Yangmingshan

An hour's bus ride from the Taipei main train station is the Yangmingshan national park. It has a short but moderate to challenging level hike to the Mount Cising Peak, which is at 1,120 meters (3,396 feet) representing nearly 2,000 feet elevation gain in the hike.

To get there, a bus stop right across the main train station offers the bus number 260 which runs every 20 minutes.

The bus is pretty clean and efficient, and the fare is only 30 NT$ which is about $1.

Once at the entrance to the National Park, you can follow the signs to the hike and get going.

In about 200 meters or so, the actual hike starts and there is a well marked entrance.

There are two ways to do it. Follow the paved path or just climb in the woods. The paved path is eay to follow and I only discovered the unpaved path later, so missed out on the real experience. But the paved path is easy in the beginning and gets progressively difficult. The beginning of the trail has mostly even surface surrounded by trees and shrubs.

It later becomes a bit steep and still pretty easy, and very wooded.

As you keep walking, the tree canopy becomes denser, some areas have no paving but are still very easy to walk on.

A great feature of the path is that it has markers every about a quarter mile to show the hiker's progress.

As you progress, the steps heights become uneven and the hike starts becoming strenuous, the trees and the ferns provide a deep shade which is a great respite because it is 93F outside. At some of these steps, I saw volunteers sweeping the area to remove the leaves and debris to keep the steps clean.

After about an hour and a quarter, I could see the summit.

It is quite windy at the summit and all around it is very green.

There are some peaks in the neighborhood that many people are climbing.

A marker obelisk announces the spot which is the highest point on the peak, where many people pose for pictures.

From the peak, the views were beautiful, and you could see the Taipei city including the iconic Taipei 101 tower.

There are many routes to descend and I chose one but in a few minutes of walking, the alltrails app indicated I was off the trail. I retraced steps back to the peak. A local person who saw me at the peak before and was seeing me returning, came asking if I needed help. She said that the route I took was actually a good one and I should go back on it.

As I walked a kilometer downhill, I could see some volcanic activity, Sulphur clouds and heat rising from the hot stones.

In another kilometer, I could see the parking lot at a distance.

At the parking lot, there was a bus stop to take the bus to go back to the city, as well as a visitor center. A concession nearby was selling bitter gourd lemonade, warm brown sticky rice packed in a leaf and other Taiwanese delicacies which were so appealing after the hike.

From the parking lot, one could walk a few minutes and see fumaroles.

The fumaroles were constantly sending wispy sulphuric acid clouds in the air.

After waiting for the bus for about a half hour, I was back at the train station, where I started from. Overall, it was six hours well spent in nature.