RAKNUS SELU DAY 9 (樟之細路D9)

RSA38.2 – RSA40.1

This day’s walking on the Raknus Selu Trail takes you over the hills between Mingde Reservoir and Xindian Old Street. It’s a really well-balanced feeling walk with sections of pretty historic trail broken up by a couple of temples.

RAKNUS SELU STAMPS:

RSA39: Located in Puguang Temple (普光寺)
RSA41: Located in the Little Blue House (藍色小屋)

DISTANCE: About 10km.

TIME: About 5 hours at an unhurried pace.

TOTAL ASCENT: 600 metres. It feels like quite a lot of advent. Especially if done back-to-back with the previous day’s section of the walk.

DIFFICULTY (REGULAR TAIWAN HIKERS): 3-4/10 – In cool weather and without a heavy backpack, this would be a pretty easy walk (if a little steep in parts).

DIFFICULTY (NEW HIKERS): 5-6/10 – This would be moderately difficult for someone new to hiking in Taiwan. In particular, there are some extended climbs which can get pretty tiring.

FOOD, DRINKS & PIT STOPS: We took almost 1L each and drank most of it. Food wise, we had snacks that we’d carried with us from Sanwan (the previous day), as well as the leftovers from breakfast that our B&B host had given us. There are no shops on this route until you arrive at Xindian. (Except for the chicken restaurant close to the start.).

TRAIL SURFACES: Road, stone steps, wooden steps, dirt trail.

SHADE: There are a couple of exposed sections. On a not-to-sunny April day, I was able to get away with only using suncream.

MOBILE NETWORK: Mobile signal was just a little weak in one or two places, but generally OK.

SOLO HIKE-ABILITY: All of the route before Mingfeng Historic Trail seems to be quite quiet. Despite going on a national holiday, the only times we saw people were at stopping points like Puguang Temple and the top of Mount Fanziliao. If you’re OK with this, then go for it. There’s nothing else particularly troublesome or difficult about this trail.

SECTIONS COVERED:

RSA38.2: Miaoli District Road 16 → Fuzhou Farmstead/Shuizhaixia Historic Trail Entrance (苗16→福州農場/水寨下古道口)
RSA39: Shuizhaixia Historic Trail (水寨下古道口)
RSA40.1: Shuizhaixia Historic Trail → Mount Fanziliao (水寨下古道口→番子寮山)
RSA40.2 Mount Fanziliao → Miaoli District Road 22 (番子寮山→苗22)
RSA40.3: Miaoli District Road 22 → Yundong Temple → Mingfeng Historic Trail Entrance (苗22 →雲洞宮→鳴鳳古道口)
RSA41: Mingfeng Historic Trail (鳴鳳古道)
RSA42.1: Mingfeng Historic Trail → Shitan Yinmin Temple → Shitan Township’s Xindian Old Street (鳴鳳古道→獅潭義民廟→獅潭老街)

Jump to the bottom of this post for a trail map, GPX file and all the other practicalities.

DETAILS & DIRECTIONS:

Day nine on the Raknus-Selu started with a gentle wander around the upper part of Mingde Reservoir, followed by a satisfying breakfast of fried radish cake, salty red bean mochi and soy milk (every bit of which had been handmade by our host). The soy milk was so buttery tasting that I found myself polishing off at least three cups of the stuff. Then, halfway through breakfast, our host’s older sister arrived bearing a block of home-cooked mugwort cake which was duly cut into thin slices for us and the two other guests to sample. We were unable to finish all of the radish cake, so our host put the remainder into bags for us to take on the journey (along with an extra mochi each).

09:58 – With full bellies and water bottles, we retraced our steps to where we’d left the trail the day before, and started heading uphill again. After yesterday’s long, hot walk, my muscles protested, but there was no other way to go except for onwards.

10:05 – Keep left at the junction, following signs to Fuzhou Farmstead (福州農莊).

This area seems to have a lot of small-scale chicken farms. This one was accompanied by a land god temple.

10:11 – Here you need to head to the right and keep heading uphill, still following signs for Fuzhou Farmstead.

