The Gaoxiong route is a difficult one to decide. You’re going from Taipei, right? The Provincial Highway no.3 is a good choice for Taipei-Taichung, but after that you could continue on the no.3 most of the way to Tainan (interesting scenery later on but takes a long time and plenty of traffic lights in the first section) or the Provincial no.1 to Tainan (much quicker but no good scenery). I would say that the no.3 would take a good 2 or 3 hours longer than the no.1. Probably the most scenic part of the no.3 would be the reservoir (Zhengwen or Zhongwen: I’m not sure which) and its surroundings. I say probably because by the time I reached it night had fallen and I couldn’t see anything.
[quote=“Mucha (Muzha) Man”]It didn’t just become part of the trail system recently in the sense that they just added an existing trail to the network.
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I don’t think it was used much before. It looks to me like the Baishi suspension bridge was in pretty bad shape before they redid the trail. Maybe the Formosa Fat Tire folks know differently.
Where does this trail begin on the Wulai side. I’ve been part of the way up on the Sanxia side. I hear they are thinking about building a road on this trail. A very bad idea that local conservationists oppose.
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Feiren, you mention that you camped overnight on the Syakaro national hiking trail. Are there designated camping sites? Developed or just cleared land? Also, you said you could do it in one day. How many hours hiking do you reckon? I walk at a good clip.[/quote]
We just camped in a wide spot on the trail near the suspension bridge. There were no designated camping spots. You could camp at the Baishi police station, which is abandoned. This is a clearing with a grassy area in front and
some abandoned structures that you shelter in in a bad storm. Lots of bugs here though.
You could also camp around km 16 (from Qingquan) at Ma’an (the pass going into Jianshi xiang). This is probably the best spot to camp on the trail. A little after this you can get down to the river and cool off. The scenery in the last seven kilometers is very pretty–two lovely river gorges that you wind along. My fly-fishing companion was in rapture.
BTW, what are your answers to the quiz you gave earlier in this thread?
Part of the trail I was on today leads from Wulai to Sansia, a total of 20km. It’s a beautiful path. Not wide but clear of underbrush and clean!
Where does this trail begin on the Wulai side. I’ve been part of the way up on the Sanxia side. I hear they are thinking about building a road on this trail. A very bad idea that local conservationists oppose.
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Sorry Feiren, I just saw your question. The trail starts a few km before Wulai off a side road on the right. Taipei Day Trips II mentions it. It lists the trip as starting from Sanxia but then also mentions a fantastic swimming hole near the Wulai section. Follow the instructions for this.
[quote=“Idaho Economy Tourist”][quote=“pinesay”]
I wonder what they teach the Boy Scouts here in Taiwan.[/quote]
That reminds me, are there any good books in English on identifying Taiwan’s snakes?[/quote]
A bunch of info plus various links can be found [url=http://tw.forumosa.com/t/snakes/4796/1
The amount of trash on the trails in Taiwan is not as bad as some places in the states. For example, I have not been to a state park in Connecticut that doesn’t have used condoms and broken wine bottles in the parking lot. Once you get on the trail it doesn’t get any better. For some reason people like to bring trash from their house and leave it about a quarter mile in. I’ve even seen matresses and box springs!
An empty can or two of Mr. Brown doesn’t bother me much any more.
It’s a beautiful book and pretty good as far as ‘normal’ roads are concerned, but when you get into the real backroads, concrete tracks etc. it’s not so good. I was exploring some of these tracks this morning, between Taiping, Dakeng and Xinshe (Taichung County). There are several points where tracks link up with each other but the road atlas shows nothing.
I’m thinking of getting a couple of the 1:25,000 topographical maps published by Courant and mentioned above as well as here; forumosa.com/3/viewtopic.php?p=64363#64363
Note: although it seems that Courant is still producing the maps, the weblinks have changed. The page concerned with map-buying is here; courant.com.tw/chinese/images/map/map-02.htm
If you click on the graphic it takes you here; courant.com.tw:8888/msp/
from whence you can preview the coverage of individual maps by clicking on a county or city name at the top of the page then clicking the relevant area. It seems to be Chinese language only at the moment. If, like me, your Chinese reading skills are limited it might be an idea to pop in to the publishers’ office (Xinyi Rd., Sec. 3, No. 43, 2F
02-2704-3344; thanks Pinesay) so you can choose exactly the map you want.
I have 3 1:25000 topological maps bought from the big Eslite bookstore on the RenAi - Dunnan traffic circle. All in Chinese but excellent for hiking trails, even the shortest smallest track is marked. I bought the Wulai, Yangmingshan and Maokong maps. There are others available, mostly of North Taiwan. There on the bottom shelf of the road atlas section. NT$150 each.
I’ve been out around Yangmingshan on the bicycle afew times and most of the shortish trails I’ve found show up. I’m off tomorrow morning to test the Maokong one. Will report back then.
Just got back from a ride around Maokong. While the map showed considerable details about buildings and the like, it only showed the major trails - the ridge walks mainly. Smaller trails that looked relatively new (and were signposted in English!) were not on the map. There were also some glaring errors such as roads that don’t exist and trails that stop on the map but in reality continue on for several kilometres. It took a while figuring it out but I found using the map for the main trails and the signs with accompanying map boards on the road for the smaller ones, I could plan a decent route and get around no probs and not get lost too often.
