Elephant Mountain

Hello again everyone! I am almost done posting about my recent travel to Taiwan. These pictures were taken on our last day in Taipei, and we went to Elephant Mountain. We wanted to go and watch the sunset when we arrived but the weather was not very good that day, plus we were too tired so we skipped it.

We went to other places on other days, or sometimes the weather was cloudy and drizzly, until the last day, we were blessed with perfect weather, so we gathered up our last energy and took the hike up. 

We took the Red line to Xiangshan, which by the way is the last station, and Tamsui is the last one on the other end. We went to Tamsui on another day, and we went to Xiangshan on the last day, so we visited both ends of the Red line. Xiangshan is one stop from the Taipei 101 station.

Take exit 2 from the train station and the first thing you see is the Xiangshan Park. Follow the path and you get to pass some elderly doing their morning exercises if you go early in the morning.

                 

What I like about Taiwan is that the signage is all clear, and there is no chance you could get lost, unless you are not paying attention to where you are going. The park has toilets if you need to go before you start climbing.

             

You also get to pass some nice residential buildings, and the Taipei 101 is visible from any vantage point. Make sure you bring a bottle of water with you to hydrate yourself, and some snacks too, just in case you get hungry, because of course, there are no restaurants or shops up there.

               

From this area you take a right, and then the buildings look older and smaller.

               

When you get to the end you will see the starting point of the hiking trail. Just before you get here, there is a food truck that sells water and other beverages, so if you forgot to bring water with you, here is your last chance to get some. I tell you, you're gonna need it.

The trail is all stairs, so there is no chance you slip or anything like that, unless perhaps it is raining. There were other people going up as well, and we took our time so as not to get exhausted. Plus my sister is older, so I had to make sure we paced ourselves accordingly.

               

Before we got any higher, there was a man who was selling roasted sweet potatoes and freshly squeezed local oranges. We bought both, the sweet potatoes were very nice, and the juice just what we needed to energize us for the hike ahead.

As you go up, you don't have to worry about the sun as there are tall trees that provide shade. And since it was autumn when we were there, the sweating was not so bad. And the things that you see differ as well.

We got to see some nice flowers and some other vegetation as well, and we took our time admiring those. We heard the chirping of the birds as well, which was music to our ears.

                 

It was so nice to be able to experience nature right in the city, so I highly recommend this as one activity if you ever go there. Perfect time should be in the afternoon, so you get to see the city in daylight and then wait after the sun sets and it gets dark so you can also see the city in lights.

                

This is the Chinese character for Elephant mountain. The one in front is the elephant and the one at the back is the character for mountain, 'san'.

              

There are also some benches along the way, although not a lot so you can stop and take a rest, because in some parts the stairs get steep, although never dangerous.

               

If you keep looking at the stairs, you may want to give up in the middle. But just bear in mind that you will get to see something beautiful when you get to the top.

When you see this sign, it means that the viewing platform is just after this. Just before this part is the steepest part though, so keep going until you get to the very end. Remember that you are not in a race, and that you can take breaks in between.

And when you get to the top, you are rewarded with this view, as well as over the whole city of Taipei. Imagine it being lit up in the evening and that will be quite a sight.

There are 2 viewing platforms, one lower and a higher one a few meters above. We went to both of course and took pictures from both places.

Once we got up there, we enjoyed the breeze, we sat on the benches and rested our weary legs and knees.

There were big boulders in between the two viewing platforms, and some people were climbing up to take pictures on top.

Of course we also wanted to do that and some kind people from our country took pictures of us. Do you want to know how we got up?

We were laughing hysterically as we were climbing as it gets a little bit scary if you look down. We were so scared to move on top.

Then I had to go down and take a picture of her as the kind fellows already left us after they took our picture together.

Very unflattering  pictures but I put them here so that I can be reminded of our hilarious experience that day.

After taking my sister's picture, I went back up again so that she could take a picture of me. This time, I was more accustomed to climbing so it wasn't as daunting anymore.

We had a lot of fun as we were doing this and we met some nice people along the way, which makes it more memorable.

There were quite a lot people climbing the boulders like us, so we went to check the upper viewing deck afterwards.

Here you get to see the whole city, and Taipei 101  towers above all the building. For a while, it was the highest building in the world, until it was overtaken by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

No matter how bad I am at taking selfies, we tried taking one, and this is it, ha ha.

A nice local couple ask us to take their picture, and then he took a picture of us afterwards. That is one joy of traveling, meeting complete strangers and doing something nice for them, and they always want to reciprocate after.

The view was definitely worth the hike up, and it was very windy here, the sweat all but evaporated in a few minutes. :-)

After about half an hour on top, we took the hike back down to enjoy some lunch, buy some fresh fruits to bring back home, went back to our hotel to finish packing and then left for the airport.

I took this picture inside the bus when we were going to the airport, just so we see how it looks like at night.

Not very clear, and we see the reflections of the seats and other things, but, I'll just put them still. Well, I hope you enjoyed this article, and if you want to read more about my travel adventures, you can go to this page. Stay tuned!