The tiniest mantis. Somehow this little thing managed to land on my head.

10:23 – We arrived at Fuzhou Farmstead amidst a whole lot of clucking and honking and several people carrying nets full of just-caught fish into the kitchen (it turns out that this farmstead is actually a restaurant specialising in chicken dishes).

The trail heads past the restaurant building before taking a right turn to follow the track up past several fish ponds. The fish dived for deeper waters, alarmed by our presence, causing the surface of the pools to ripple and gurgle.

The track climbs up past increasingly forgotten-looking fish ponds, and the sound of frogs croaking became the dominant background noise. Right before the final pool (now just a boggy depression in the ground), the path takes a right turn to strike out across the grassy land between two old pools.

10:31 – At the far side of the pool, we crossed over a three-plank wooden bridge and found ourselves at the start of Shuizhaixia Historic Trail. In fact, the vast majority of this day’s walking was done on proper trails, with just a few sections of road joining them.

The climb was steeper than I was ready for, and so we took delight in pausing to look at the numerous tiny toads that seemed intent on getting underfoot, as well as the beautiful pink-veined tung blossoms produced by the trees in this little patch of the woods.

10:44 – The trail climbs steeply to Mount Shuizhaixia, then as soon as it reaches the top, it heads to the left and starts descending towards Puguang Temple (普光寺).

The temple was pretty busy with people who’d come up to pay their respects to ancestors residing in the adjoining columbarium (we visited over the Qingming holiday).

Here you’ll find another of the trail passport stamps. This one is meant to represent Canadian missionary and man of medicine, Doctor Leslie Mackay, who traversed the same footpath we were following in 1872 (or an earlier version of it), on his way to preach to and treat the citizens of Shitan Township.

The trail passes straight in front of the temple, in front of the columbarium, and up some steps on the far side.

11:17 – Steps climb up to this junction, then from here, head straight and onto a lovely, shady trail that cuts along the side of the hill for a stretch.

I really enjoyed this part of the day. The forest was full of birdsong and criss-crossing animal tracks.

The only obstacle was having to dodge under and over a few downed trees.

11:32 – Right about here was where things started to get a little… tiring again. After crossing a small stream, the path starts climbing steadily for what seems like an unfairly long time.

There’s one trail leading off to the right, but from the signs here, it’s clear the RST heads straight on.

11:53 – After twenty minutes of solid climbing, the trail breaks out onto a track. There were a couple of noisy guard dogs chained up in front of a residence here. Turn left and follow the track downhill.

11:58 – The road follows a channel cut through the rock, then after about 100 metres, the RST dives right off the road and back onto a dirt trail to continue climbing.

I have a weird mental trick which seems to mean that I’m wired for stamina even in the face of extreme discomfort, but poor Teresa is a sprinter, and was struggling with the heat and relentless climbing by this point. Unfortunately, I did not really have any consolation to give her.

12:24 – We walked quietly and slowly up to this junction, where we stopped to have a little dried tofu. The RST crosses straight over and up more steps.

At the very least, the trail was pretty, and there were a couple of interesting structures and bugs to draw our attention.

12:43 – As we approached these steps, we could hear what sounded like a hiking group in full lunch mode.

12:47 – Sure enough, when we reached the summit of Mount Fanziliao, we encountered a noisy hiking group gathered around a huge steaming pot of noodles. One look at Teresa’s face told me that we would not be staying long, no matter how tired she was feeling and no matter how much our new friends tried to persuade us to stay. (Which they did with offers of noodles and company for the remainder of our trip to Xindian.)

We left as soon as Teresa had answered a few of their questions, and followed the steps steeply downhill. (All the while I was thinking that I was happy not to have been climbing up them.)

At the bottom of the steps, we passed Niaodong Tea Pavilion. It was built in the 1950s, and inside you can see photos of it from back then.

The remainder of the trail was this uncomfortably hard stone path.

13:01 – At the first junction, keep heading straight towards the main road, then once you reach Miaoli District Road 22, take the righthand fork and walk uphill a little way.

