Mt. Tianshang, Sun Moon Cave and a Ridge Walk

This walk in the Tucheng District of New Taipei City is an old favorite. In the first half of the walk there is lots to see: Chengtian Temple, Mt. Tianshang (with a 360 degree view) and Sun Moon Cave. In the second half you can pick up the pace and really stretch your legs while striding along a beautiful, well-defined ridge trail that goes over several small peaks. Even though it is not that difficult, there are some rough spots  and fun rocky climbs --including the pile of stones called the 18 Arhats Rocks. Some places can be slippery after rain. This is a nice, long walk and transportation is super easy. It starts at the Yongning MRT station and a short bus ride takes you back to either Dingpu or Yongning Station at the end. 

Distance/duration: 7 hours 4 mins / 13.2 km. 

More details as well as a map and GPX file can be found here on ramblr.

 

Trail Overview:   First I want to give credit where credit is due. I have walked this trail several times but I first found out about it from the book Taipei Escapes 2 by Richard Saunders which details 29 day trips and walks around Taipei. 

Note that at least one significant thing has changed since the book was published. At Chengtian Temple the parking lot has morphed into a modern parking garage (I guess the temple has been prosperous) and there is a gate that the attendant would not let me pass through. So a short detour is required to continue the walk. 

I would rate this somewhere between a moderate and a hard hike. It is not that hard and there not many parts that get your heart rate up. Mostly its a mellow walk. However, it is a seven hour walk and there are some places that involve climbing rocks with ropes and some of it can be very slippery. 

The trail is a combination of surfaces:  boardwalk, stone, wooden steps, dirt and mud. It rained the night before I went. This is what my shoes looked like at the end.

Officially, it goes over six peaks but only 3 or 4 are really worthy of the name. Tianshangshan (426m) has a spectacular 360 degree view and Shibulouhanyan (302 m) and Chengfushan (238 m) have flat clearings and nice views. Shimenneijianshan (403 m) has a bit of a view. The others you might not notice if there weren't summit plaques. 

In the first half of the hike (about the first three hours) there are several interesting landmarks and it's good to take your time. 

Chengtian Temple has a stately main hall, a view and a garden with straight lines and meticulously tended plants. The effect of the temple hall and the garden reminded me of formal European gardens. Beyond the main hall there is a somewhat chaotic temple complex. The temple is reached by a long stone-paved path where you can usually see worshipers prostrating themselves every few steps. The temple was built in 1955.

Mt. Tianshang is definitely worth the short deviation from the main path. There are two wooden viewing platforms and views in every direction. 

Sun Moon Cave (Guangzhao Temple) is a peaceful temple in a small cave. It's another side trip from the main trail. The cave and temple are nice but what really makes it attractive is its location. The temple clings to the hillside and a terrace with a view faces a green valley. The attendants and monks at the temple have always been welcoming and friendly when I have visited, sometimes offering me tea or snacks. The descent to the temple down mossy, stone steps can be extremely slippery. 

After seeing the two temples and Mt. Tianshang the trail heads roughly west along a ridge. It's a really nice walk and the trail is well maintained. Other than the summits there is one significant landmark: The 18 Arhats Rocks. The trail climbs up and over the rocks by means of thick fixed ropes. The pile of rocks is said to look like a group of arhats (or enlightened spiritual beings) in meditation. 

What to bring: Water, food, and good shoes. I always take a hiking pole. I used to hike without one but now don't know how I got by without it since it's a huge help on slippery terrain. 

There are convenience stores near Yongning Station.  

Transportation: I took the MRT to Yongning Station, exit 2 and started walking from there. 

On the way back I took bus 706 back to Yongning from the Changshoushan bus stop. You can also take the 707, 705, 812 or Blue 45 to Dingpu or Yongning stations. Bus Blue 46 terminates at Dingpu MRT Station. 

 On the MRT I was reading Post War: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt.

