Taiwan Hiking Journal: Yuemei Cave Trail 月眉洞步道 and Xian Dong Hu Shan 仙洞湖山 Loop Hike

A cave, a peak and ruins in the forest. This walk in rural Keelung starts on a road, follows a trail to Yuemei Cave and then climbs to a small peak. After that it goes over the summit and back to the road by another route passing ruins of old buildings in woods brimming with butterflies and birds. Yuemei Cave is a large cave with water sprinkling from the top. There is a simple temple inside. At only 298 meters, Xian Dong Hu Shan is not high but has a great view.

Distance/Time: 5.7 km / 3 hours 22 mins. A map as well as more information can be found here

The Trail:

This is moderate hike. It is not strenuous and only of medium length but it is not for beginners. Some parts are very overgrown with brush and occasional thorns and littered with debris. I used my pole to probe ahead and kept an eye out for snakes. There were innumerable spiderwebs across the path that I tried to knock down with my hiking pole but I still ended up wiping webs off of my face. At one point I had to stop to flick dead bugs and spiders off my hat and clothes.

The trail is not hard to follow but sometimes indistinct so it's important to watch out for the flags. On the way to and from the summit it nears the edge of a cliff. Not dangerous but it's important to be aware of where you are and where you are stepping.

But despite all the above, I really enjoyed this one. If you push through the rougher sections there are rewards to be had.

The cave is a unique destination but the hike to the cave alone is short and by itself would not be a satisfying day out for me. At the peak and beyond there are good, open vistas. Once I got through the brushy sections there were really nice sections of forest. From beginning to end there were lots of insects, butterflies and birds. I could hear Taiwan barbets calling from the tree tops and several times saw groups of Formosan blue magpies. Toward the end I spotted a Reeves Muntjac deer. I saw several of what looked like pangolin burrows but alas no pangolins. I also saw one snake and a few toads.

My favorite parts of the walk were the first section leading beside a stream to the cave and the part on the far side of the peak. Here there were open sections of forest with huge butterflies slowly flying amidst the trees, and unexpectedly. ruins of old brick buildings and a bridge emerged from the forest. I have no idea what the purpose of these old structures was but would love to find out. My guess is there was mining or some other extractive industry going on here in the past.

I didn't see any other hikers the whole day.

Yuemei Cave 月眉洞 is a large cave surrounded by greenery with an altar and benches and chairs inside. A stream of water flows over the top into a round pool and then flows down hill feeding a stream. It is said that it was once called "Thieves Cave" because thieves hid here but who knows if it is true. It was renamed with it's current name which means "moon brow" or "moon eyebrow" because the shape of the cave is thought to resemble a moon or the curve of an eye.

Xian Dong Hu Shan 仙洞湖山 (298 m) has a clearing on top and a great view from the front. The path beyond it drops down to the road north of where the hike started and comes out near the Keeling Fusing Elementary School.

What to bring: Long pants and long sleeves to protect from brush and thorns are recommended. A hiking pole is very useful for knocking down spiderwebs and a hat with a wide brim helps keep them off the face and head. Sun protection is important on a hot day because the route is sometimes exposed.

Qidu is a bustling town with lots of restaurants, a market and shops for stocking up on provisions. There is a small store at the Yikeng bus stop.

Transportation: I took a train to Qidu Station and then bus 702 to Yikeng. Trains to Qidu are frequent so I did not even look at the schedule. At Taipei Main Station I only had to wait about 12 minutes and the train ride itself was 30 minutes.

To get to the 702 bus stop exit Qidu station on the Gaungming Road side. Outside the station turn left on Zizhi Street and walk until you come to Mingde First Road. The bus stop is across the road on the right.

I couldn't find much information about the bus schedule but when I got there I asked some other people if the 702 stopped there. They were also taking the 702 and going hiking and told me it was coming in a few minutes--which it did. It seems this bus only runs about once every hour.

On the bus I watched the digital display on the bus carefully for the upcoming stops because some of them go by quickly and the bus did not stop frequently. The ride took about 20 minutes and I got off at the Yikeng stop.

On the return trip, I asked at the convenience store what time the bus was coming. I would have had to wait for about an hour and 20 minutes, so instead, I used the Uber app to call a yellow cab which cost NT$285 and took 18 minutes to Qidu Station.

The hike:

In the past year I have visited a few caves including the San Min Bat Cave and Guanyin Cave in Taoyuan, Thousand People Cave in Chiayi which is the largest cave in Taiwan and White Horse General Cave in Shenkeng where resistance fighters used to hide during the Japanese occupation.

