amount of traffic in the gorge and to give people without transport a way to explore the park car free (rant over).

Google map of the trail

If you’re interested in exploring more of Taroko Gorge with us, take a look at the Taiwan Adventures Website.

Checking out the view from Eagle's Head Mountain

A short post for a short hike.  I was in Yilan this weekend to take part in a 3km swim.  The weather was unusually kind given how notoriously bad it can be in this part of Taiwan and so afterwards with the afternoon free, we went in search of a mountain called 鷹尖石 or Eagle’s Head Mountain in English

If you drive up to the top it’s a very short 15 minute hike to the peak, though with the heat we’ve been experiencing recently, even a 15 minute hike can feel like an act of masochism!  The actual mountain itself has nothing of interest but if you stay on the main trail instead (it’s very obvious), you’ll come to a cliff with unimpeded views of Honeymoon Bay and Turtle Island.

Turtle Island and Honeymoon Bay

A very cool looking caterpillar

Views on the way up to the peak

Can you spot the surfers?

The trailhead after passing the Mingshan Temple

And that’s it! Told you it was a short post!

Practitcalities

It’s possible to walk up from Daxi.  Look out for the Mingshan Temple Gate on the main street 明山寺.  It’s an old looking thing.  Head though it and up the road.  Keeping on the road and head to the left.  There’s a path that goes more directly up the mountain and intersects with the road.  Near the top you’ll reach the temple carry on and look for the trailhead and sign on the lefthand side.

Walking from the bottom would take around an hour I would guess.

View Larger Map

A beautfiul sunset over the Maokong Cable Car

You can get to there with the minimum of city cycling by sticking to the riverside park.  For my favourite route, I cross over at the Hengguang Bridge 恆光橋 and follow Lane 45, Laoquan Street 老泉街45巷 all the way to the top.  From there I pass the cable car station and all of the tea houses and then head down the Zhinan Road 指南路 and back into the riverside park by Zhengda University 政大.

For a nice side trip, look out for the sign for the Zhinan Temple 指南宮 on the way down.  It’s not too far and the temple is beautiful and has some great views.

I need to keep this post short as I’m working on project at the moment and that’s taking up most of my time so here’s some photos from the last time I went up Maokong.

Tea fields and the Zhinan Temple in the background

Looks like it might be a bird of prey but it was too far away for me to tell

The Maokong Cable Car Station

I love this cafe by the side of the road. It has great views too!

Some great downhill riding

I was afraid the clouds might spoil the sunset, but they didn't

The Zhinan Temple near Maokong

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