Tukuyue 土庫岳

Tukuyue (388m) is an easy to very easy\moderate walk. I walked at a leisurely pace with a long lunch stop and it only took four hours but it could be done in three. The trail is in good shape and there aren't many steep climbs. For such a small mountain it has surprisingly good views in almost every direction. I really enjoyed this relaxing walk. There are some points of interest along the trail and the flat summit with benches and a pavilion is a great place to eat lunch and rest. Tukuyue is number 14 on the list of xiao bai yue--the 100 small mountains of Taiwan.  It is located between Nangang (on the northwest side) and Shenkeng and Shiding (to the south). I started on the Nangang side and then walked down the other side. 

 

Distance/Time:  6 km/ 4 hours. More details as well as a map can be found here on my Ramblr account.

What to bring: I packed some food and my backpacking stove. I took about 2 liters of water but didn't finish it all even after cooking. I also took a raincoat and a hiking pole.

The Trail:  This an easy to easy/moderate hike.The trail is not too steep. The trail surface varies a lot--sometimes stone steps, sometimes gravel or wooden steps...at the end there is a concrete track. The traction is good with perhaps the exception of the concrete track. 

Attractions include: an old monorail station, a tea farm, nice views along the way, and the very nice summit with a wide, flat top and benches and a shelter with a table. There were lots of insects, lizards, squirrels and birds. 

I found this walk to be really enjoyable. Maybe it was because I was in the right frame of mind--not having anything to do or anywhere that I needed to be--or maybe it was because it was a Wednesday afternoon and I had the place to myself. There are other trails in the area that I did not walk and a pond I did not visit, with the intriguing name of Shanzhu Leihu (Mountain Pig Tears Pond), so as usual I would like to go back and explore more. So many trails...so little free time.

Transportation: I took the blue line of to Nangang Exhibition Hall MRT Station and took exit 5.  From there buses 306, 212, 276 and 645 all take you to within walking distance of the trail. 

I took bus 306 shuttle and got off at Jiuzhuang Elementary School but I could have stayed on one more stop until Jiuzhuang Bus Terminal, the last stop. There are two 306. One is just called 306 and the other is 306 shuttle which stops closer to the trail head. 

You can also take bus 212 from Kunyang MRT Station to Jiuzhuang 2nd Stop.

On the way back I took bus 666 from the Tuku bus stop to Muzha MRT Station. You can also take bus 795.

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The hike: I did this walk on a warm Wednesday. It was clear in the morning but rain was forecast for the afternoon. 

Usually I am working on Wednesday but what happened was that I took some days off to go on a three day backpacking trip. Unfortunately after lots of planning, the weather turned out to be terrible with three days of rain predicted. I went to the mountains and stayed alone near the trail the night before. My hiking companion had already decided not to go but I guess I am more stubborn. However, when I got up on the first day at four am (the day the weather was meant to be the best) it was pouring and cold. I decided to admit defeat. 

I went back to Taipei and for one day felt sorry for myself while watching backpacking gear review videos on YouTube. By the next day, I decided to console myself with a hike. 

I got off bus 306 and started walking at 9:35. I walked east along Jiuzhuang Street and passed Jiuzhuang Bus Terminal which is under a highway, next to a police station. 

In less than ten minutes I came to a fork and bore left. 

bear left here

As I continued, green hills rose up ahead and on the right and there was a stream in a concrete channel on the left. Soon I started seeing signs for the Old Genliao Hiking Trail. 

I passed some derelict looking houses and some equally derelict, tilting public buses in a parking lot. After about 20 minutes (from the bus stop) I came to a map board next to stairs, right next to house number 116.
 

I thought this was the trail and started up the stairs. But this is NOT the trail. It led to a house and a barking dog. The real trail is just a few meters further on and there is a sign that reads "Tukuyue Mt." I didn't see it at first because a big truck was parked right in front of it.

There was a local resident clearing weeds from a stone wall and I asked him if this was the trail to Tukuyue--really just by way of making conversation-- and he confirmed it was. 