I read about Yuemei Cave in an article about caves in Taiwan by Richard Saunders and at about the same time saw a post on the Taiwan Trails and Tales blog about the cave. So I decided to visit as soon as I had an opportunity. I will list links to both posts at the end in a further reading section.

I visited on the next to last day in April and it was a sticky, hot day. At the train station in the morning the thermometer already read 32 C.

Across from the bus stop at Yikeng there was a store. I crossed and bought a cold soda. Two friendly men were chatting outside and they asked where I was going and pointed out the way.

The bus stop was next to a river and looking back the way from which I had just come on the bus was a bridge. So I walked back, turned left onto the bridge and started up a country lane.

I passed some farmhouses. At one house there was a huge dog lying in the shade of a car but as I passed it got up and came out barking, snarling with teeth bared. It seemed old and I never felt it was going to really go after me but I walked backwards away from it keeping my hiking pole between us. There was a smaller, black dog at the house next door but it just watched. When it felt I was sufficiently far away it peed into the grass at the side of the road and went back home.

Just after passing the house with the dog I came to a road with a red temple arch over it on the left.

I continued straight for about three more minutes and came to the Yuemei Cave trail on the left. It took 25 minutes to walk from the bus stop to here.

This started out as an old concrete track next to a stream. The water level was low but there were some deeper, clear pools. After the path crossed the stream, it became rough stone steps and then a narrow dirt track. In 15 minutes I arrived at the cave.

There was a structure built into the corner of the cave and a thin stream of water drizzling into a circular pool. The tung trees were in bloom and several tung blossom lie in and around the pool.

I had the cave to myself. There was an altar and several chairs. In the corner was a weathered shelf with Buddhist texts in Chinese. There were also quite a few empty plastic bottles and some disorderly pots and pans and boxes and plastic bags scattered around the bottom of the book shelf.

I availed myself of one of the chairs and had a snack and after a rest continued straight on the wide path heading out the other side of the cave. In just one or two minutes I came to the path leading up the hill toward Xian Dong Hu Shan.

It was about 35 minutes from here to the peak. To be honest this was not my favorite part of the hike. The vegetation was very dry and I often had to push through it. As I said before there were lots and lots of spiderwebs. There were a few thorns but they were mostly easily avoided. Despite being dense, it was not hard to follow.

There were some nice views into the valley below on the left with the white tung trees in bloom. I little less than half way up I passed a junction with a trail on the right. This trail leads back down to the road.

At the summit clearing there was a tattered red flag on a bamboo pole. It was a mostly clear day and the views were great but it was very hot in the open and so I did not stay too long.

I continued straight past the summit. At first the trail was still very overgrown. I considered turning back but I am glad I pushed on because once I got out of the open, weedy area on top the trail became wider and nice again. There were still a few messy areas but eventually the path was through humid woodland and very pleasant.

At one point the path opened to a really beautiful view of the surrounding green hills and later I came to a huge rock covered in vegetation.

Thirty minutes after leaving the peak and just three minutes after passing the big rock I came to a clear path on the left heading down toward the road.

The descent was gentle with just a few steep parts.

I was surprised to see the remains of an old brick building.

As I walked to the opening of the building and prepared to take a photo, I was looking up and was surprised by a snake.I cried out "Oh shit!" and then immediately started laughing at myself. The snake was gone so quickly that I didn't get a good look at it.

After the building the trail went on straight as an arrow for a little while and through a rutted path.

I came to a fork. The right fork led to another brick building and ended. I went back and took the left fork.

After this I came to three landmarks in quick succession: the remains of an old stone bridge (which the path passed under), a large empty pit, and a broken stone walkway over a stream.

Right after this a road materialized.

I turned right and soon this road joined another, next to a farm house. I joined the other road going in the same direction now beside the river (the Lu Liao Xi--which was the same one I had crossed in the beginning at the bus stop)

There were a few houses and garden plots. I came to a shelter house next to the stream and stopped to eat lunch.

When I came to a bridge, I crossed it to rejoin the main road and turned left on the road.

I passed the Keelung Fusing Elementary school and a few stores. There was a bus stop here but I wanted to walk a full circle so I kept going about ten more minutes to the Yikeng bus stop where I had started.

Yikeng bus stop 9:44 - Yuemei Cave Trailhead 10:08 - Yuemei Cave 10:22 - Xian Dong Hu Shan 11:14 - Rejoin the road 12:41 - Yikeng bus stop 13:10

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Sunday, April 30, 2023

Yuemei Cave Trail 月眉洞步道 and Xian Dong Hu Shan 仙洞湖山 Loop Hike

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