Hiking in Taiwan just might be the best thing that you can do here. Fresh air, beautiful views, and a bit of exercise can really help you to forget the traffic, noise and pollution of the cities. I find it really sad that a lot of the people who live here never leave the cities. I’ve met foreigners who have lived here for years and have literally never left the city once. Personally, I go crazy if I can’t get out of Taipei at least every other weekend. Sometimes, I head to the mountains, sometimes the beach, sometimes the hot springs.
Last weekend, my friends and I decided that a little hiking was in order. Stu Dawson is completely insane about hiking and has started a website called Hiking Taiwan. He knows his stuff, so if he has a hike planned, I’ll usually try to tag along.
Last weekend we headed out to a small town called Pingxi 坪溪, just 30 minutes from Taipei. Surrounding Pingxi 坪溪 are some beautiful, jagged mountains that are perfect for a days get away.
We chose one called Feng Tou Jian 峰頭尖 that sits on a complex system of trails that crisscross Taiwan.
I’ll keep the story short because Stu did a great job of writing about it on his website. So if you want the details and practicalities of going to this particular trail, go to his site. I just thought I’d share my pictures from the hike to hopefully motivate some of you to get out there and start enjoying yourself!
In the beginning, we could see two of the peaks we would cross.
More hiking in Taiwan after the jump…
In the beginning the trail started in a lush, wet forest. At the top the flora changed to a drier environment.
Often you'll find paved and even lighted trails in remote places in Taiwan. This trail was more to our liking with difficult places that you needed to pull yourself through.
Often you'll find paved and even lighted trails in remote places in Taiwan. This trail was more to our liking with difficult places that you needed to pull yourself through.
That mountain in the background can be translated to "Stinky Mountain". We stayed away.
The view forward along the ridge. There is probably a 200 meter drop just to the right of where I'm standing.
One of the rocky "razor backs" we had to walk across.
Before the clouds and haze really set in we had a very nice view.
There were a lot of these short rappels along the ridge line.
There were a lot of these short rappels along the ridge line.
The whole hike forced us to make some daring physical feats.
Nice view, but the haze and clouds were rolling in. You can see the ridge line we were walking on clearly in this picture.
Walking down from the peak we returned to the lush forest.
Nice images. The trail looks very lush and green.
Thanks Craig. Believe it or not I hardly added any saturation to these. Some I didn’t add any!
Great photos. I’m still building up endurance with walking the trails around Xindian. It’s amazing, the Taiwanese definition of trail seems to be get directly there. No switchbacks or gradual grade below ridge trails whatsoever.
Yeah I never thought of that. They just seem to go straight up the mountain. We were just enjoying this particular trail because of how wild it felt. It definitely didn’t have and of the perfect concrete steps like they have on the Xindian mountain (That mountain will be the subject of a future post).
Thanks,
-neil
Great work. I have a soft spot for Fengtoujian as it was the first hike I blogged on. Good to see it and the whole Pingxi area getting some more well-deserved recognition. It is a hell of a hike. Lots of other great trails around there including the Pingxi crags and Wufenshan (behind Shifen) which has lookouts down to Juifen and the sea.
I agree. It’s a fantastic area, someplace I plan on exploring more… but then again, there are a lot of places I hope to explore more!
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That’s a nice piece of art! Thanks for the pictures. I hope one day i can take pictures just like yours. As of now i’m still polishing my skills for photography but these pictures of you, it keeps me going. Thanks!
Thanks again, Richard.