The hike to Qilai South Peak and Nanhua Shan was a special one for me for a number of reasons. It is only the second group hike that Teresa and I had done (the first was Ba Xian Shan where the group seemed to get up Teresa’s nose somewhat), and the first time for me to meet – in the flesh – a handful of people that I’d met on Twitter as a result of us sharing a deep love for Taiwan’s mountains. Our group leader for the trip was Anusha, a local woman who writes an English language website about Taiwan’s trails, and who possesses the superpower of being able to disappear into the background of any group photo. Also with us was Glenn, who is perhaps best described as the mad mountain man of the south. He also writes about his exploits in Taiwan hills over on Out Recording, although his idea of what constitutes a fun hike falls a little outside of what most people would consider fun. The third person that I’d met online was Cris, a Taipei based (ex?) software engineer. Taking the numbers up to eight were Teresa, Cris’s partner Fanyi, and two of Anusha’s friends, Walt and Sky.

DISTANCE: Day one distance was about 13km. Since we walked it there have been some changes to the route which makes this section a bit longer.

TIME: We were a bit slower than most people walking this trail and it took us a little over 6 hours to climb from the trail head to the lodge. (Most people do it in around 5½ hours.

TOTAL ASCENT: There’s an elevation gain of about 800-900m on the first day – the trail head sits somewhere around 2000m above sea level, and Tianchi Cabin is around 2900m.

DIFFICULTY (REGULAR TAIWAN HIKERS): 6/10 – If you had asked me at the time, I would have probably told you this was an eight or nine out of ten type of hike, but with the benefit of hindsight *forgetfulness* I don’t think it was actually too difficult. It’s not even a lot of distance to cover, the high altitude just makes it physically draining. However, the trail conditions are great, it’s difficult to get lost, and with the right amount of preparation (both in terms of getting yourself fit, and taking the right equipment), it’s very doable. Indeed, as far as Taiwan’s 100 Peaks go, this is graded as being one of the easiest to walk.

DIFFICULTY (NEW HIKERS): 8/10 – This would probably not be very fun if you are a novice hiker. Not impossible, but also not a good place to start. If you are in good physical condition then you should be able to manage, but you ought to start training before you go, give yourself more time than you expect you need, and find a group to go with. Also, this difficulty rating is for the whole two-day journey, since although it would be possible to just walk up to the lodge, that is not what most people intend to do.

SIGNAGE: Nice and clear signage the whole way, but even without it would be hard to go wrong.

FOOD AND WATER: I took about two litres and would have easily finished it had I not been rationing myself, Teresa only finished about a litre, but likewise would have drunk more on a normal walk. I’m assuming that if you’re planning to do this walk, then you’re already pretty aware of how much you drink on a hike, so plan accordingly. If you’re trying to keep your pack weight down, maybe bring a filter and top up at Yunhai Line Station. You will also probably need a filter, or gas to boil water once you get to Tianchi Lodge.

SHADE: On and off shade. I had a hat that covered my neck to keep the worst of it off me.

MOBILE NETWORK: I had my phone on flight mode most of the time (there are no charging facilities at the lodge, so conserving battery life is important), but there were places where it was possible to get signal, just not the whole way.

ENJOYMENT: The first day had some excellent views and the trail was very pleasant, it was not the best part, but you need to get through it to be able to enjoy day two.

SOLO HIKE-ABILITY: If you’re comfortable enough in Taiwan to independently handle all of the permit application and transportation processes required to get you here, and have extensive hiking experience, then you should be ok alone. However, I personally wouldn’t choose to walk this one by myself, I haven’t had enough experience hiking this type of high altitude trail to know what to expect.

PERMIT: Yes, see below for more details.

OTHER: This is a two-day hike, and as such it requires a bit of extra planning. See below for details regarding equipment, permits, booking accommodation and transportation.

Jump to the bottom of this post for a trail map, GPX file, and transportation information.

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DIRECTIONS:

11:31 – We arrived at the trail head a little after 11, and quite honestly it was a relief to end the bumpy journey. Everybody sorted out their packs and steeled themselves for what was to come. 

Part of the van driver’s services were group photo taking – look at those fresh, happy faces.

In Taiwan these are the kind of views you get just at the start of the hike.

11:55 – Very near the start we passed an area which seemed to have suffered a landslide. It was in the process of being shored up, the maintenance team seem to have used a trio of methods – a concrete base, upon which a gaibon retaining wall had been built (the mesh bags filled with pebbles), and the final layer of stone cladding seemed to be for aesthetic purposes only.

*In the time since we walked this, the trail has been diverted up a little higher somewhere near here.

