As I’ve mentioned before, my next challenge was to hike the tallest mountain in Taiwan called Yu-Shan 玉山 ( Jade Mountain).
Now this mountain is located in the center of Taiwan standing at 3952m, ( 12,966ft) tall. after It is ranked 4th World Island High points and 3rd Asian Island Highpoints Puncak Jaya in Indonesia and Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia to form the “Asian Trilogy” hiking experience. So for my 29th birthday, I decided to kick off my turning of the age on the tallest mountain in Taiwan with a couple of my friends. This hike is quite special for anyone because, in order for you to climb it, you need to win the lottery. Literally… You need to apply a month to three months in advance just to hike the mountain. Lucky for me, I went with 3 of my other foreigner friends which gave us priority to hike. We actually applied once in April but didn’t win so my advice to you is try applying for weekdays as there is probably a higher chance.
Andrew is my avid hiker friend who did all of the planning and logistics which helped us save half the amount of the money from any tour package. We spent around 4,500nt which included the rental car, the accommodation, and food. ($210 cad ). Because of the lack of accessibility to the national park, we had to rent a car to drive down from Taipei which took us about 3 hours. We stayed overnight at a bed and breakfast to give him some rest before starting the ascent in the morning. After we go to the entrance it was about a 6 hours hike up to the Paiyun Lodge. It probably could have taken us 5 but when the view is that beautiful you gotta stop every so often to soak it all in and obviously take photos. In Chinese, we would say, and dou lai la which means and again which would be our code for PICTURE TIME!!
The vast contrast of terrain and the sheer nature of the surroundings were incredible. We were so fortunate to see clear blue skies, to have perfect temperature weather, and just be in the quietness of the woods. Once we got to the lodge, it started heavy downpour. That was a huge worry for me as we decided to hike Yu-Shan in the middle of the typhoon season. A drop of rain can really damper the mood of any good trek. When everything is wet and then you have to put it on your wet clothes again, not fun! Once we got to the top, all of us were sticky and gross. They don’t have showers up there so make sure you come prepared with a towel or wet wipes to give yourself a nice wet wipe shower. We slept on these large hard mattresses so I would highly recommend packing a pad.
Now one thing I am very grateful for is the food because everything we ate was carried up by these beefy Taiwanese men with a solid lower body. Taste-wise? The food was alright. But after hours of hiking, anything was good for us.
I was nervous about this trip because after gaining experience from Mount Kinabalu. I knew about the difficulties I had, the mental strength I needed, and the dangers of possibly falling off the mountain ( which almost happened to me!). Sometimes I think it is almost better not knowing and then doing something crazy than it is having experience and then doing something crazy, again! I must say though, Yu-Shan was definitely easier in terms of the technicality of the hike compared to Mount Kinabalu. Although, I did struggle with the elevation sickness a lot more this time around and had to pop a couple of Advil along the way. I guess it doesn’t help when you can’t sleep in a dorm of 14 people and then waking up at 2 am to hike for 2.5 hours at high elevation. But anyways, jia you! If there’s a will, there’s always away.
Overall, like any high elevation hikes.
I highly recommend this hike for any fanatic hiker. It is one of those things when you see that sunrise makes you appreciate the beauty of our earth and really puts into perspective how small we really are and big the world is. Taiwan is seriously wonderful. Good luck!
Don’t forget to bring
- Courage
- Good shoes
- Wet wipes
- Water
- Advils
Thank you so much for sharing your nice experience with us.