I walked up stone steps passing farms, came out to a road, turned right and shortly turned back onto the trail. 

 The path climbed but not very steeply. Later the surface changed to gravel. 

I came to a sharp turn marked by a strange landmark: an old portable toilet and two shipping containers stacked on top of one another. 

The trail made a hairpin turn here, going up a wide stone walkway and around a bend until it came to a Y junction. 

 The right fork looked more interesting so I went that way. Both lead to the summit but I will never know what is along the left fork unless I go back and walk the trail again. 

The right fork seemed to be a good choice. I soon came to an old monorail station. A sign explained that farmers used to use it to transport tea down the mountain. It only took me an hour to get to this point from the bus stop.

The trail went up and over a small hill and came to Chunxuan Farm but no one was around so I carried on. The climb just after the farm was probably the most difficult of the hike but it was not long. 

At the top was a fork with a shelter house on the right. I turned left. 

 The trail was a little narrow and weedy here but soon opened up again. Here the trees forming a canopy over the trail were in bloom and there was lots of insect life: beetles and butterflies and I could hear a constant hum of bees. 

 

I came to another junction and went left. 

Then at the next intersection I ignored the left turn (which leads back to the Y-intersection below). I turned right and in less than 100 meters came to the summit. 

bear right toward the summit

The views were not entirely clear because of trees and brush growing around the summit but they were not bad. I could see mountains in the distance on one side and the city and Taipei 101 on the other side. I sat still for a while and noticed that there were an incredible number of butterflies flitting around. It was quiet except for the sound of birds and cicadas. 

I set up my stove on the table in the pavilion and cooked some of the food I had bought for my backpacking trip. 

I ended up staying at the summit for over an hour. After an unhurried lunch I was about to leave when the wind picked up and it started to rain. 

I thought it might pass over so I waited. I lie down on one of the benches in the pavilion and almost fell asleep. After a while, I decided the rain was there to stay, put on my rain coat and set off. I went back to the second fork from the summit and this time turned left. This is a nice trail which leads straight down almost all the way to the community of Tuku. 

When I came to a road I turned left. After that I took a short trail on the left that leads to a temple. This cuts out a good portion of road walking.

Then I followed the road past the temple until I came to a trail on the right with a sign post that read "Tuku Citizens Activity Center."

This is a concrete track running straight downhill. It passes another pavilion with a nice view. 

There was one point where there was a temple complex on the right below the path and stairs leading to it but I stayed on the track, coming to a very picturesque Tudigong (Earth God temple) next to a pretty stream. Unfortunately, the picture I took does not do it justice. 

From here it is not far to the Tuku bus stop. I passed a farm and went down steps to an alley. 

I turned right and at the next corner took a very short stone path between houses out to the road. The bus stop is just down the road to the right. 

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Map and GPS coordinates:

Trailhead on the Nangang side: 25.034818, 121.630189

Tukuyue: 25.023146, 121.635625

Trail entrance on the Tuku side: 25.010719, 121.634398

 http://rblr.co/oqTmI

Feifeng Shan 飛鳳山 and Zhongkengshan 中坑山 Short Loop

 

Zhongkengshan (462m) - the highest point reached on the Feifengshan Trail

 

A popular trail suitable for most hikers and active families. Feifengshan is number 27 on the list of the 100 Small Mountains of Taiwan (Xiao Bai Yue 小百岳). The trail is mostly easy and surfaced and there are lots of attractive rest areas where walkers can take a break, have a snack or just enjoy being outdoors. We walked a shorter version of the route -- going over two small peaks and returning by way of a quiet dirt trail through lush forest. It is easy to get here from Taipei or Hsinchu by public transportation and there are stores and restaurants near the bus stop. 

Distance/Time: 4 hours 8 mins/ 8.8 km  More details as well as a map can be found here

What to bring: I took 2 liters of water and some snacks. A hat is a good idea. The trail is mostly shaded but sometimes is exposed. I took a rain coat, but even though it rained, I did not use it because it was a warm day.

