🇹🇼 Taiwan and Climbing Yushan (Jade Mountain)
In June 2024, I went to Taiwan with two friends with the main objective of climbing Yushan, or Jade Mountain, the highest peak in Taiwan at just a bit under 4000 meters of elevation.
We made it, but the climb was not gentle on us. The moisture and cold made us appreciate the ground-level temperature after the hike.
The rest of the trip was spent trying to clear most of Taiwan, and while I didn't fully circumnavigate the entire island (missed out the southeast coast), I can say that I'd seen enough of what Taiwan had to offer for my first time there.
This was my first proper hike that got me into the activity as a whole. I was so terribly under-equipped, but somehow made it through and enjoyed the experience enough to do it again.
Summiting Jade Mountain
The hike was the first thing in our itinerary. The first day or two were spent gearing up and getting to the hike. On the day of the hike, we took a bus from Shuili up to the national park, specifically Paiyun Mountaineering Service Centre.
This was the summer where brat (Charli XCX) released and I enjoyed listening to it for the first time on the bus. Little did I know just how impactful this album would be. Anyway.
We set off full of gusto, (unbeknownst to us) underdressed, and inadequately waterproofed.
The trail itself was straightforward with minimal tricky bits; older folks were seen quite often.
We went in the middle of summer, so there wasn't any snow. Outside of winter, the rainy season covers quite a few months. Pick your poison.
Either way, expect to be cold and wet. I'm no geographer, but I hear it's because Taiwan is surrounded by sea, and winds carry up lots of moisture.
I learned one thing this trip: my windbreaker is NOT waterproof, not that it ever claimed to be.
A spell of rain in the middle of our hike with no good shelter taught us this valuable lesson. My jacket was soaked, although it put up some resistance. My passport, which I had failed to keep safely, had to be replaced after this trip.
There were several stops along the way up where you could rest and seek shelter. Eventually, we stopped somewhere to devour the food we had bought in Shuili.
Whenever the sun peeked out of the clouds, we made sure to soak up as much of it as we could to both warm up, and dry off.
Eventually, the mountain lodge slowly made itself visible. Due to our slow pace and late starting time, we were the last to reach the lodge for the day.
Day 1 - At Paiyun Lodge
Our stop for the first day was at Paiyun Lodge, some 3400m of elevation above sea level.
By the time we got there, we were soaked. There were hooks at the lobby to hang your wet equipment, though the humidity and temperature made it difficult to get fully dry. It was also full, so we hung our stuff in the cabin, and managed to get our stuff somewhat dry. I was shivering the entire time.
I was so happy to finally have something warm in my hands: generous servings of Taiwan's braised pork rice.
The cabins
I like to imagine myself a good engineer, so here's what we did to dry up. The genius that I am, I strung up some rope for us to dry our clothes and maximise surface area. I'd say we were successful enough; we were dry enough to finish the climb, and then the way down.
Frankly speaking, I don't recall why and for what I brought that spool of rope (if you can even call it that). But I won't question providence.
Since we were soaked, we changed and spread all the clothes out to hang. Even my sleeping bag was wet, but when spread out, there were enough dry spots to lie on.
Maximal exposed surface area
There were some electrical sockets by the beds for us to charge our devices.
The night got dark, and we didn't have much else to do but rest for an early summit.
Day 2 - Summit and then down
In the early morning of day 2, around 2-3am, the lodge came alive again as everyone got ready to hike the remainder of the trail to the summit.
If you keep a good pace, you can reach the summit by sunrise and hopefully enjoy the view.
Anyway, we didn't. The steepness picked up and we only got to the summit after the sun had fully risen.
The summit
Getting there
Prior to the trip, please make sure to apply to enter and hike the trail. You must apply in advance to enter the trail! This also ensures you have a spot in the lodge.
Checking out from our accommodations in Shuili (水里), we bought some food and took the public bus up towards Yushan National Park.
Everyone else on the bus is likely to be headed the same way the closer you get to Paiyun Mountaineering Centre, where we registered. The lady at the office was kind to let us stow our luggage there too.
There's quite a bit of walking, which serves as a nice warm-up for what's to come. From the office, it's a ways up to the trail start. There are buggy services, but you may as well just walk — it's what you came for.
Very important lessons:
- You should arrange for transport to leave the national park. There's hardly any way down, and you have very little chance of flagging a taxi on the spot.
In fact, you should probably rent a car, because it's very likely you might miss your bus. Thankfully, we managed to call a driver. It's a long way down to the nearest town, and the fatigue from a long hike up and down did not help.
After the arduous climb, we were free to enjoy the rest of Taiwan like normal tourists.
Tainan
After Chiayi, our next stop was Tainan.
At night, JQ wanted to bring us to a cool spot, and that spot turned out to be a gay bar. Or rather, it was taken over by one.
We didn't enter.
We ended up down Hai'an road, where the nightlife was concentrated in Tainan. We had our fair share of beer, including Taiwan beer.
This was also a nice place to visit in the day; I looked around the quaint stores the next morning before we departed north for Taipei.
Taipei
I'm not gonna lie, it was quite boring to me. I did enjoy the food, gashapon machines, and the nightly Taiwan Beer inbibing, but apart from that, there wasn't anything special to me.
I really enjoyed the architecture style of the country parts of Taiwan. Very old school, and full of soul. Taiwan Beer hits the spot for me, and the street food were perfect accompaniments.
Yilan
This was a quiet
Itinerary
Getting Around
Taiwan has a reliable rail network that let us get around the major cities with no issues. Within cities, we took the bus and taxis sometimes.
To get to Yushan, you definitely should arrange for transport, rent a car, or make sure you do not miss a bus. Getting up and down the national park headquarters to the nearby towns is still a long drive.
Costs
It's been a while since this trip so I can't say I remember, but altogether it was under SGD 1000 per pax, costs being split over 3 guys.