12:00 – A short while later there was further evidence of damage to the trail – that whitish strip on the right of the photo used to be part of the path. On the way back Glenn and I spent a while trying to figure out whether it was a bridge or a section of path. I thought it was the latter, but Glenn, who has lots of experience walking in areas that were ravaged by typhoon Morakot thought it was likely a bridge. Now I look back at the photo I’m pretty sure he was right, there are handrails, and none of the wooden path sections had similar railings. In that case, the trail must have suffered some serious damage, because there wasn’t any obvious place where a bridge might have been.

The path became a little easier after the steep initial climb, but despite how easy it looked, my body was still protesting. I’d trained myself to carry a heavier pack over the past couple of months, but the increase in altitude was also contributing to the challenge.

At least we had views like this to distract from the physical exertion.

13:12 – There are only a few junctions that you pass on the way up, and in every case you need to take the more established, flatter route. The trail on the left here is signposted as heading towards Xuetiangong Trail Head (雪天宮登山口).

The forest was really very beautiful, and quite different to what I’m used to at lower elevations.

13:32 – The next junction was a side trail up to Mount Weishang (尾上山) – we stayed on the trail going towards Tianchi Lodge, but a quick look online seems to suggest that some people do Mount Weishang as a stand-alone day hike, and that it appears to take 4-5 hours to finish.

13:33 – We crossed the first of several wobbly suspension bridges.

13:39 – We passed Fuyun Temple (福雲宮 – a land god temple), shortly before arriving at Yunhai Line Station for a break.

The view looking southwestish from just before Yunhai Line Station.

13:40 – We got to Yunhai Line Station (雲海保線所) about two hours after setting off and downed packs for a rest.

When the Nenggao Cross-ridge Trail (能高越嶺道) was rebuilt by the Japanese in 1925, they also built police garrisons and five hostels along the route. These provided shelter for the police who were sent there to monitor and control the aboriginal population, as well as giving Taiwan’s early mountaineers a place to rest overnight. The hostels were located at Tunyuan, Weishang (now Yunhai Line Station), Nenggao (now Tianchi Lodge), East Nenggao (now Kuailin Line Station), and Banbian (now Panshih Line Station). These buildings didn’t last long however, since all five of them were set on fire by members of the Seediq tribe during the 1930 Wushe Battle. When the Japanese then rebuilt Weishang hostel, it was moved about a kilometre away from where the first one had stood, to the site of the current Yunhai Line Station.

There are a couple of squat toilets here but they are not pretty (think explosive excretions and towers of tissue).

Parked up in the clearing were a couple of these scooters. At first I had no idea why there would be scooters here, but look a bit closer and you’ll see they are laden with gas and other supplies. This is how the aboriginal staff who man the shelter transport goods up and down the trail – I guess it’s a lot easier than walking, but you’ve got to be a pretty damn confident rider to do this on two wheels (particularly seeing as they all opt to go without a helmet).

Tragically, in the weeks after we walked this trail, one of the porters lost control of his motorbike and slid off the trail, falling 100m to his death.

14:06 – We set off again after about 25 minutes, leaving via the trail on the far side of the clearing.

The sign on the left warns people not to enter. I didn’t notice on the way up, but this rejoins the track after only very short distance, I imagine it was an earlier iteration of the path that got closed for some reason.

As well as the scooters, there were several little red trucks plying the route. The drivers braced themselves with welly boot encased feet against the metal frames as they bounced and sped their way over the bumps in the trail. Despite the notice on the back of the vehicle saying that people are not to be transported in the bed of the truck, this one had a be-helmeted gentleman riding behind the driver and looking every bit as (un)comfortable as you would expect him to.

We passed a couple of areas that had clearly seen small-scale landslides over the years.

Looking downslope from the trail on this particular scree slope I noticed the remains of an old bridge – presumably where the trail used to be.

Sometimes the landscape and flora of the trail reminded me of European mountainscapes.

14:42 – The hairiest section of the trail was this stretch across the site of a pretty large scale landslide. There were signs warning hikers not to tarry, or more specifically “do notlinger,” a typo present on every single sign. Despite this, there were a couple of young hikers engaged in a photo shoot part way along.

We passed through pretty quickly and without incident, and at the far side reached the 6km mark, indicating that we were a mere 500m away from being halfway up.

A huge bonus of starting later on in the day was that we were able to enjoy some stunning winter afternoon sunshine – the later in the day it gets, the more beautiful it seems to be.

An information board on the side of the path drew our attention to the remains of a charcoal kiln that was one of several built along the trail by the Japanese. The kilns provided the soldiers stationed in their remote mountain garrisons with a source of fuel to make bitterly cold winters a little more bearable.

There were a few good stretches where the incline was negligible and the walking was really quite easy.

