Sunday, December 29, 2024

Shicheng石城 to Longlong Mountain 隆隆山 Ridge Walk and Longlong Mountain Ancient Houses

Doorway of a 100 year old stone house framed by gnarled tree roots and view down the ridge.

This long walk starts at Shicheng train station and winds its way along and up and down a ridge climbing over three summits on the way to Longlong Mountain. On the way there are views of the ocean on both sides and peak after peak, fading into the distance. Near Longlong Mountain there is a small, flat summit with a 360 degree view. The trail is a combination of woodland, grass covered hills and short steep scrambles to the summits. After Longlong Mountain the route drops to the base of the mountain on the Fulong side by way of an easier, wooded trail, where there are ruins of century-old stone houses and Earth God temples. At the end I walked to Fulong train station along the road.

Distance/duration: 12.2 km/ 7 hours 15 mins

More details as well as a map can be found here on my ramblr account.

What to bring: Long pants are recommended and good hiking shoes are a must as the path can be extremely slippery. I was glad I took a hiking pole. I took food and 2 liters of water but would take more in hot weather.  There are some places you could refill water if you have a filter once you get down from the ridge.

The Trail: I consider this a hard hike because of the length and the rough terrain but it is not too strenuous. There are no long climbs except for the first one up to the ridge. However, there are short, very steep and slippery climbs to the summits. There are lots of fixed ropes. Near the end, finding the right direction is confusing.

The Longling Gudao (Longlin Historic Trail) climbs to a ridge from the coastal road. The trail passes over Shichengshan, Dajueaoshan and Yinggeshishan on the way to Longlongshan. My GPS track says that I stopped a bit short of the actual summit of Longlongshan though I did not realize it till later. I reached a flat, summit with views in every direction with trails leading to both the left and right. But to reach the official summit you might need to go about 100 meters further to the left.

I loved this walk. The views and the terrain kept me engaged and exhilarated. The vista is constantly amazing from the first bend on the ridge. The ocean can be seen to the right and row after row of mountains to the rear. To the left you can often catch a glimpse of Fulong Beach and the ocean beyond. Looking ahead there are grass covered ridges piled atop one another. The stone houses at the end add an extra attraction to what is already an incredible walk.

The trail passes through scrubby woodland whenever it dips down between summits and through silver grass when it climbs up again. In the grass sections the direction was clear but sometimes it's narrow and and hard to see your feet through the tall grass. Trails like this can become quickly overgrown and disappear if they are not traveled frequently or cleared by volunteers so I hope more people walk it. I only met two other hikers all day. The hikers I met told me the trail was popular but that the weather was not good that day. (It was a cold, overcast day.)

I saw and heard a ridiculous amount of barking deer all day. I saw the first deer when I had just got on the trail and was kind of excited but then I saw another and another and another. All day they were popping out of the undergrowth and running away or "barking" just off the trail.

I don't consider the trail dangerous but it pays to take care and there are some things to watch out for. Lots of it was very slippery so I would avoid it during or after heavy rain. Also, there are quite a few holes --animal burrows-- that can be hard to see because of the grass. It would be potentially bad to step into one of them, so I used my hiking pole to push the grass out of the way to see where I was putting my feet and to test the ground ahead.  There were thorns but they were easily avoidable.

The trail down to the ancient houses is completely different. It is a gentle forest path following a trickling stream for part of the way. The houses are well worth seeing. So far they seem to remain relatively unknown. I heard that the trails here were cleared relatively recently. There are houses in three areas and two Earth God shrines. 

The trails near the houses can be confusing. I recommend taking an offline map. I got a little lost and even missed one of the houses and one shrine. I was on a different trail than I thought and decided not to backtrack to see it.

Eventually the route joins a road near the Old Caoling Tunnel --a railway tunnel that is now a cycling route -- and then the road leads to Fulong Station.

Transportation: I took local train 4148 from Taipei Main station to Shicheng Station which left at 7:34 am and arrived at 9:14. The train was not crowded.  

On the way back I took a local train that left Fulong at 16:44. There were plenty of seats until the trained reached Ruifang, where it suddenly got crowded.