There are shops near the bus stop if you need to buy anything.

The Trail:  This an easy to moderate hike. The trail is mostly surfaced with good traction. It climbs, often up steps, but is not very strenuous. There are not a lot of views except near Zhongkengshan but it is a very pleasant, relaxing walk. We started our hike with a road walk from the bus stop to the trailhead. If driving, of course, it would be shorter.

It is popular and you are likely to see lots of other people. We saw hikers of all kinds including families with kids, and hikers carrying dogs in their backpacks. I enjoyed the main trail but the return route that we walked was my favorite part. It was a beautiful dirt trail surrounded on all sides by dense greenery and we had it to ourselves.

Note: I feel the route we walked is suitable for families and we saw people hiking with children but there was quite a bit of traffic on the road walk and we did not walk the full loop.

There are three summits on the Feifangshan trail. Feifengshan (423 m) is actually an unexciting summit with no view. Zhongkengshan (462 m), the highest point on the trail, is more interesting and the actual goal of hikers who want to claim they have hiked the trail.

It's possible to walk a bigger loop that includes the Guanriping Historic Trail 觀日坪步道 and Shibitanshan 石壁潭山 (402m). We did not go that way but I will describe how to get there in the post below.

Transportation: We took bus Kuo-Kuang (King Bus) 1820 from the Taipei Bus Terminal in the Q Square Mall near Taipei Main Station and got off at Qionglin. It took a little over an hour and a half.  You can also take bus 1820A. 

The bus runs about once an hour--though more frequently in the morning. Check the schedule on the BusTracker Taiwan app.

On the bus I read some of Zadie Smith's The Fraud--partly about a Victorian era fraudster claiming he was the lost heir to a fortune. Even though he was lying, he had his share of supporters, particularly among the working classes. Clearly it has commonalities with modern events. The book is not unsympathetic toward him though and of course there was good reason why the working class would be happy to see someone get one over on the upper classes in Victorian era England. It's a fascinating book but the narrative structure made it hard to get into it.

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The hike: The bus dropped us off right next to a row of restaurants but it was early and they were mostly closed. We were at a big Y-shaped intersection and we were located at the top of the left hand side of the Y. 

It was easy to see which direction we needed to go. In the middle of a traffic circle there was a large colorful sign pointing the way with the Chinese characters for Feifangshan, a depiction of the three peaks on the trail and a flourish of what looked like feathers or maybe was supposed to be the wind.  

We crossed to the other side of the busy street, turned left toward the top of the other side of the Y and then turned right onto a smaller road. This was Hsinchu Route 24. A brown sign above the traffic light read "Fei Feng Mountain" in English and Chinese. We starting walking at 9:15.

turn right here onto Hsinchu Route 24

From here it was about a twenty minute walk to the trail. We passed rice fields, a lumber yard stacked with fragrant wood, some workshops of indeterminate purpose--some with flocks of chickens scurrying around--and several opulent-appearing gated homes. There was more traffic than I expected and we sometimes had to keep close to the edge of the road in single file.  In some places there were sidewalks.

We passed through the tripartite arch marking the entrance to Feifengshan. Just down the road from the entrance the road splits. We turned left and uphill for the short route.

 To walk the longer route along the Guanriping Historic Trail and over Shibitanshan, bear right here. This would add 3km to the total length. 

I have not been there but am just describing the route from the map: walk along the road till you pass a temple (Xiuxin Gong). Then turn right onto a smaller road until you come to the trailhead for the Guanriping Historic Trail. Follow it up and over Shibitanshan, ignoring side paths until eventually it rejoins the short route south east of the Feifengshan summit and south west of Zhongkengshan. 

I plan to go back and explore the whole area more. There are three temples and we only visited one. At the time I think I was suffering from what the travel writer, Tim Cahill, called Zippy's Disease. Basically the irrational compulsion to just keep moving toward a (sometimes arbitrary) destination without slowing down.