16:17 – An ambiguous marker indicating that the trail on the right is a ‘detour’ (English and Chinese are equally unhelpful).

The ever changing views provided plenty of opportunities for photo breaks.

We passed quite a lot of silver grass on the trail – I was surprised to see it growing so high up (not for any fact-based reason, purely because I’d never considered it before).

As well as dirt paths and bridges, there were some portions of the trail which were made of wooden planks braced against the rock.

16:53 – We caught up with that detour – it would not have been fun. It certainly would have cut out some of the distance, but only by heading down one steep side of a valley and up the far side.

17:00 – At five o’clock on the dot, the light suddenly became this magnificent golden hue, bathing the surrounding trees in a warm, syrupy glow.

We stopped to enjoy the spectacle, and used the break to dig out headlights ready for the darkness that was about to fall.

17:06 – Just a few minutes later the orange light had disappeared.

17:10 – We were granted one last glimpse of the sun before it was swallowed up by the far off mountains.

It was remarkable how quickly darkness descended. We had about 15 minutes where it would have been possible to see where you were putting your feet without a torch, but after that it was pure darkness.

17:45 – We crossed the final bridge before the cabin in full dark. I could hear the sound of Nenggao Waterfall, but there was nothing to see, just the section of the bridge lit up by the light of my head torch. I got to somewhere near the centre and turned off my light to look at the sky.

The trail had one further treat trick in store for us on the far side of the bridge. There we were greeted by an entirely unnecessary climb before it dipped down again to meet the lodge. It was only a few metres, but it was tough on tired legs.

18:01 – We found ourselves approaching the welcoming warmth of Tianchi Lodge (天池山莊) at almost exactly 6pm – dinner time. All those pessimistic voices we’d encountered on the way up were wrong – we’d started just at the right time!

Laid out on a table there were six bowls containing various different combinations of vegetables and meat, but I cannot attest to how it tasted.

Mine and Teresa’s meals were hidden away under the stairs in a separate vegetarian corner.

I can’t say that it has been the best food I’ve had this year, but it was hot (or at least warm) food, on a cold night almost 3000 metres up a big hill, I wasn’t in a position to be fussy.

The sinks for washing our bowls and brushing our teeth were outside, and naturally there was no hot water. I don’t know when I became so soft, but I let Teresa wash both of our bowls, since even with my hands jammed firmly in my pockets, I could feel my fingers turning white.

After dinner we all retired to the shared room on the second floor (photo taken in daylight on the second day).

The room was a sparse, a high-ceilinged space with a single raised bed that all eight of us were sharing, as well as open cupboards for our packs. It was as we were all sorting out our daypacks for the following morning that our group leader revealed the best kind of surprise: a chocolate cake surprise. Somehow she had managed to transport a whole chocolate birthday cake (two members in the group were celebrating birthdays within the month), up the mountain in her bag without it getting squashed into a gooey mess. Everyone was very polite about sharing it, but I think somehow Teresa and I still ended up eating about a third of it by ourselves whilst everyone else was talking (it was very nice chocolate cake).

Before settling in for the night, Teresa and I headed out onto the second floor deck to have a look at the night sky. It was freezing (ok, not literally), but the view was worth it. The clouds were doing their thing of cascading over the peaks, and I saw more stars than I have seen for a long time. Whilst up here, we could hear the lodge’s staff engaging in a grand sing-along, there was a guitar (and almost certainly beer) involved.

These two bright spots that appear to be engaging in a race to the horizon are Jupiter (large), and Saturn (small). We were very lucky to witness the pair so close together – they’re set to cross over on the winter solstice (December 21st), and this is the first time they will have done so since 1226AD.

These photos were taken around 8pm, after which we went in doors and settled down to the serious business of sleeping. I had a quarter of a sleeping tablet to help me drop off, and despite the ongoing music from downstairs, I drifted off pretty quickly.

Part two: Qilai South Peak and Nanhua Shan.

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TECHNICALITIES

Firstly, I highly recommend that you read Anusha’s information on the subject. She was our team leader and was the person who organised much of our trip, instructing us on how to go about organising the parts that we need to do for ourselves. She written an extremely and informative guide to the subject which contains everything you need to know. My own information below is going to be pretty much the same as hers, only not as thorough.

BEFORE YOU GO

FURTHER READING:

• Once more, I refer you to my hiking mate Anusha’s website – she has written up her experience of the walk here.
• This group hiked with kids in snowy weather.
• The government webpage for the whole Nenggao Cross-ridge Trail (Chinese).

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Qilai Nanhua Trail Map

GPX file available here on Outdoor Active. (Account needed, but the free one works just fine.) The above image shows the route that we walked, but if you refer to the GPX track you’ll find the newer route which avoids the collapsed section of trail.

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