Xiaocukeng Historic Trail 小粗坑古道: Houtong to Jiufen

 

This relatively short walk in the Ruifang District starts in the village of Houtong and leads to Jiufen. It passes through the abandoned mining village of Xiaocukeng where there are numerous ruins of old houses. A short side trail leads to the mouth of an abandoned mine and Yinsi Waterfall. There should be nice views but on both times that I have visited it was so misty that I saw nothing at all. The trail is a sort of back door to Jiufen emerging at Songde Park. If you start early you can avoid the worst of the crowds at Jiufen and be back on a bus to Taipei by or before lunch time. 

Distance/Time: 5.3 km/ 2 h 52 min. It rained a lot and the trail was slippery so I took my time. On a fine day, I probably would have finished sooner.

More details as well as a map can be found here

What to bring:  Nothing special is needed. It is a short walk and there are stores in Jiufen so no need to carry much water or food.

The Trail: This is a moderate hike. It climbs up to a ridge and then down the other side. There are a lot of stone steps but they were not too slippery even in the rain.  Nevertheless, I was careful, especially since I was by myself.  There are also gravel and dirt sections and some wooden steps. The path is mostly wide and easy to follow and there are wooden finger posts. The side trail to the waterfall is more narrow and crosses a steep gully. 

The trail passes through the village of Xiaocukeng. The village is abandoned and most of the old stone houses are crumbling but at least two structures still seem to be occupied. There is even the remnant of an old elementary school. I imagined what it would have been like for the miners and their families living here, with the only way out a hike along the trail.

Yinsi Waterfall was a trickle the last time I was here but in heavy rain it was frothy and swift.

Jiufen is a scenic town with, narrow twisting streets, houses that cling to the hillsides, plenty of eateries and pleasant views but I have no tolerance for the crowds that descend every weekend and I'm not that interested in shopping, so I passed through quickly. I once spent a night here in a home stay with my family and it is an experience I highly recommend. Jiufen is a wonderful place at night once the crowds have gone home.

Transportation:  I took a train from Taipei Main Station to Houtong Station which took just over an hour. The trains run about every half an hour. I only had to wait ten minutes once I got to the station.

I like to take a book for a train journey. On the train I was reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half a Yellow Sun, a novel set around the time of the 1967-70 Nigerian Civil War.

On the way back I took bus 965 from Jiufen to Beimen Station in Taipei. Bus 1062 also goes to to Taipei or you can take bus to Ruifang Station and then a train back to Taipei. 

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The hike: I had expected some light rain but as the train got closer to Houtong I could see that it was raining steadily. At the station I walked down to the ground level and exited the station. I started hiking at 9:00.

I turned left and walked between the river and the tracks until I came to a bridge. At the bridge I crossed and then turned left again following a smaller lane. 

I reflected on how different it was from the the last time I had been here. On that day, it had been a warm, sunny day and the local residents had been drying blankets and laundry outside. 

When the road split I stayed to the right, still following the lane. 

I soon passed the turn for the Jinzibei Historic Trail which I had hiked the last time I came here but I continued straight. 

It took me 25 minutes to reach the turn for the Xiaocukeng Historic Trail. There was a lane heading uphill on the right and the trail was clearly indicated by a finger post. 

 

As I walked up the road, I entered the tree cover. The black road was scattered with yellow leaves. The road curved to the left and came to the trail head.
 

There was a sign warning hikers to be vigilant for Asian giant hornets (Vespa mandarinia) or as they are called in Chinese, tiger head hornets. Tiger head hornets are territorial and aggressive and are most active in the fall. Some hikers have been injured from falling while trying to get away or had an allergic reaction. In 2023 there were several attacks including at least two in Ruifang District in September. In one of the attacks two hikers died. Here is a link to the article about one of the incidents in Ruifang.

It is advised that if you encounter them you should cover your head, crouch low and leave the area. I've also heard that you should not swat at them. 

I started up stone steps and soon came to a Tudigong (Earth god) shrine. 

I met a woman coming down the steps. She was the only other hiker who I would see all day. I asked if she had come from Jiufen but she was just out for a short stroll. 

The trail descended for a while and I came to this beautiful stream crossing. 

Crossing a small, swift stream on the Xiaocukeng Historic Trail

For a while I climbed ancient looking stone steps, between stone walls covered in moss and vines and ferns. My rain coat kept the rain out but I got so warm that I was sweating inside and my shirt was getting wet anyway.
 

