Hikes near Taipei: challenge yourself on one of region's most difficult day hikes
- Wuliaojian Mountain is made up of five jutting plumes that give you stunning 360-degree views of tree-covered mountains rising above the below valley
- It will take you around six hours to complete the course and involves several rope-assisted ascents and descents
A perfect day trip from Taipei City, Wuliaojian Mountain, in Taiwan’s Sanxia District, has been billed as the region’s best day hike.
“One of my ancestors was beheaded around here by the indigenous people about a hundred years ago, before the Japanese occupation,” says Cheng Wen-chiu, my friend and unofficial guide.
He says this as we get ready to tackle the first set of fixed ropes hikers use to pull themselves up five jutting plumes to the 645-metre (2,110-feet) summit of Wuliaojian (or “Five points”).
The hike is a five to six-hour round trip involving several rope-assisted ascents and descents, some as severe as 90-degrees. It’s consistently rated among the highest degrees of difficulty for Taipei-area hikes among local bloggers.
Wen, 34, a Sanxia native, has climbed Wuliaojian twice before. But his successful summits pale in comparison to a local legend.
“There's an old man – [he’s] maybe 60 years old – and he has climbed Wuliaojian 500 times,” says Wen, before scrambling confidently up the first rock face, a relatively easy primer for what is to come. “He carries five litres [1.3 gallons] of water up the mountain to share with the other hikers – and watermelon.”
