Well, the gondola up to the hills of Maokong is almost ready to begin operation. Fellow forumosan Chris and our spouses were up there last week and snuck past a sleeping, or indifferent, guard to get right up on the platform. We were even able to step inside one of the gondolas and sit down. They seat eight.
The route is considered part of the MRT system and you see the same machines and machines and turn-stiles. It looks as if it will only be another NT5 to continue up from the zoo. There are two stops in the zoo, one at Zhinan Temple, and one at San Xuan Temple up near the teahouses. The last stop is ideally placed for teahouses. It’s a 30 second walk from the one with the glass floor and the best views of Taipei at night. It’s also close to the little green house which also has fantastic city views and pretty decent western food.
PLC, with its quaint red brick design is 3 minutes away and the coffee stand Cat Got Nothign to Do Cafe just 4-5 minutes. Cat is great as it’s just chairs and tables with umbrellas in the a small level patch on the side of the road. Great views and perfect when you want to hang out in the mountains but don’t want to spend a lot on tea.
Right beside San Xuan Temple is the trail to Ergeshan, 2.5 hours away. From Ergeshan you can continue on the Bijiashan Trail all the way to Shiding 6 hours away. So, from downtown Taipei you can take the MRT up to a trail that runs for 9 hours through wooded hills and rockey ridges with out ever going on the road.
Fortunately the trail is straight up at the beginning (about 15 minutes on stairs) so it will deter the mouth-breathers.
The view from the gondola as you cross the valley from Zhinan Temple to San Xuan will be amazing too. On a clear day Taipei will sparkle and you’ll be able to see Yangmingshan and Guanyinshan. On a misty day the valley up into Maokong will look mysterious.
It looks like there will be a huge cafe or lookout at the last stop. Most people will probably just ride up, hang out around the platform and return. Anyway, it will certainly be great to be able now to have friends who live in the city meet me up in Maokong after work for a dinner and drinks from which they can return in a couple hours.
I live a few blocks away and noticed that the gondolas were operational yesterday (although not open to the public yet).
I’m a little shocked that the big maps of Maokong outside of the gondola building are printed only in Chinese. Most maps and signs for Taipei attractions and mass transit stations are bilingual these days–you know with the so-called “internationalization of tourism” on the island? What “taike” was in charge of this project?
Almost open means how soon in this case? Does it mean almost open like the high speed railway was for more than a year, or almost open in the sense of we will really open it soon?
A couple months. By summer for sure. The gondola is already running, but they still have to finish all the MRT stuff at the platforms, plant more trees, etc.
I went there 2 weeks ago, asking when the gondola will be finished. I asked one of the workers. I drove to the place of the last station with colleagues (by car). On of the workers said it will be finished by April, but who knows, when it is really ready.
The gondolas were running, kind of testing I guess.
Was really a nice day being there. We went to the tea house nearby the station. View was perfect. Sunny day. Could see all Taipei, also the haze. The tea house was a bit expensive.
The lift capacity is 2000 an hour according to reports. That seems a bit high. Mind not everyone will go to the end, many will just go to Zhinan Temple, but I can’t see 10,000+ people a day on weekends being able to do anything up there unless they all just take the gondola up and then walk down.
By comparison, a ski lift in Vancouver takes up 2000 skiers an hour. But they ain’t lingering. The tourist lift up Grouse Mountain only runs 4x an hour carrying maybe 50 people each time.
Would love if they close the roads up there on weekends. I think they will have to if thousands are going to be walking around. The nearby teahouses can only hold a few hundred people.
Hmm, this is going to be interesting. Good thing I know the back ways in.
Here’s a link to some reports and pics. The first part is about Beitou so just skip to the bottom:
[quote]The lift capacity is 2000 an hour according to reports. That seems a bit high. Mind not everyone will go to the end, many will just go to Zhinan Temple, but I can’t see 10,000+ people a day on weekends being able to do anything up there unless they all just take the gondola up and then walk down.
[/quote]
Right. They sure as hell won’t be getting much chance to drink tea!
[quote=“sandman”][quote]The lift capacity is 2000 an hour according to reports. That seems a bit high. Mind not everyone will go to the end, many will just go to Zhinan Temple, but I can’t see 10,000+ people a day on weekends being able to do anything up there unless they all just take the gondola up and then walk down.
[/quote]
Right. They sure as hell won’t be getting much chance to drink tea![/quote]
the first few months will probably be a madhouse and then it will taper off to a more normal existance. Everyone in taiwan will travel to use it and thats 23 million people !!
What fun will it be for the Taiwanese if you can’t open the windows to spit out, double park the gondola or dangerously overtake the gondola car in front of you?
BTW Taiwanese urdan legend has it that the Chief is the orginal INSPIRATION of the term “mouth breather”
I guess I had 3 years to enjoy peace and quiet in Maokong. At least some spots will still only accessible by car/scooter. On the other hand, I’m more likely to go.
What “taike” was in charge of this project? 
:bravo: