Can anyone give me any ideas on what,where,and how to get there outdoor activities to do around taipei… Unfort. my wife and her family only take me to tourist places, like night markets, temples, and all the other things that I am beginning to find boring. So I am looking for some advice. I have no car, no scooter so I must be able to get there by MRT or bus and I am up for anything outdoors from hiking to viewing taiwans nature…
If you know of something could you please give me some advise and how to get there by MRT or Bus… By the way I am located right next to the Sunyatsen memorial hall.
THx
ahhh, sishoushan. right near your house cw and enough trails to keep you busy for a while, in fact you can hike all the way to nankang if you want. an easy way to get hiking quick is take the 286 bus to the last stop, fude station. there’s a trailhead right near there. any buses to fude road are good too, just keep walking up the alleys towards the mountain.
If you have time during the week I can take you out with me. I know lots of places. I usually drive but I can point out to you how to get to them by public transportation.
In Taipei itself there are the mountains around Mucha (behind the zoo) and Yamingshan (OK Neihu too and aroudn Warner Village, city hall area).
I know Mucha best. Take the MRT to the zoo. Catch the
No15 bus. It leaves every hour on weekdays and every half hour on weekends. When you get on the bus show the driver the following address and he’ll drop you off outside:
Chenxi Teahouse (晨曦茶坊/phone: 2936 4336/address: 指南路3段34巷53號. When you get off the bus, go through the arch and head up and right. Take the stairs and at the top look for a map. You’ll see trails going in all directions. Watch out for snakes this time of year. If you’re heading up send me a pm.
A fabulous long hike starts at the Fulong station on the east coast. It’s called the Caoling Historical Trail and akes you over to Dali or Daxi. You can hike between 10-16 kilometres depending which place you want to finish at. There are signs in English everywhere along the trail.
If you can’t find the trail in Fulong go to the Visitor Centre off the main road heading north and ask them to point you in the right direction. Oh, and when you get to Dali or Daxi you take the train back to Taipei. No need to retrace your steps. When the weather is warm you can even go for a swim at Daxi to clean yourself off.
Agree with the other that the Taipei Day Trips books are exellent. Number II is up to date and all hikes list public transportation.
0800 011 765
Toll-free tourist hotline in English, Japanese and Chinese. I used the old tourist hotline a lot and they are pretty helpful. Tell them where you want to go and they can usually tell you how to get there.
And don’t forget to visit the tourist office in taipei and other places when you visit. They have lots of information in English about the island.
All about the mountains, parks, trails and ecology in Taipei. Never seen this site before. A little difficult if you don’t know the city as the maps are weird but pretty cool none-the-less.
If you’re up for some rock climbing, there’s some decent limestone cliffs a hike away from Shin Bei-Tou MRT. You can get directions there at toasports.com/rockclimbing/
I’m curious, how many of the trails mentioned are actually natural hiking trails, rather than stone-paved or cement walkways? I’d loved to try more places to hike and walk, but if I have to climb stairs, I’d rather they’re made from tree roots than blocks of stone.
Some are stoned steps, some are “natural hiking trails” whatever that means. What are you looking for, paths forged by the Formosan bear?
i don’t understand the attitude of a lot of people toward stone or wooden steps. They last a lot longer than “natural” trails, resist erosion, don’t get overgrown and impossible to follow after one season, and keep people from forging new paths and thus destroying more habitat. The only problem I have is that they are sometimes very slippery. Of course on a steep mountain a natural trail is going to be a lot more slippery, if not a complete mess, after a heavy rain. Try going down parts of Huang Di Dian after a rain has fallen anytime that week. It’s a steep, slippery mess and I’m grateful everytime I get to the stone stair path.
If you live in Shijr you can take county road 33 or 31 straight down to Pingxi. It’s a beautiful drive with almost no buildings just lovely mountain scenery. There are also numerous pavilions and roadside stone picnic tables set out on scenic bluffs.
Taipei is actually one of the easiest cities to get out of the urban area and into nature in a short time.
My classmates are thinking about going on a trip somewhere around Taiwan. I was wondering what are the best places to go for a short trip and how to get around if you have no car.
