Both locals and people new to Taipei swarm Xiangshan 象山, Taipei’s Elephant Mountain, every day. On weekends, you can bet you’ll see a group of local clad in hiking gear, hiking poles in hand, ready to make the arduous (read: easy 25min) trek up Xiangshan. Xiangshan offers a beautiful nature retreat in the heart of the city, with sweeping views of Taipei 101. With its relatively low hiking difficulty and proximity to mass transit, Xiangshan’s mass-appeal is no surprise. You can easily enjoy those views too, you’ll just have to fight with everyone else to get to them. What if I told you there was another place with equally, if not more, stunning views of Taipei 101? Meet Fuzhoushan Park 福州山公園.
The view of the Taipei Skyline is just as impressive as Xiangshan. The only difference is that there are many more unobscured views of the skyline with fewer people crowding them. If you want to head on over yourself, I’ll leave the address here.
Fuzhoushan (福州山), 195 Wolong St, Taipei City (台北市臥龍街195號)
Let’s begin the ascent. On this day, we rode our YouBikes from our dorms at NTU to a nearby station. If you want to take the MRT, you would have to take it to Linguang 麟光 station. Fun fact, next to the park lies Liuzhangli 六張犁, the site where many of the 228 incident victims are buried. If you’re not afraid of some bad juju, you can continue on. Once you’ve hit the big green wall, you know you’ve arrived.
From here, its just straight steps up towards the peak. There’s plenty of places to relax along the way, and much to see. In no time at all, we reached the top.
I always like to document any critters I see during my hikes. It’s always nice to notice what else you are sharing nature with. Today, only two little guys came out to say Hi. Check them out below.
Finally, check out this breath-taking view from the top. The photo below was taken from just one of the many vantage points you’ll come across climbing to the top. Once you’ve had enough or stop for a snack, you can make your way down the mountain again.
We saw this sign in the park area towards the end. I guess there’s technically more than one entrance to the mountain. The sign marks the end of our trip and the end of this post. Hopefully, this inspired you to take on the #onethingoneweek challenge and do something interesting with your life at least once a week. If you do, make sure to post to social media and use the hashtag. I’ll leave you with one final shot of Taipei 101 taken from the top!
