We were headed back to Taipei Joyce's home town (and briefly my own). Much as I love the city (especially now I don't have to go to work everyday while I'm there) once you've spent a night on the town and done a bit of shopping it is possible to start wondering what to do next.
So we set about planning our escape, and looked at the options, one thing is obvious about Taiwan it has fantastic hiking possibilities with high mountain peaks, national parks and some unique flora and fauna. So easy then.
Well not quite, good information in English is not as readily available as it could be on hiking in Taiwan, particularly in English - actually I hope this blog might help out a bit. Our first plan was to climb Mount Jade (Yueshan) the highest peak in South East Asia (when I heard that bit I had visions of people thinking I was Chris Bonnington every time I casually slipped it into the conversation, although apparently the climb is not too difficult). However unfortunately you have to apply for a permit, these are allocated by lottery at the beginning of every month. Our application failed. Never mind we thought we have a Plan B the less famous Snow Mountain. Well, we found this too needed a permit applied for 2 weeks in advance. Again we tried. Without going into all the tedious details all our attempts to get a permit to climb anything proved about as easy as gaining a friendly smile from an immigration officer at passport control. Add to that we had to do it all from England with flights and dates already organised and we might as well have been ...... Eventually we had to settle for Plan C - permit free hiking in Taroko Gorge.
No sooner had we booked the train and hotel than with all the predictability of the baddies hideout blowing-up at the end of a James Bond movie the weather started to turn. In fact a typhoon alert was issued in the south of Taiwan, we trudged off to bed thinking, well, we’ll try and make the best of it. Later that night as we slept still dreaming of winding mountain paths we suddenly found ourselves woken-up, the room shook, the bed wobbled, it could only be an earthquake and of course the epicentre it turned out was in Taroko. It felt like the elements were conspiring against us, I was almost tempted to take it personally; it turned out to have been quite strong 6.3 on the Richter scale, the largest earthquake in Taiwan for 2 years. Determined not to let those pesky elements win, and in any case a bit bored of shopping we set off anyway.
We travelled on the fast train from Taipei to Hualien also known as the Taroko Express (2 hours) which you should ideally book in advance, seats were limited when we tried but then again it was the middle of the school holidays. From there you will need a bus, Taxi or hire car to travel up the gorge. There is also a slow train (3 hours which seems to stop at Taroko much nearer the gorge itself.
When we got there some of the trails had been closed due to the earthquake but the weather with all the politeness of someone queueing for the lifeboats on the Titanic and decided to stay fine after all. The Gorge itself is spectacular and the perfect antidote to the hubbub, concrete and neon of Taipei. Within no time at all we were standing on a mountain side green, verdant hills spreading off into the distance, fresh air and not anther person in sight. Were we really still in Taiwan? The trails themselves are rumoured to be populated by macacus monkeys however we did not manage to see one on our trip. There are various trails you can choose from. The most popular seem to be the Baiyang Trail and the Tunnel of Nine Turns both
of which are quite short and crowded. There are some great longer hikes however we tried the Jutsuen (Bamboo Village) trail about 4 km west of Tienhsiang. A 28km return journey, jaw achingly beautiful trail, and best of all it was all ours.
So we set about planning our escape, and looked at the options, one thing is obvious about Taiwan it has fantastic hiking possibilities with high mountain peaks, national parks and some unique flora and fauna. So easy then.
Well not quite, good information in English is not as readily available as it could be on hiking in Taiwan, particularly in English - actually I hope this blog might help out a bit. Our first plan was to climb Mount Jade (Yueshan) the highest peak in South East Asia (when I heard that bit I had visions of people thinking I was Chris Bonnington every time I casually slipped it into the conversation, although apparently the climb is not too difficult). However unfortunately you have to apply for a permit, these are allocated by lottery at the beginning of every month. Our application failed. Never mind we thought we have a Plan B the less famous Snow Mountain. Well, we found this too needed a permit applied for 2 weeks in advance. Again we tried. Without going into all the tedious details all our attempts to get a permit to climb anything proved about as easy as gaining a friendly smile from an immigration officer at passport control. Add to that we had to do it all from England with flights and dates already organised and we might as well have been ...... Eventually we had to settle for Plan C - permit free hiking in Taroko Gorge.
No sooner had we booked the train and hotel than with all the predictability of the baddies hideout blowing-up at the end of a James Bond movie the weather started to turn. In fact a typhoon alert was issued in the south of Taiwan, we trudged off to bed thinking, well, we’ll try and make the best of it. Later that night as we slept still dreaming of winding mountain paths we suddenly found ourselves woken-up, the room shook, the bed wobbled, it could only be an earthquake and of course the epicentre it turned out was in Taroko. It felt like the elements were conspiring against us, I was almost tempted to take it personally; it turned out to have been quite strong 6.3 on the Richter scale, the largest earthquake in Taiwan for 2 years. Determined not to let those pesky elements win, and in any case a bit bored of shopping we set off anyway.
We travelled on the fast train from Taipei to Hualien also known as the Taroko Express (2 hours) which you should ideally book in advance, seats were limited when we tried but then again it was the middle of the school holidays. From there you will need a bus, Taxi or hire car to travel up the gorge. There is also a slow train (3 hours which seems to stop at Taroko much nearer the gorge itself.
When we got there some of the trails had been closed due to the earthquake but the weather with all the politeness of someone queueing for the lifeboats on the Titanic and decided to stay fine after all. The Gorge itself is spectacular and the perfect antidote to the hubbub, concrete and neon of Taipei. Within no time at all we were standing on a mountain side green, verdant hills spreading off into the distance, fresh air and not anther person in sight. Were we really still in Taiwan? The trails themselves are rumoured to be populated by macacus monkeys however we did not manage to see one on our trip. There are various trails you can choose from. The most popular seem to be the Baiyang Trail and the Tunnel of Nine Turns both
of which are quite short and crowded. There are some great longer hikes however we tried the Jutsuen (Bamboo Village) trail about 4 km west of Tienhsiang. A 28km return journey, jaw achingly beautiful trail, and best of all it was all ours.
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