Tag: Hike

Hiking related information. Mt. qixing hike and yangmingshan national park near Taipei. Get ready for the steep terrain, not on the entire yangmingshan national park; however, all throughout, you’ll find intermediate moderate inclines; it’s pretty tricky terrain.

If you’re lost, just look for the  visitor center.

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Jiantan Trail. The Best Hike in Taipei.

Jiantan Hiking trail

Okay, so here’s an unpopular opinion, Elephant Mountain, it gives you a good view of Taipei, is not the best hike around Taipei city.

The Jiantan hiking trail gives you some of the most amazing views of Taipei you’ll get, and at a fraction of the effort, in comparison to getting to the top of elephant mountain.

Since this trail is not as popular as its peer at the end of the red line on the Taipei metro, you won’t see that many tourists/foreigners, it’s mostly visited by local Taiwanese who enjoy hiking.

You will get a good view of one of the most iconic buildings in Taipei, I’m talking about the Grand hotel, that red Chinese looking building in the pic below.

You will also get a perfect view of Taipei city. You’ll be able to see what Taipei is really like, a concrete jungle surrounded by mountains that are green all year long.

But, can You see 101 from here? The answer is YES!!!!!

You’ll see 101 in all of its splendor and more. Right in front of it you’ll see Songshan airport.

If you’re a good photographer you can get a pic of an airplane landing or taking off with the 101 as the background.

I wasn’t able to get that shot, but it was still an amazing view.

How Do You Get to Jiantan Hiking Trail?

It’s actually very simple, just head over to Jiantan station on the red line, this is the same station people get off at when they’re going to visit Shilin Night Market.

Instead of taking the exit towards Shilin Night market, take the opposite one. Get to the corner on your left and cross towards the left, once on the other side of the road make a right and walk until you reach the trailhead.

There’s a big sign that marks the beginning of the Jiantan hiking trail, you won’t miss it.

As usual, the best thing to do is follow Google maps, that’s how I get anywhere.

If you’re looking for a more challenging climb then you might be interested in reading about the Highest mountain in Taipei, Qixing Mountain!!

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Qixing Mountain and Yangmingshan National Park

Climbing Qixing Mountain and Yangmingshan park

If you’re in Taipei and you’re thinking about going for a Hike, then what’s better than Qixing mountain, the highest mountain in Taipei. In a sunny day, you’ll have an amazing view of the city from the top of the mountain.

There are different ways to get to Qixing mountain and do the mt. qixing hike from the center of Taipei city, I’ll talk a little bit about each one and I’ll focus on the way how I did it, which I recommend.

I first made a one hour long walk through Yangminghshan Park before getting to the entrance of the Qixing Mountain trail, from there it took me another hour to get to the top of the mountain.

This is perfect for a half day trip, if you get up early enough you can be done with all of it before noon. If you still have the energy you could go to the hot springs.

First let me show you a gallery of photos of Yangmingshan and then one of Qixing Mountain, just to completely convince you that you have to go.

Photos of Yangmingshan

Swipe left or right

  • Half-day-trip-to-Yangmingshan-and-qixing-peak
  • One-day-trip-to-Yangmingshan
  • Hiking-near-Taipei-Yangmingshan-park
  • Walking-in-Yangmingshan-Park
  • Taipei-Taiwan-Walking-in-the-woods-Yangmingshan
 

Photos of Qixing Mountain, Taipei, Taiwan

  • Butterflies-in-Qixing-Mountain
  • Climbing-Qixing-Mountain
  • East-Peak-of-Qixing-Mountain
  • How-to-go-to-Qixing-Mountain
  • one-day-trip-to-qixing-mountain
  • View-from-the-top-of-qixing-mountain
  • Climbing-Qixing-Mountain-and-Yangmingshan-park-1
 

How to Go to Go to Qixing Mountain?

There are a couple of ways, I’ll give you 3 options

From Jiantan Station to Qixing Mountain

  • You can make your way to Jiantan station and take bus S15.
  • In Jiantan station take exit 1 and walk to the bus stop on the left side
  • Take the bus S15 all the way to  Lengshuikeng (冷水坑)
  • The ride from Jiantan Station to Lengshuikeng takes around 1 hour and 15 minutes
  • From Lengshuikeng you’ll walk and climb for around 50 minutes and you’ll make it to the top.

From Jiantan Station to Qixing Mountain Option 2

  • Go to Jiantan Station and take exit 1
  • Take bus 117 and get off at Xiaoyoukeng Service Center
  • From Jiantan to Xiaoyoukeng it’ll take you 1 hour and 20 minutes.
  • When you’re in Xiaoyoukeng you’ll walk for around 30 minutes to get to the highest peak of Taipei

18 things you can add to your post-workout shake.

From Mingchuan Bus Stop to Qixing Mountain

This is how I did it.

  • Go to Jiantan station and take exit 1 ( You can get here from Taipei Main Station)
  • Get on the right side and walk straight, cross the street and keep on walking straight on the right side until you find a zebra line to get to the other side, the one on your right.
  • Cross, you’ll be in front of Ming Chuan Univerity
  • The bus stops will be on your right-hand side, walk to the furthest one
  • Take bus Express 223
  • Get off at Yangmingshan Bus Terminal
  • The ride from Mingchuan University to Yangmingshan bus terminal will take 30 minutes
  • From Yangmingshan bus terminal to the main peak of mount Qixing it’ll take you 2 hours.
Mingchuan-university-bus-stop
Crossing over to Mingchuan University

Which is the Best Way to Go?

If you take the short bus ride then you’ll have to walk for almost 2 hours or a little bit less depending on how fast you move. To me, this option was perfect as I like to walk among woods and really anywhere with a lot of green and flowers around.

If you go to Qixing mountain following the same route I did then you’ll have a good time walking for an hour in Yangmingshan park, take a look at the Yangmingshan clock and rejoice on mountain views.

You’ll eventually hit the entrance of the Qixing mountain trail.

If you’re worried about getting lost don’t worry, just follow Google maps, that’s what I did, the minute I got off the bus I followed Google map’s instructions all the way to the top of Qixing main peak, the cellphone reception is great.

There’s also a visitor center

Elephant Mountain. Taipei, Taiwan

Conclusion

Going to Yangmingshan and Qixing mountain are great half-day activities for anyone who loves outdoor activities. There are different ways to get here, some of them require long bus rides and short walks and others the opposite.

There’s no entry fee for Yangmingshan nor Qixing mountain. Don’t forget to take some water with you and some fruits.

Thanks for reading.