 I came to a crossroads at 10:00, an hour after I had started walking. The left turn is supposed to lead to a viewpoint, but since it was rainy and overcast I didn't even bothering going to see it. On the right was a well-maintained house but it was closed up and there was no sign of any occupants. 

Just past the crossroads I came to the first ruins. 

stone ruins in the abandoned village of Xiaocukeng

Then I came to steps leading up to a locked gate and another well maintained residence. The trail continued up more steps to the right --just before the gate-- and climbed up above the house. 

Along this section there were several other ruins next to the path. The side trail to Yinsi waterfall was a little tricky to find. I walked right by it the first time because I was trying to peak down into the courtyard of the house and not paying attention. Then I consulted the map and backtracked. 

There are two or three false trails that just lead to old stone ruins but once I found the real trail and stepped up onto it from the lower main path it was clear. 

The waterfall was less than 10 minutes away. The path leading to the waterfall was much more narrow and I had to watch out for a drop on the right occasionally. I passed through a steep, wet gully, then passed the mouth of an old mine (for some reason there was trash strewn around the entrance) and then came to the waterfall. 

Yinsi waterfall is small but pretty after rain. It slid down a rock face, tumbled over rocks and disappeared below. The pool at the base was deep enough that I would have had to wade in water over the top of my boots to cross. I probably could have got a better angle for a photo if I crossed over but I decided I was already wet enough--which was ironic because by the end of the day my pants and boots would be completely soaked anyway. 

I went back to the main path and climbed up more steps. 

I came to another shrine after which the path leveled off a bit. It passed around a hill and came to a view point but all I could see was mist. 

I walked for maybe ten more minutes and then came out to the top of the ridge. 

It was raining harder now and on this side I was very exposed to a cold wind and blowing rain. I moved on quickly because I wanted to get out of the wind. I came to a T-intersection and went left toward Jiufen. I started down wooden steps with gravel between them. 

the left fork leads to Jiufen

Twenty minutes after starting down, I came to a pavilion. The path split two ways. Both ways lead down to Songde Park but I took the left path because it was shorter. 

In a few minutes I emerged from the trail at a very wet Songde Park.

I went down to the road and turned right. 

I passed the public restrooms and then when I came to wooden steps climbing a hillside, I walked up them and at the top turned left. 

I soon entered Jiufen old street. Despite the rain, it was crowded with day trippers most of them carrying umbrellas in the narrow street. I passed through the old street as quickly as the crowd and politeness would allow.  

I had also planned to hike Jilong Shan, on the other side of Jiufen, but I was thoroughly soaked and ready to go home.  When I came out of the old street, I turned right on the main road and went straight to the bus stop. I enjoyed this hike but I plan to go back again when the weather is nicer and do some more exploring. 

Nearby hikes: 

Jinzibei Historical Trail 金字碑古道 and Xiaojingua Outcrop 小金瓜露頭  

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Map and GPS coordinates:

Xiaocukeng Historic Trail entrance: 25.096985, 121.836147

 Google maps link

http://rblr.co/onEp7 

 

 

 

 

 

Zhongling Shan 中嶺山 and the Fetsui Reservoir 翡翠水庫

 

This hike takes you over a medium sized peak (Zhonglin Shan, 626 m) and then along a ridge and down to the very edge of the Fetsui Reservoir-- the water source for greater Taipei. It's not an easy hike but it's worth the effort to go to a remote spot not visited by many hikers.

Distance/Time: 16.7 km/ 9 h 45 min. Our hike was longer than it needed to be because we took a wrong turn and had some route finding problems. If we had walked just the correct route, I estimate it would have been about 13 km. 

A map as well as more information can be found here

What to bring:  It's a long hike so I took plenty of food and water. A hiking pole was very useful on the steep slippery trails. I recommend long pants: there are thorns and often we were pushing through thick vegetation. By the time I finished, my pants were stippled with those little green plant seeds that are so hard to remove.

The Trail:  There is no way of getting around it, this was a hard trail and some parts were even unpleasant. It went up to the summit, down to the water and then back up and down again. Most of it was overgrown and the day we hiked it, the plants were wet. There were some very nice, clear sections of trail but inevitability we always came to another section where we had to push through dense plants.