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The Walk

I had planned to do this hike with two other people but I found out the night before that A. was not feeling up to it and L. was still in Taichung visiting his mother. I got up at 6 in the morning to go on my own. It was raining but the forecast said it would clear up later, so I took my time. By the time I got to Yongning Station at about 8:45 everything was wet but the rain had stopped. It was a warm morning and the air had that fresh, unsullied feeling that it has just after rain. 

 I doubled back taking Chengtian Road behind exit 2. 

After a few hundred meters I went under a highway. 

Just after the tunnel I came to an intersection and turned left. (You could continue right on the road and still arrive at Chengtian Temple but the next street over is much nicer for walking).

left here

 At the next corner (there was a big, red, old-fashioned vending machine on the corner), I turned right on Zhongyi Road and followed a board walk next to a stream. Already it felt like I was in the country side. Across the road there were farm plots, some tombs, weedy fields of flowers and clumps of silver grass. 

 The path crossed the road and dropped below it.

 Just about 140 meters after crossing the road, I came to wooden steps leading up to the road. I went up them, turned left on the road and in a few meters came to the entrance of the path to Chengtian Temple. 

It's a 15 minute walk uphill to the temple, keeping left at a fork. After passing through an ornate red and yellow gate I came to the first temple hall. 

You used to be able to go up through the temple to the upper parking lot and continue along a road but this time I found the parking lot had become a multi-story parking garage and there was a closed gate. 
 

There was an attendant in a booth but she told me I could not go through. I didn't really see why not since all she had to do was open the gate and let me go but I didn't argue with her. I did some peeking around and looked at the map on my phone to find the best way around. 

I went back toward the main hall. Just past the toilets, before getting to the main hall, I found an exit to a road. (Just next to a statue of a fat, laughing Buddha). 

I turned left on the elevated road and followed it in a long curve down to the bottom of the hill where I went through a huge gate and turned right on to a Nantianmu Road which was a nice country road with a sidewalk. There were some dogs sleeping near the road but they were all shy. Looking at the map it looks like there is a trail next to the road that you can also take but I didn't notice it at the time. 

 

Nantianmu Road

 

In 250 meters I bore right and came to two trails almost right next to each other --heading up the hill on the left. 

I took the first one which was had a finger post that read Mt. Tianshang. This was a really nice trail that climbed next to a stream. By this time the sun had really come out and I stopped to put on sunscreen. 

When the trail came to a road, I crossed the road and kept on the trail. Just after the road there was a T-intersection and I turned left passing a big sign in Chinese and a map board. 

 The trail really started to climb. This was probably the steepest and most strenuous part of the walk. I kept straight at another intersection and later came to the top of the ridge where there was a rest area with a shelter house.

rest area on top of the ridge

 Mt. Tianshang is along the ridge to the east (left) and is well-worth the detour. It took me about twenty minutes to go there and back to the rest area but that included time taking in the spectacular view at the summit. There was a big hiking group at the summit. Some of them on the way up, some already there and some on the way down. 

I got back to the shelter before most of the group and sat down to eat lunch. One of the other hikers offered me a tangerine which was delicious. 

There is an open air toilet just down a path. I went there to use it. When I got back I was annoyed. The majority of the hiking group had arrived and someone had taken my hiking pole and thrown it to the side. One person who seemed to be a leader sat right in the middle of a bench (in his stupid bright pink shirt) and starting calling loudly for everyone to join him. My peaceful lunch was over. Rather than get further annoyed, I decided it was time for me to go.  

I took the path down to Sun Moon Cave. There is a sign pointing the way--which (looking west) is downhill on the left.  The path down was extremely slippery. I tested almost every step and used my hiking pole as a third point of contact. Luckily on the way back up it was much easier. 

It took 15 minutes to get to the temple. Eventually the path had a handrail which made me fell more confident on the slippery stone steps.  At the temple there was a someone cooking food in a kitchen and a group of people seated at a table chatting quietly.