I was thinking Kaohsiung, but I’m not sure if there’s enough activity for 1 weekend. It seems like fun, but it might just end up like a day here in Taipei. (aka shopping, ktv, etc)
The Ershui to Shuili branch line route offers a lot of outdoor fun. There are bike routes at Jiji and Ershui, and some nice hiking and swimming. Jiji has a small amusement park of sorts where you can play various games and a number of cafes and restaurants. There’s also the interesting indigenous species centre. Ershui has a monkey protection area and a cool ridge to climb. The final stop, Shuili has the cool Snake Kiln, kind of like a mini village built around an old fashioned kiln. There is lots of accomodation in Shuili and some in Jiji.
The Taiwan Folk Village is not too far (you can catch a bus from Changhua). This would interest any foreigners in the group as the displays of traditional architecture are excellent.
Two days you could also go up to Alishan. But spend the first day in Fenchihu, hiking, eating mountain grown food and old traditional Taiwanese snacks on the old street.
If you guys like the outdoors just rent a cabin at Longmen Campsite near Fulong Beach. In addition to the beach you can hike the Tsaoling Historic Trail over to Dali or even Daxi and then take the train back. There is also an excellent bike route nearby that runs alongside a clean river you can stop and swim in. The road runs for 10km or so and there are only a few houses along the way. At the end are gorgeous emerald rice paddies now abandoned but still with the occassional water buffalo tramping through the fields.
Also nearby are boats to take you around Turtle Island. You can stop on the island if you make reservations in advance.
For fun day trips head out to places along the Pingxi small rail line. You can get there in an hour from Taipei. At Shifen there is a magnificent waterfall and a coal mining museum. At Pingxi some really fun and easy hiking. Some of the trails take you to the top of craggy peaks and while they aren’t high they make for great photos. The final stop at Jingtong lets you explore an old coal mining settlement, a beautiful old train station, a gorgeous old wood villa from the Japanese era, and some excellent trails up the volanic like mountains. At the top of one you can even sometimes see monkeys.
You could easily make this a weekend trip if you stayed at Jiufen.
Be aware that in summer all these places will be crowded especially on the weekend. Be aware also that some of these places are empty in winter (when it’s still warm) even on a weekend.
I’m going to have to start charging for this info.
Any suggestions for a mostly shady 2-4 hour hike not too far from Taipei? We’d love to do something this weekend. But I guess Caoliang trail isn’t such a good idea in this heat…
Iris, check out the Chengxi Teahouse in Maokong mentioned earlier in this thread. The teahouse is the start to a number of shaded trails in Mucha.
A good one is to head up the stairs. You’ll see a map there but it probably won’t help much unless you already know the area). Cross the wide path to the other side and start heading down (you can also turn left or right as these are also interesting traisl to explore). Go left almost immediately and follow the trail as it runs beside a lotus pond. Just stay on this trail as it hugs the ridge and then heads down. When the trail splits go right and follow it down 15 minutes to a small temple that has been carved into the side of a cliff. There is a thin but high waterfall there and you can get behind it by entering the temple. Really cool spot.
To head back you can go two ways. One, keep heading down the hill until you get to a big temple. Head right and follow a dirt road back up to where you started. the other way is to return the same way you came and when the trail splits keep going straight (don’t cros the little bridge). Follow the stream for 20 minutes until it turns left. Head straight up until you get to the road. You can catch a bus back down from here. Or if you want to reach some nice teahouses go right and walk about a kilometre.
Either route will give you a good afternoon hiking with a nice stopover at the temple area for lunch by the waterfall.
Thank you sooooo much, Mucha Man. We had no problems following your directions (though we took a taxi from the MRT up there because we had just missed the bus - it was 170 NT$, in case anybody wants to know). The trail was shady enough, had loads of nice views of Taipei and wasn’t tiring at all (except for maybe that last part heading basically straight up). We concluded a perfect hike with three hours in a very nice tea house, chatting and nibbling guazi, started our walk down (no taxis around, and we were too impatient to wait for buses that never seemed to come) and finally came across a nice elderly Taiwanese couple who took us to the bus station in their car.