There were thorns and prickly vines that clung to our clothes tenaciously and both of us picked up several nasty leeches. When we got back my friend discarded his socks which were perforated and bloodstained (from leeches) and I retired a t-shirt after a prickly vine lacerated the sleeve (it was already well worn). The trail was also frequently slippery and steep and was hard to follow in some parts. 

However, having said all of this, I recommend this trail for anyone who has the right expectations. It is really nice to sit by the reservoir and feel you have made it to a spot that few people see.

If some people don't walk these trails and keep them open they could be reclaimed by the forest. 

In fact, when we were returning from the reservoir and tried to take a trail that passed around the side of the peak, this had already happened. The trail became impossible to follow. We didn't have much time until it got dark so we had to backtrack and come up with another plan to get out before dark. We ended up taking a quicker "exit" that got us out to a road by sunset and then walking along the road in the dark. 

Zhongling Shan has a small weedy summit with decent views. The trail passes over several small summits on the way down to the reservoir but they are hardly worthy of the name--just small clearings in the forest. 

We saw a few hikers going to Zhongling Shan but no one else going to the reservoir.

Transportation: We took the 8:15 am G12 bus from Xindian Station. It goes between Xindian and Pinglin about once every hour. On the weekends it starts in Xindian at 6:15 am and the last bus leaves Pinglin at 7:15 pm.

We got off at the Shifenzi stop which took about 20 minutes.

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The hike: I had seen a post about this hike on the Taipei Hiker blog about two years before and had filed it away mentally as a hike I would like to do. I will include a link to the Taipei Hiker article at the end of this post but some things have changed since it was written.

My friend and I got to Xindian early, bought some things at a convenience store and breakfast paninis from Louisa Coffee. The coffee shop was busy so by the time our food was ready, we had to rush to the bus stop just as the bus was arriving. 

The bus was packed and the prevalence of hiking clothes and backpacks made it evident that quite a few other passengers were also going hiking. When some people got off we both got seats. 

A very friendly lady invited me to sit next to her and asked where we were going. She said she was getting off at the stop after mine and would tell me when we were there. I guess she assumed we were tourists because she was explaining to me how the bus worked: how to see when the stop was coming up, when to swipe our card etc.. Even though I already knew these things, I thanked her because I appreciated how friendly and welcoming she was. 

I thought maybe some people where hiking the same route as us, but we were the only ones who go off at the Shifenzi stop. 

We got off at the side of the road next to a weathered bus stop sign. Just up the road on the right, there was a gap in the concrete barrier where the trail began. We started hiking at 8:37.

The trail was wide at first. We stopped and sat on some rocks and ate breakfast. 

In just 160 meters we came to a stream crossing. It was an easy crossing but the rocks were slippery.
 

Stream crossing at the beginning of the Zhonglin Shan trail

On the other side of the stream the trail climbed up and then around the side of a hill. The trail was very dense and sometimes it was hard to see the ground. There was another small stream but it didn't have much water.   We came out to a farm and a road. This was after about 40 minutes of walking including stopping for breakfast.

We went around a couple of bends and in about 5 minutes came to a trail on the right, up steps and clearly marked with flags. 

After 15 minutes we came to a four way junction. We turned left. A sign on a tree pointed the way to Zhongling Shan. 

 

We turned left at this junction

After this there was a really nice section.

Then we came to another junction with a very old sign. We turned right toward Zhongling Shan and started climbing. 

After the second junction it was narrow and hard to see the trail but we followed the flags and the map on my phone. We met a man coming down. He said he had fallen and hurt his leg and was heading back down but his "team" was ahead.

Believe it or not there is a trail here

About 15 minutes after the second junction we came out to the grass covered summit of Zhongling Shan (626 m). There were fairly good views in two directions.

The group that the man had told us about earlier had already descended by another path. It sounded like a big group but we never saw them. As we were at the summit another hiker wearing gum boots and using two hiking poles arrived. He was bleeding from a scratch on his face but looked exhilarated. I said to him that the path was Bu hao zuo (Not so good for walking). He replied with a big grin, Feichang bu hao zuo! (Extremely not good.) He stopped for a moment but then took off at a pretty fast clip in the same direction as the group we could hear below. 

Here I made a mistake. I should have checked the map but I just assumed that the other hikers were going to the same place we were and followed them. 

