Saturday, January 17, 2009

258 reasons to go hiking in Taiwan

Taiwan has 258 mountain peaks over 3,000 metres high. The highest is Mount Jade (aka Yushan, Jade Mountain; 3,952m), centrepiece of Yushan National Park; the second-highest is Snow Mountain (aka Xueshan, Mount Shei; 3,886m). The latter lies within Shei-Pa National Park, which has 51 summits higher than 3,000 metres.There are also hundreds of lesser peaks, many of which are excellent for half-day or day-long hikes. Apart from those, there are dozens of other good reasons to head for the hills including birds; butterflies; trees; wildflowers; animals; plus star- and meteorite-gazing.
I've written about several of Taiwan's most notable hiking trails. Go here for an article about a multi-day hike, here for a general introduction to the hiking scene, or here to read about one of the easiest 3,000-metre peaks to bag.

These photos were taken by Rich Matheson.

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