Not many trains stop at Shicheng and the station is unattended so you need to swipe an Easy Card at the exit. Trains stop at Fulong frequently so it's easy to get back to Taipei from there.

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The Hike

Starting the walk: Shicheng Station to the Ridge

 On the train I was re-reading The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkein. It may sound surprising but reading it had inspired me to go hiking. There is a lot of overland travel in the book and I love the language Tolkein uses to describe the landscape. In the preceding days I had read about Tom Bombadil;
 
...walking in the forest, wading in the water, leaping on the hill-tops under light and shadow...
 
And about Aragorn's short-cuts through forest and over mountain to avoid the ring-wraiths on the road. One of the things I love about hiking in Taiwan is that there are so many paths cutting cross-country. It's something that I can't experience where I'm from in rural Ohio in the USA. When walking around there, I've often looked at a wood across a field and wished I could explore it but so much of the land is private. 

Shicheng Station seemed like a lonely place on a cold, gray, Sunday morning. Only two of us got off the train. There were no residents out-and-about in the small village but there were some fisherman near the sea-sprayed rocks and some cyclists passed through. I started walking at 9:24. I left the station and turned right (north-east) on the road. There was very little traffic. I could see grass-crowned cliffs overhanging the road. There were huge slabs of dark, exposed stone dappled with white patches.
 
 
After 1.3 km (about 20 minutes walk) I came to the trailhead. It was just after passing a wooden railing on top of a stone wall on the left. The only indicator of a trail was a single hiking flag hanging from a traffic mirror.


I turned into a drive leading to a house. At first I didn't know where the trail was but discovered that it was behind the wooden railing, doubling back parallel to the road.
 
The trail turned away from the road, up some steps. Then it went left again and came to a junction. 



I started uphill and was on the right track. 

I passed the ruin of a stone house and an Earth God shrine, and waded through a shallow stream.



I reached the top of the ridge less than 40 minutes from the trailhead where there was another Earth God shrine and a four way crossroads.
Four way crossroads at the top of the ridge

Along the ridge to Longlong Mountain: Ocean and mountain views and up and down the slippery slopes

 From here there would be about 2 hours and 40 minutes of fun hiking along the ridge to Longlongshan. I had started to feel warm on the climb but on the ridge it was windy and cooler. Around the first bend I started to get the first views. 

I came out of the woods into grassland for the first time and climbed to the flat summit of Shichengshan which overlooks the water.
 


 

 Looking back I could see Fulong Beach to the north west. It looked like a long way to walk.
 

I went on. The trail was pretty consistent. It went down between summits into trees and then climbed up through grass and then there was a steep climb to the next summit. Eventually I could see the ridge bending in a huge curve to the north. Beyond Longlong Mountain I could see a summit with a spire on it which was Laolaoshan where there is a temple. 
 



Daujueaoshan

 


Yinggeshishan
 
When I got to the saddle between Yinggeshishan and Longlongshan it was past noon. I didn't feel hungry but decided I should take a rest and eat something anyway. I had a snickers bar and almost right away felt a rush of energy. Which just shows its good to keep eating when hiking to keep your energy up.  
 

rest stop on the way to Longlong Mountain

 There were at least two (maybe three-- I forget) steep, muddy climbs with ropes between my rest stop and Longlongshan. Also I passed another small summit not indicated on my map.
 
Before the climb to Longlongshan I passed a junction. The path on the left was the one I would later backtrack to and take down to the ancient houses and Fulong.
 
trail to the houses on the left


Reaching the summit near Longlongshan was exciting. The climb was the longest and most slippery. There were two ropes and I made good use of them.
 

 

Longlong Mountain to the ancient houses and road walk to Fulong Station

 
After checking out the view and taking videos I "rappelled" back down the slope and went back to the junction toward Fulong. 

I hadn't read anything about this trail and didn't know what to expect but it was very pleasant and surprisingly easy. 


I reached the first house, the Wu Old Stone House, after about 30 minutes.