The next stretch follows Miaoli District Road for a kilometre and a bit. The only things of interest along the way were this couple picking some type of herbs from the side of the road, and a Swinhoe’s pheasant which glided from a bank higher up on one side of the road to the lower fence on the far side… except it misjudged (or maybe panicked when it saw me), and ended up doing an inelegant flappy performance as it tried to get back up.

13:23 – Turn left off the road at Yundong Temple.

This is a good place to stock up on water and go to the bathroom before the final push over the hill to Xindian.

Or, if you’re Teresa, it’s a good place to stop and communicate with the local dogs.

13:32 – There are several entrances to Mingfeng Historic Trail, but the one we took is this first one you come to after continuing to walk up the lane beyond the temple.

Walk up the steps until you see this rest pavilion, ignore the first set of steps (the ones in front of the pavilion here), and instead head for the steps heading up a little further beyond it. (The RST signage is oddly absent at this point, but since both trails can connect together again at the top, perhaps it doesn’t matter much.)

13:41 – Defeated by the reintroduction of uphill steps this late in the day’s walking, we paused at the next pavilion to finish off the radish cakes we’d saved from breakfast.

13:58 – With our legs refueled and minds at least partially set for the final climb, we continued, reaching the high point of the trail just before two. Turn right here.

And in case you need the same reassurance that we needed, I’ll make it clear: the trail is all downhill from this point. Downhill and pretty.

Ignore this trail on the right. (I think some people turn Mingfeng Historic Trail into a loop by heading this way, but that’s an adventure for another day.)

For the most part, the trail is made up of modern stone steps, but stone places still retain the older sandstone slabs. However, it seems that this trail attracts few foreigners, because I was the subject of much attention. Kids were forced to greet me in English and one old chap heading in the opposite direction paused and half asked, half stated “你是外國人hiou?!” (“You’re a foreigner, eh?!”) I agreed that I was, indeed foreign and he told me “不錯！不錯！” Thank you random uncle for reassuring me that my foreigner presence is not bad.

Just a little after that incident, we passed this family at a shelter. It was a grandma, grandpa and their grandchild. I passed first, and as Teresa passed them a minute or so later, the guy was asking the woman whether or not she thought I was foreign. She said she didn’t think so. He said he thought I was. He then got up and proceeded to chase us down the hill. In fact, he was going so quickly that I assumed he must be in a hurry to get somewhere, so we stood aside to let him pass. As soon as he got in front of us, we got held captive and he began walking really slowly so that he could interrogate us and advise us on the best places to visit in Miaoli. Once he’s slowed us down enough that his wife and grandkid could catch up and take a look at the foreigner with their own eyes, he stood aside, saying, “Ah, you’re faster than us. You first!”

Thankfully, I was in a good mood because the path was still going downhill, and it was still pretty.

14:42 – At the bottom of the steps, we found ourselves joining a track beside a stream and walking over this small bridge beside a house.

14:45 – This took us to the trailhead proper. Turn right onto the road and keep heading downhill.

The view of Mount Xian rising behind Xindian Village was unexpectedly charming.

14:50 – The RST goes straight down to the river and crosses over this springy bridge.

On the far side of the bridge, we found the next stamp in the back garden of The Little Blue House. This one shows a cute little scops owl.

Also cute was this smoking chameleon that had been painted on the wall beside the gate to the back yard. Nearby, an old stone stele commemorates the repairs done to the bridge in the 1950s and 60s and lists the names of those who paid to fund the work. And close to that is a newer sign commemorating the twinning of RSA41 with the Jeju Olle Trail in South Korea.

14:58 – We passed Shitan Yimin Temple without stopping because we were on a mission to figure out bus tickets and locations before pausing to relax and enjoy the town (or so we thought). Turn right out of the temple carpark and follow the main road until you see a bus stop and a lane.

If you arrive after 3:20, you’ll have to wait on the same side of the road as the temple to catch a bus back to Miaoli, but if you arrive earlier, head up the narrow lane decorated with murals and onto the old street.

