The beauty of Taiwan - Taipei city - Siaoyoukeng Recreation Area

Yangmingshan National Park is the most famous and beautiful hiking location in Taipei city. You may not know Mt. Yangmingshan is also an active volcano so you can see a lot of volcanic terrains here. Don't worry, even though it is active, it is peaceful and stable.

This is also a reason why you can have hot spring at Yangmingshan national park. The hot spring here is not like the one you enjoy in Wulai because it is a "Sulphur Spring." You can simply distinguish hot spring by its color and smell. The color of sulphur spring is light milk white and its smell is like rotten eggs; however, it has a special cure for the skin problem.

Today, I am going to introduce you an amazing place at Yangmingshan national park, which is Siaoyoukeng recreation area. Start from Taipei main station, go up to the ground level, take Bus 260 at North Gate 2, transfer to Bus 108 at the final stop of Bus 260, and then the last stop is your destination.

As soon as you get off the bus, you can smell sulphur and see steam popping out from the ground, less than 200 meters away. When you walk further, the muddy volcano is just next to your feet, not a meter away and it is bubbling in front of you.

Mt. Chi-hsing Shan is a challenge to people don't work out a lot, but you gotta reach the summit. The entrance of this trail is nearby the parking lot of Siaoyoukeng recreation area and easy to find. The trail is composed by a lot of stairs and some parts of the trail are very sleep.  You can carry an alpenstock which can be very helpful. The landscape is awesome. You can see a lot of plants and different volcanic views on the way to the top. The trail will take an hour or more (one-way) to reach the top. So, water and food are crucial!

The peak of Mt. Chi-hsing Shan is 1,120 meters high above sea level; specifically, the place is the tallest point of Taipei city, even higher than Taipei 101. Thus, it is a really meaningful task for yourself to challenge the first summit in Taiwan. On the top of Taipei city, you can have an open view to watch whole Taipei city and also a wonderful sight of the ocean. Seriously, if you do enjoy hiking, you will love this place. It is really a pleasure to have a bite of sandwich and a cup of tea surrounding by such beautiful landscape. After a break, you can either return to the start point along with the same route or you can take an adventure to another peak, East Peak of Mt. Chi-hsing Shan, which is not that far away.

Please do your time management well, it takes about 3 to 4 hours or more to complete the whole trail depending on your physical ability. Just remember to come back before sunset.

Watch your every step and enjoy yourself here!!