Xiaoxueshan’s Heavenly Pond is a beautiful alpine pool sitting at an elevation of over 2,000 metres within Daxueshan National Forest Recreation Area. It’s a very easy, mostly flat walk from Xiaoxueshan Visitor Information Station, the furthest that park visitors can drive into the park. In fact, you can find the start of three trails here, the Heavenly Pond Trail (featured on this page), the Xueshan Giant Tree Trail and one end of Shaolai-Xiaoxueshan National Trail.
If you’re intent on doing all three by bus, my recommendation would be to start with the trail on this page, cut through to visit the giant tree, then double back and take Shaolai-Xiaoxueshan National Trail on towards Daxueshan Visitor Centre to catch the bus back down.
Distance: About 1.7 kilometres. You can also combine this with a visit to the Xueshan Giant Tree, which would up the kilometre count to 4-5 kilometres.
Time: 30-45 minutes. If you do the giant tree trail at the same time, it would end up taking around 2 hours.
Total ascent: Just under 50 metres.
Difficulty: 0.5/10 — This is an exceptionally easy and short walk. There are almost no steps at all and the path is mostly flat or gently sloping.
Water: The visitor centre has a hot and cold water dispenser, but if you’re only walking around the Heavenly Pool, you probably don’t need to carry any with you if you’d rather go light.
Shade: While short, this walk isn’t shady, so if you’re sensitive to the sun, make sure you’re covered.
Mobile network: Mobile coverage is clear throughout.
Enjoyment: The lake itself is pretty, but the birdlife is equally impressive. I saw a handful of endemic species just in the tiny little area around the pool.
Bathroom facilities: There are toilets in the carpark at the start of the trail.
Route type: Lollipop loop.
Permit: None needed but you do need to buy a ticket to enter the park.
Jump to the bottom of this post for a trail map and GPX file.
If you stand in the car park facing the steps up towards the visitor information centre, you can spot a pair of small temples just off the to left. One houses Tudi Gong and his wife and the other houses Di Cang Wang (地藏王, also translated as Kṣitigarbha bodhisattva), a strange deity to have up in the mountains given that he is more usually associated with guarding the underworld.
The visitor centre is just a single room with a help desk, a little info about the area and water dispensers.
From the visitor centre, keep walking towards the toilet block, then take the track heading up to the right. If you’re into birding, it’s worth popping around to the left of the toilets. One of the volunteers has dug a small pool, about the size of a birdbath, and apparently it’s a great spot to photograph birds sprucing up their feathers.
Part-way up, there’s a lookout platform, but I never got to see what it overlooks because the weather was too cloudy.
The track is actually an access road for vehicles going deeper in, but I’m not sure how much use it gets. To the right, there is a boggy pool section and I was just peering into the undergrowth thinking “I bet there are lots of animal prints” in the soft mud, when…
…this muntjac stalked across the path then slunk silently into the hedge.
The path diverges from the forestry track beside Ruixue Pavilion. If you take the steps here, you can make a loop around the pool.
About half of the path is covered by trees and I found it to be an excellent bird-watching spot. I saw several black-throated bush tits, some Taiwan fulvettas, some white-whiskered laughingthrushes, and an Eurasian nutcracker — and this was without even trying.
If you’ve got time, you can take the steps leading down to the start of the giant tree trail, otherwise you’ll just need to loop around the pond and head back to the visitor centre.
The pond itself is rather lovely. From the right angle, you can see the sky and pavilion reflected in it. Weirdly, it is also home to a large population of goldfish and at least one exceedingly large koi. As far as I can tell, no one knows exactly who is responsible for them being up here, but it’s almost certainly the work of Buddhists taking place in an animal releasing (放生) ritual. I’m not generally one to knock beliefs, but this practise is truly idiotic. Captive animals are purchased and set free (often in totally unsuitable environments) in order to buy to setter-freer karmic credit. It’s a silly thing to do because the animals that are set free can interfere with the local ecosystem (as up here) or perish in the wild, so the animals suffer while those selling captive animals are the ones who stand to benefit (well, and the believers too, I suppose).
Anyway, enough ranting, it’s a lovely pool!
How to get to Xiaoxueshan Heavenly Pond
Google Maps address: This walk starts at Xiaoxueshan Tourist Centre and you’ll find plenty of parking spaces here.
GPS location: N24 16.760 E121 01.550
Public transport: Daxueshan National Forest Recreation Area is accessible by bus from Fengyuan Transfer Station. The 889 Taiwan Tourist Shuttle runs several times a day and takes about 90 minutes to reach the park and to do the walk featured here, you’d need to alight at Xiaoxueshan Tourist Centre.
Nearby trails:
Xiaoxueshan Heavenly Pond Trail Map
GPX file available here on Outdoor Active. (Account needed, but the free one works just fine.)
Taiwan Trails and Tales 