 

 

One person offered me a tangerine but I told them I had just had one. She laughingly said, "Eat more fruit!" Instead I accepted a small packet of candy that said good luck on it. 

I went back up to the rest area. The noisy group was thankfully gone. There was just one man there looking at his phone. 

After another break I headed west along the ridge. There were some ups and down. 

 At a junction I kept to the left, uphill on steps. 

left

 I followed the path until I passed a house and came out onto a road.

 Diagonally, across the road to the right the path continued. I went up steps and then turned left --keeping parallel to the road and following a sign for Shanxi Temple. 

 Next I ignored the right hand turn to Shanxi Temple and kept straight orienting myself by the sound of the road below. I passed a red, metal building where two friendly cats, one orange and one black, were eating. When I saw the red building I knew I was on the right track because I remembered it from the previous times I had hiked the trail. I stopped to eat some dried fruit and the orange cat flopped down right next to my hiking boot. 

 Soon I passed another metal shed of a faded indeterminate color and right after that came to the dirt path to Shimenneijianshan on the right. From here the route was easy to follow. 

The path on the right follows the ridge.

Near here I had an embarrassing moment. One thing that I truly have a (rational) fear of in Taiwan are tiger head hornets. They are huge red hornets that are known to attack en masse when hikers venture into their territory. Every year one hears about hikers being attacked by them and when a nest is found near a hiking trail the trail is closed until it can be removed. Once when I was hiking near Jiangziliaoshan I saw some red bees and nearly turned back until I steeled myself and told myself I was being ridiculous. 

After I turned onto the ridge trail I heard a loud buzzing coming from somewhere. There were definitely bees somewhere nearby and my first thought was of the aforementioned hornets. Logically, it was pretty unlikely there were any there since it was the wrong time of year for them to be active and this was a trail that sees a lot of traffic. I slowed down and am ashamed to admit that my heart was pounding.  I advanced slowly and the sound grew louder. Eventually I realized that the sound was behind me and felt relief. I never saw anything but I think there must have been bees in the tree tops. 

I went over Shimenneijianshan, over another small summit, and then came to a junction with a sign (in Chinese only) pointing the way to the 18 Arhats Rocks. 

 I turned left following the direction of the sign. 

I stopped at a bench and had a rest and another snack. 

 

 After this I climbed the rocks and came to a flat summit with a nice view. 

 The trail went over the summit and from here started descending though there was another fun scramble up rocks. There were sections of bamboo forest. There were side paths but I kept to the main path on the ridge. 

I came to Chengfushan. There was a flat clearing and down short a path to the left there was a summit marker. It looked like the path went further but it was kind of a messy and I turned back. Looking back the way I came there were dark clouds and I noticed the wind picking up. I decided to try to finish the hike quickly in case it rained. From here it's 2.2 km to the bus stop and took me less than an hour. 

 

There was more bamboo. I passed through a stand of betel nut trees and passed an Earth God (Tudigong) Shrine. 

I came to an electricity pylon that towered over the path. You can't miss it. Just past the pylon I turned right. 
 

 This trail climbed a little and then headed down. Near the end it was very muddy. I took my hiking pole,stuck it right in the middle of the path and used it to slow my slide on the muddiest, slickest sections. Eventually I came to a road. 

  I turned right on the road, joined a stone walkway and then followed steps down to the bus stop. 

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Map and GPS coordinates:

More details as well as a map and GPX file can be found here on ramblr.

Chengtian Temple: 24.950699, 121.446226, Google Maps link

Mt. Tianshang: 24.946293, 121.456086, Google Maps link

Sun Moon Cave (Guangzhao Temple): 24.943517, 121.456524, Google Maps link 

Shimennaijianshan: 24.936079, 121.438558, Google Maps link 

18 Arhats Rocks: 24.938356, 121.425335, Google Maps link 

Chengfushan: 24.937369, 121.41756, Google Maps link 

Changshoushan Bus Stop: 24.945435, 121.404303, Google Maps link