If facing the summit from the direction we came up, the path we mistakenly took was on the right. But the path to the reservoir was a slight left. 

We descended the wrong path until we came to a view of the reservoir. It was a great view but something about it did not seem right so I checked the map and found we were going the wrong way. 

Fetsui Reservoir seen from above

 We went back to the summit (in total we would pass over the summit three times that day) and took the correct path. 

We descended a ridge sometimes with the aid of fixed ropes. We passed a side trail not long after leaving the summit but went straight.

The trail went over this distinctive rocky knoll.

I heard an electrical buzz and unexpectedly the trail went under a huge electricity pylon. We went over the summit of Lusitan Shan (490m) and then came to a T-junction. 

Lusitan Shan (490m)

 We turned right at the T-junction. The path from here to the reservoir was clear and open compared to what had gone before. It took a little over an hour to descend from the junction to the reservoir. We passed some old stone ruins and went over three more small summits. 

We got closer and closer to the water until we were on a promontory with water on both sides. 

Finally, we arrived. There was a nice clearing just above the water and both on the left and right you could descend to the water's edge. I went out on a rocky spit of land with grass growing on it to take some pictures but then went back to the clearing for lunch and to enjoy the view. Our elevation was 194 meters.

It was a nice spot and we were both inclined to rest for a while but we realized it had taken us almost 5 hours to get there. We were mindful that we needed to get out before dark and were not sure how long the return would take, so after a bite to eat we headed back up. 

 We climbed back to the T-junction and instead of turning left toward the summit we stayed straight. Our plan was to follow the same route as in the Taipei Hiker blog post which should have cut around the side of the summit. I guessed it would be a quicker way out. 

 At first the path was clear and level and I remember saying something like, "This is a nice trail! This is the way to go." But I spoke too soon. We came across a tree that had fallen across the path and made our way around it and then another. Then we went through an area where it we really had to search to find the path. I remember climbing over and under logs. Eventually, we couldn't find any way forward. There was just no evidence of a path and no flags. According to GPS we were right on the path but it was gone. I'm pretty sure I cursed.

No sign of a trail

 

We decided to turn back.  I realized that we would almost certainly still be on the trail when the sun set. I had a headlamp (I always bring one) but my friend did not. We headed back to the T-junction.

As we were walking back to the T-junction, it occurred to me that instead of going back the way that we had come, we could take the other path from the summit that we had mistakenly taken earlier. I checked the map and we could get to a road just 620 meters from the summit on that path. We would need to walk the road in the dark but that would be a breeze compared to the trails we had taken on the way in.

So that is what we did. By the time we got to the T-junction we had about an hour till sunset (at 5:15) so we hot footed it back up to the summit this time without slowing our pace or pausing. On the way we passed the connecting trail (just before the summit) that we had passed earlier. Theoretically we could have taken it over and connected to the trail we had wanted to return by but but it was an unknown quantity so we stuck to our plan. 

We got to the summit after 4:30 and turned left and started to descend. We were reassured to see a sign that said Xia Shan. 

We came to an intersection with another Xia Shan sign and turned right. 

We were close to the road but even here it was tight, steep and slippery so we had to go slowly. 

We came to a clear, flat trail and turned right. After a short walk we came out to a narrow road at the end of which was a huge, western style house. We turned left.

The small road led to Shuang Feng Road and we turned left again. It got dark about ten minutes after we got off the trail. The 3.3 kilometers walk along the road was mostly uneventful. There were street lights and I did not need to use my headlamp.

At an intersection we turned right heading north and downhill toward the main road.
 

On the road we passed terraced tea farms and lots of houses. We could hear plenty of dogs that did not sound happy about us passing but none came out to the road. There was one memorable area where there were high metal walls on both sides and a cacophony of what sounded like about 50 angry dogs behind the walls. We passed through and the barking faded away. 

We made it to the main road and the Shuangkeng bus stop at 6:22. We only had to wait about 20 minutes for the G12 coming from Pinglin. 

Further Reading: 

2021年10月31日 中嶺山-鷺鷥潭山-九股山-翡翠水庫 A nice ridge route to touch water of Feicui Reservoir  

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Map and GPS coordinates:

Google maps address for the  Shifenzi bus stop

Shifenzi: 24.952682, 121.596306

Zhongling Shan: 24.939007, 121.59994

http://rblr.co/omgcV