Day Nine

Taipei is surrounded by mountains and just like Seoul you can hike around the city.

Jinmianshan Hiking Trail

My goal was to hike the entire north part of the city, starting in the east and heading west. This was supposed to be the easier route with less climbing, and after a false start because of a closed trailhead, there was still a lot of climbing...

There are trails that are paved and quite busy, this wasn't one of them. I didn't seen anyone untill the very top almost everyone took the route west to east and back at the outlook. It was just me and the deafening sound of nature, those birds and insects can make quite a lot of noise. Every once in a while there's a gap in the trees and you can see the city below.

At the "top" was a nice place with large boulders that were the perfect instagram background and lots of people orderly waited their turn to pose.

Some nice people asked if I wanted my picture taken as well, but since I didn't know any of the seemingly requried Yoga poses that everyone else did I declined ;).

From here it was downhill for a while, and I'm glad I did the trail east to west, the other way up is no joke, you have to climb rocks with and and feet, in full sunshine. It also went on for much longer than the climb the other way around.

At one point I had the option to either continue on the ridgeline to the next outlook, or take the path down to the metro and ride a few stops instead. With the 30+ degrees weather and almost out of water already, I opted to head down for some delicious milk tea and a snack.

Laodifang Lookout

After a short metro ride I took another trailhead back up the mountain. This was another unpaved trail and soon I was all alone again.

This time the trail lead through thick bamboo forests and past a seemingly abandoned temple and then merged with a paved trail following the ridgeline, where it was quite busy.

At some point you get to an outlook favored by people who like to spot planes on the airfield in the city.

For some reason at the end of the trail, there were a lot of tents with people singing karaoke (poorly...). Time to get to the metro station for a ride back to the hotel for a nice shower, the clothes I'm wearing are soaked in sweat.

After a nice shower and tea, I headed out ot find dinner near the hotel and then to bed.