Distance: 2.5km
Time: a very leisurely hour with an elderly dachshund.
Difficulty: 1/10 – if you can walk you can do this, there is a long flight of steps heading down but it’s not in the slightest bit taxing.
Water: a single small bottle should suffice.
Shade: not much shade, it would be easy to take an umbrella if you feel the need.
Mobile network: pretty good all the way.
Enjoyment: One to do with someone who’s not an experienced walker or on a drizzly day when you really don’t want to be cooped up inside.
After parking we walked the few metres back to the main road and turned left.
The walk follows the road past farmland and a big factory.
There are a few junctions but stick on the main road for a while.
We passed chickens, cows and a couple of enthusiastically barking dogs who were thankfully on chains.
Keep on the main road a little longer.
The turn off on the left will start to take you up the hill.
The sign directs you towards Dai-ping mountain.
On the right we passed a lotus pond and a small temple.
The road climbs gently up past a couple of shelters and through tea farmland.
Along the ridge there are views on both sides.
A little further beyond another shelter on the left we got to the top, (the road still continues on but this is where we stopped following it), there is a large, flattened area on the right and steps going down on the left. On the right a small path has been beaten into the grass so that you can walk a little further down and appreciate the view over freeway route 1, Yangmei and Zhongli. Whilst we were here we met a trio of recently graduated university students enjoying an afternoon together.
After appreciating the industrial view we returned to the road and went down the steps.
This part of the walk is shaded, passing through an avenue of trees.
At the bottom it’s a quick right through a tree tunnel and then it’s pretty much back to the start.
We washed our hands in the small temple’s sink before getting in our car.
How to get there:
Google maps address: 秀才登山步道 – this takes you to the bottom of the steps that we walked down at the end, we parked near the road that we’d just turned off and made an anti-clockwise loop.
GPS address: N24 53.158 E121 08.286
Public transport: theoretically it is possible to get buses here but in all honesty it’s probably not worth it if you have to go through the faff of waiting for buses.
My new words learnt on this hike were:
- 學習困難 / xuéxí kùnnán / learning difficulties
- 上網看一下 / shàngwǎng kàn yīxià / go online, actually ‘online look a little’ but the translation is more like ‘take a quick look online’.
- 警察 / jǐngchá / police
taiwan trails and tales 