Yangmingshan National Park

Having gotten a good night’s sleep in my private room at the hostel, I was ready to begin a full day in Taiwan.  (As if I didn’t have a full day of sightseeing on Day 1!)  Day 2 would be a day in nature. Yangmingshan National Park was the 1st of 4 national parks I visited on my trip.  Visiting 4 national parks was one thing unique about this trip.  After all, it’s Billy’s Cities, not Billy’s Green Spaces or anything like that.  Nevertheless, starting with Yangmingshan, they were all very much worth it.

About half of Yangmingshan is located with Taipei city limits.  And I stayed within the Taipei part of the park during my visit there.  Nonetheless, it was a bit of a haul to get there.  I rode 2 subway lines to the northern part of Taipei.  From there, it was a bus ride of about 45 minutes to get into the mountains.  Thus began my day in Yangmingshan National Park.

Yangmingshan Chungshan Hall

Chiang Kai-shek built Chungshan Hall to celebrate the centennial birthday of Sun Yat-sen in 1966.  It was the meeting place of the National Assembly of the Republic of China until the assembly was disbanded in 2005.  It also served, and continues to serve, as a place to meet visiting diplomats and to host state banquets.

There’s one thing you can’t miss outside Chungshan Hall–the strong smell of sulfur.  Sulfuric deposits are a distinguishing feature at Yangmingshan, and Chungshan Hall is no exception.

Yangming Park

Wait, didn’t I say something about a day in nature?  Well after Chungshan Hall, that’s what it was.  From there, I headed to Yangming Park, a park within the national park.

The area of Yangmingshan was originally known as Grass Mountain.  Chiang Kai-shek renamed it Yangmingshan in honor of Wang Yangming, an important philosopher and military general during the Ming Dynasty.  (“shan” means “mountain”.)

Yangmingshan National Park was very easy to navigate.  Signage there is excellent.  Regardless, I arrived at Datun Falls much later than I had planned.  And considering the subtropical climate, I was drenched in sweat by the time I arrived.  After enjoying the view and taking a picture, I hiked back out of the park to the National Park visitor center where I had lunch after drying myself off the best I could.

Zhuzihu

“The calla lilies are in bloom again.”

Not only is the signage in Yangmingshan National Park excellent, but it’s very easy to get around thanks to the efficient Taipei bus network.  After lunch, I took a bus further into the park.  After a short bus ride, it was a pleasant walk, along with other sightseers, to Zhuzihu.  Zhuzihu is known for its many calla lily farms.  And I was fortunate to be visiting during the middle of blooming season.

From Zhuzihu, it was another short hike to catch another bus.  Then a ride to finally get to Xiaoyoukeng itself.

Xiaoyoukeng

As you can guess by now, I was excited to get to Xiaoyoukeng.  Xiaoyoukeng is a “post-volcanic” area known for its fumaroles.  Fumaroles are cracks in the earth’s surface that emit gases.  In this case, the gases are sulfurous.  You can tell from the bright yellow surfaces.  If you were there, you could also tell from the smell.

Xiaoyoukeng is located on the northern slope of  Qixing Mountain.  At 3,670 feet, Qixing is the highest point in Taipei.  My plan after visiting the Xiaoyoukeng area was to do a hike up and over Qixing mountain.  I’d arrive back on the main road, where I’d catch a bus back into the city.

I had allowed 4 hours for the hike.  By this point, I was running late, I was tired, and I was very sweaty.  Did I say I was tired?  I gave the hike a shot.  It was very steep.  And I was very tired.

After a while, I had to face facts.  The hike to the top of the mountain wasn’t going to happen.  I turnd around and headed back down.

My original plan was to head straight to dinner.  But I was early because I skipped the hike.  And I was super sweaty.  So I went back to the hostel and cleaned up first.

[Factual information is primarily gathered from Wikipedia, so you know it must be true.]