We asked in a shop opposite the Library about which bus stop the bus to Miaoli would leave from and the store holder pointed towards a minibus with no obvious destination showing. We asked the driver and he said, confirmed that he would be heading to Miaoli just as soon as he picked up a snack from the next door shop. It just so happened that we had times our walk to coincide perfectly with the far quicker and free minibus shuttle service that runs between Xindian Old Street and Miaoli. It saved us a few dollars, a two-and-a-half hour wait, and was over in about thirty minutes (as opposed to the hour and twenty we could have expected on the later one). Why is there a free minibus service? Apparently the locals complained that the regular services weren’t often enough or fast enough, and so they got this twice-daily service installed.

We arrived in Miaoli at about 15:50, and managed to get tickets for the 18:50 bus bound for Taipei. (This being the last day of a holiday, we were probably lucky to get those.) Then we mooched around, got dinner, changed into less smelly clothes and just generally enjoyed sitting down.

GETTING THERE

Public transport:

Getting to Mingde Reservoir – There is no transportation from the start of this day’s walking. Online, others have suggested getting a bus to Xindian and walking along Provincial Highway 3 from there. That would add quite a lot of extra road walking to the route though.
Getting back from Xindian Old Street – There are two buses which run between Xindian and Miaoli. The 5657 leaves Provincial Highway three times a day at 6:10am, 10:40am and 6:10pm. However, if you’re walking from Mingde Reservoir, you’ll only be able to catch the latest service. Alternatively, there is a free minibus service which leaves the old street across from the library a couple of times a day (8:40 and 15:20). As with all such rural bus services, make sure to arrive ahead of the expected departure time because it’s not unusual for them to depart a little early.
Getting between Xindian Old Street and Lingtun Temple – The road between Xindian Old Street and Lingtung Temple is part of the Raknus Selu B route, so completists may want to walk it. However, there is also another community bus that shuttles between Xindian and the temple. Services depart from Xindian Library at 8:00, 10:40, and 14:40 daily, and buses leave the temple bound for Xindian Library at 8:20, 11:00, and 15:00.

Accommodation:

Staying in Mingde Township – There are several campsites around the reservoir, but since we’re doing this with a balance of cost and comfort, we decided to stay at a B&B. I absolutely loved staying there. The host was very welcoming, the rooms were quiet and comfy, and the food was great. Also, we were able to use the facilities to wash and dry our clothes.

Name in Chinese: 藝景渡假莊園
Address: 36243苗栗縣頭屋鄉22號
Contact: 037255213
Cost: $3600 for a two-person room (includes a huge dinner and breakfast)

Staying in Xindian – There are a couple of minsu-type B&Bs in this area, but they’re all a little over my budget. However, Lingdong Temple (7km up the road) offers cheap and basic rooms. There’s no public transport between the two places but you might be able to get a taxi in Xindian. Also, if you stand on the road and look pitiful, you’re very likely to get a lift (it’s a 15-minute drive or a 2-hour walk). Temple also happens to be the start of Shen-Xian Trail, which is part of the Raknus Selu B route.

Accommodation near Xindian Old Street – There are a couple of minsu-type B&Bs in this area, but they’re all a little over my budget. However, Lingdong Temple (7km up the road) offers cheap and basic rooms. The temple is a two-hour uphill walk along the RSB route, or a 20-minute bus ride (see transportation info above) uphill from Xindian Old Street. Also, if you stand on the road and look pitiful, you’re very likely to get a lift (I had a couple of people offer to drive me up when I walked it). The rooms are very basic (single-use bathroom products are provided, but it’s best to take your own), but I had a great sleep. If you need help booking Lingtung Temple hotel, you can click here.

Name in Chinese: 靈洞宮
Address: 354, Miaoli County, Shitan Township, 小東勢24號
Contact: 037931373
Cost: $800-$1,000ish – I was quoted $1,100 on the phone, but I guess they saw me and thought I wouldn’t appreciate a good room because they offered me one for $800 instead. No complaints though. It was perfectly comfortable in an old way.