Maybe it was because I was the only one there but it felt like the kind of place where you wanted to be quiet. I was glad I was not there with a big, noisy hiking group.  I went back out to the trail, sat on a stone, ate lunch, messaged my wife to give her an update...
 
I continued on the trail and took the next right which led to another structure.



I backtracked to the path, took a flooded trail and went right on a narrow, paved track next to a vacant modern house. 


This is where I got confused for the first time. I thought I was on the path to the house called Chen's Old Stone House but actually I was on a different path. I realized where I was when I passed this Earth God shrine which is one of two that are at least 100 years old. 
I decided not to go back to see Chen's house and the other shrine. Instead I went on until I came to where a stream flowed over a concrete slab. 
 
 

To the right before the concrete slab there is a dirt trail that leads to the Xiao Old Stone House and the Shen Old Stone House.
 
I crossed a gully and then came to a place where the trail was blocked by a fallen tree.  However, I could see tracks where others had climbed up and went around and I did the same. 


I crossed a stream and then came to an irrigation pond called somewhat grandly when translated from a Chinese language blog post "the canvas pond."

The trail went to the right of the pond, then left along the top and emerged at Xiao Old House. 
 


 
Just past the house there was a T-junction. I turned left and then in just a few meters right at the next junction and came to the Shen house. The Shen house is the most impressive of all the houses in my opinion. It is covered with the twisty, gnarled roots of a tree growing above the doorway and has mature trees growing in rooms. There is also a structure made of brick which I guess was added to the complex later. 




The map shows a trail leading from here to the road to Fulong. I could see traces of it but it disappeared in thick silver grass. 


I started pushing through the grass but soon gave it up. The growth was so thick that when I turned around I could hardly tell where I had come from. I've made that mistake before and gotten lost and decided not to repeat it. 

Time to give up on this "trail."
I pushed my way back out and retraced my steps past the Xiao Old House, the "canvas pond" and all the way back to the water flowing over the concrete slab. 
 
I crossed the slab and followed the paved track till it came to a ramshackle building that looked sort of industrial. The trail went to the left of the building with a stream unseen but audible, to the left of the trail. 
 
There was more silver grass here and I despaired for a moment that I had come to another dead end. But once I got past the grass the trail was clearer.
 



I made good time here and started descending. The trail widened and I could see Fulong Beach again. I came to a T-intersection and turned left onto a road. 
 

Just after passing a bridge I turned right on another road.
 


 This led to the small town of Wailonglinjie.
 

 The entrance to the Old Caoling Tunnel, a former railway tunnel turned into a cycling path, is here and there are business that rent bikes and small electric buggies. 
 
 
I talked to two friendly men outside one of the rental shops. They said they had heard an ambulance (I had heard it too) and asked if I knew if anyone had got hurt hiking. (I didn't know.) While I was talking to them I spotted a water machine in their rental office and asked if I could fill my water bottle. They said I could but I pointed out that my boots were caked with mud and I didn't want to dirty their floor. They showed me where there was a hose I could use to clean my boots around the corner of the building.  
 
After getting water I said goodbye and followed the road to Fulong Station which is 2.4 kilometers further and took about 30 minutes. 
 
Fulong Station

 I didn't linger in Fulong. When I got to the station a train was coming in just a few minutes. I had had a long day and still had at least an hour and a half train ride back to Taipei so I got on the train right away. 
 
Further Reading and Viewing (all of these posts follow part of the trail that I did but not all of it):
 
This Taipei Hiker post starts in Shicheng and ends on the coast in Lailai:
 
In this video Tony Huang goes from the Old Caoling Tunnel to the houses and back:
 
Taiwan Trails and Tails took the Fumao Gu Dao from near Fulong to Lonlongshan:
 

Similar Walks:
 
 

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 Map and coordinates:

Trailhead near Shicheng: 24.98416, 121.956028

Longlong Mountain: 25.001485, 121.975026

Wu old stone house: 25.001952, 121.971447

Chen old stone house: 25.000825, 121.969844

Xiao and Shen old stone houses: 25.005437, 121.966001

 

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