Formosa, a beautiful island

When the Dutch arrived in Taiwan back in the day, they named it Formosa, which means ‘beautiful island’. My first two months in Taiwan were spent exclusively in the North, in the Jhongli and Taipei area never leaving the city. So I questioned this name, and thought all of Taiwan was as populated and urban as my lovely home. That is until Chinese New Year when Mommy came to visit, and we ventured down South. What I saw was a gorgeous country with a rugged and varied landscape. We had a wonderful 10 days of travel and I took a billion pictures, but I’m too lazy to write about that all now. You can check out my pictures on facebook, and I will soon update the blog.

Ever since Chinese New Year the sun has been shining and the weather has been warm (sorry Mom!). Today I did not have to work, so I took a trip to Yangmingshan, the national park north of Taipei. I took the train to Taipei, the subway a few stops north, and then following the advice of my trusty Lonely Planet hopped on a bus towards the park. I was decked out with my running shoes and a backpack full of snacks and water bottles (because I never go hiking without food, even if it is just Mount Nittany), and was ready for a good long hike.

Yesterday I read an article about a hiker in Oregon who got lost alone in the woods, and it made me paranoid about being by myself. But as I have learned so far, the Taiwanese do not love exercise, and they don’t like to sweat, so I was thinking I would get to the park and it would consist of some simple paved roads filled with packs of tourist. When I got off the bus I saw what I have found to be standard wherever you go in Taiwan – several booths setup selling street food, including the necessary stinky tofu. I wandered past this area and about half a kilometer up the road and found a visitor center. Outside there were a few bride and groom couples taking pictures with the nice background. I found a really helpful man in the visitor’s center who spoke English, and gave me a map and directions on how to go about my hike.

I decided to climb Mt. Cising, the highest mountain in the park at 1120 meters, and the highest extinct volcano in Taiwan. The entire path was paved with a stone staircase, but ended up being a super intense hike. It was basically 1.8km up a mountain with over a 500meter vertical gain. There were enough people on the path that I didn't get lonely, but few enough that I was able to enjoy the beautiful scenery. When I got to the top I made friends with a nice woman who gave me an orange. If I translated her gestures correctly, she grew it herself.

I then went down the other side of the mountain to an area where there are sulfur fumaroles, which are basically cracks in the rocks that leak sulfur gas. They occur in areas of ex volcanic activity, which is also the reason for all the hot springs in Taiwan. There was a faint smell of rotten egg, but it was really cool to see the streams of gas that seemed to be magically rising from the mountain walls. As I was walking down, a fog descended on the valley giving it an eerie feel. At some points I couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of my face, and I could hear people before I could see them. Overall it was a beautiful hike, and I’m sure I will be very sore tomorrow.

Bride and groom taking pictures outside the visitor's center.

Some nice inspiring words for my hike.

So you are telling me if it doesn't spoil the scenery I can build a tomb?

The never ending stairs up the mountain.

One of the peaks on Cising Mountain (seven star mountain). Notice the stairs I had to climb.

Self portrait at the top of Cising

Highest point in the park.

On the way down I walked on this path through a bamboo forest. The sign said that these bamboo shoots live for 60 years. They only bloom once, and when they do it is a sign that it is the end of their lives. It reminded me of walking through a corn field.

Here you can kind of see one of the fumeroles. It was hard to get a good picture, but you can see the gas coming out of the rock.