Anyway.... we turned left and just after turning spotted a trail on the right that runs above and parallel to the road.

This trail was steep and got our hearts going but it was only 400 meters long. It went up steps, flattened out a bit and came out to a road, next to a cafe.

This lovely trail runs above and parallel to the road.

We bore right and continued uphill. On the left we saw the trail entrance but we continued uphill to a temple (Dai Quan Hall).

 

There were vendors selling cherry tomatoes, the small flavorful bananas known as ba jiao and boiled corn. There was a rest shelter in front of the temple and toilets. It started raining steadily while we were there and we set off in the rain.

There was a short cut to the trail left of the temple incinerator. 

 The shortcut joined a paved track and then we started to climb steps. It was still raining. 

 We came to a pavilion and continued climbing steps and a stone paved path. 

looking back down the path

When I got to the top of this section, my hiking companion had fallen behind, so I stopped at another pavilion next to a right turn, to wait. 

 Behind the pavilion there is short path (and another just after the turn) that leads to the Feifengshan summit. There is not much to see other than the sign marking the summit. 

After twenty more minutes of walking we came to a wide T-junction. On the way the path split into two trails but they came back together later.

This junction is where the Guanriping Historic Trail would join the Feifangshan Trail if doing the bigger loop. 

It was raining harder than before. We turned left and continued. 

We passed a line of improvised shelters with plastic-sheet walls, tables and benches. People obviously cook and store their cookware here. There were pots, kettles and dishes and some people were eating around the tables. We came to another pavilion and stopped for a rest. While we there we noticed that it had stopped raining and the mist was starting to rise from the hills. 

There were views in two directions. From one side you are supposed to be able to make out Taipei 101 but it was too cloudy for us to see much of anything. 

We went on to Zhongkengshan. The path dropped down, climbed back up and came to a paved track.

We turned left, passed around the left side of an ugly metal fence and came to the pleasant summit. There was a nice view with threads of clouds rising off the surrounding hills. 

A couple joined us. We were standing in front of the summit plaque hogging the view and they very gently told us that they wanted to take a picture. We talked for a few minutes and the woman told us that she was trying to hike all of the Xiao Bai Yue.

We walked back to the pavilion we had stopped at earlier and had some lunch. 

While my friend was still eating I went back to the cooking huts where I thought the trail I wanted to return by should be. The map showed a trail here and I could see there used to be one but it was blocked by metal fencing.  I asked some of the people eating about it and my friend later translated a sign. It turned out that this was private land and the owners had erected the barrier.

However, between the pavilion and Zhongkengshan there was an easy way to get around. We walked back toward Zongkengshan and took a dirt trail on the left. 

This was a wonderful trail! My favorite part of the walk! It reminded me of the Neidong Forest Road near Wulai but it is much, much shorter.  It went gently downhill through the forest and we made great time. 

We passed a farm with banana trees and papayas and came to another barrier but obviously no one paid any attention to this one. 

We went around it and on the other side came to a stone path. 

Looking to the left I could see one of the pavilions we had passed on the way up. If I were to hike the trail again I would probably just go left here. We turned right and took the stone path down to the road which took 20 minutes. But it sloped steeply downhill and was slippery and I have to admit I didn't enjoy it much. 

 We turned left on the road. At the next intersection we turned right and took a road that was like a beautiful green tunnel back down to the Feifengshan entrance. (This was the road we had walked parallel to on a trail, on the way up.)

Then we walked back along Hsinchu route 24 to the bus stop. When we got back to Qionglin the sun was so bright and hot it was hard to imagine that it had been rainy and misty on the mountain. We had some time to have a cool drink at 7-11 before taking the 13:40 bus back to Taipei. 

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Map and GPS coordinates:

Qionglin Bus Stop: 24.762811, 121, 088752

Feifangshan: 24.765875, 121,112121

Google Maps link

 Shibitanshan: 24,756674, 121,110076 

Google Maps link

Zhongkengshan: 24.7666, 121,118991 

Google Maps link

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