A Gentle Coastal Wander Along the Northern Edge of New Taipei
I was in the area to visit the tung blossom over at Sanzhi tung blossom trail, but since I had plenty of time, I thought I would scoot over to enjoy a short wander along the coast while I was there.
Distance: 1.9km – There’s an opportunity to extend this to about 3.5km if you start from the far end of Linshan Cape Boardwalk Trail. (See transportation info below for more on this.)
Time: 30 minutes to an hour. Or more if you take a picnic to enjoy the beach.
Difficulty (regular Taiwan hiker): 1/10 – This is a very gentle walk.
Difficulty (new Taiwan hiker): 2/10 – If you can get here, you’ve done the hardest part. There are a few steps, but you barely notice them.
Total ascent: About 20 metres.
Water: I took 0.5L. There are a couple of cafés along the route, but I didn’t stop at either or them.
Shade: Almost no shade.
Mobile network: Perfect throughout.
Enjoyment: This would be the perfect walk for one of those days when you want to go out and see somewhere new, but don’t have the energy for anything too extreme.
Seasonal: Formosan lilies bloom in mid-April to May around the same time as the nearby Laomei Green Reef is at its greenest.
Route type: Loop
Permit: None needed
Jump to the bottom of this post for a trail map, GPX file, and transportation information.
I started my loop of Linshan Cape from the carpark beside the small fishing harbour. There were a couple of boats moored in the shelter of its walls, but I get the impression that this is a sleepy little harbour even at the busiest of times.
The trail starts beside a café, and gives you a few steps as a warm-up (this is about as extreme as the exercising ever gets, so if you can manage these steps, you’ll be fine the rest of the way too).
The path hews close to the rocky shore—at times taking you almost right up to the water’s edge and at other times heading through dense thickets of coastal vegetation.
At one of the more open areas, a military bunker and a rock sit half-sunk into shallow steps that have been installed for walkers to sit on.
The interplay of plantlife of geology was far more striking than I was expecting to encounter. This little walkway in particular was really neat. It felt like I was walking through a secret tunnel.
As the trail edged around the top edge of the headland and started to head back inland again, it becomes much more open.
There are not many junctions to worry about along the way. At this one, I headed straight over, but not before taking a brief wander down the path on the left to see the sea-facing pavilion.
The water was mighty inviting on a warm day, but all of those sharp-looking rocks deterred me from getting any closer.
Rounding a corner, I saw the trail stretching out along the water’s edge towards the faux-Greek white and blue form of another café.
If time of short, you can cut straight up the path running behind the café. But if you’ve got an extra fee minutes, it’s worth taking the trail leading left along the front of the café. For a moment, it looks like the trail is unwalkable, but trust in it and keep going.
The trail was lined with elegant Formosan lilies. Seeing them was an entirely unexpected treat, I’d visited the area to see the tung blossom at Sanzhi Tung Blossom Trail, but ended up getting a double-helping of seasonal flowers.
Since I’d decided to visit this trail entirely on a whim, seeing this sudden and unexpected beach view upon turning a bend in the trail was a real unexpected treat. Despite it coming as a surprise to me, Baisha Beach (白沙灣, the name means “White Sand Beach”), is one of the north’s more popular tourist beaches, and it’s not hard to see why. A long arc of sand slopes down to the clear water. Between May and August there’s a lifeguard stationed here, and the beach has apparently won an award for its accessibility measures.
Steps from the beach head up past the lifeguard’s tower to the road and parking area.
The view at the top of the steps is evidently a designated tourist stop because there were swarms of people getting off buses to take a photo here, then returning to their comfortably air-conditioned vehicles.
Once you hit the road, head straight over (and rightish), and walk past this land god temple. Spread out in the flat space beside the temple were all these pieces of drying seaweed.
The seaweed was split into three distinct areas which were all slightly different in colour. I’m not sure whether they were separated by variety of seaweed or by how far along in the drying process they were. Either way, the smell was quite pungent in the early afternoon sun, so I didn’t linger long. From here, it’s a brief two or three more minutes along the road back to the start of the walk.
How to get to Linshan Cape Coastal Trail
Google maps address: The entrance to the boardwalk trail is right beside Linshanbi Fishing Harbour.
GPS location: N25 17.015 E121 30.635
Public transport: The nearest bus stop is the North Coast & Guanyinshan National Scenic Area bus stop, which is about a kilometre away. If you do decide to travel by public transport, the easiest way is to head to Tamsui MRT Station. There are several that will get you from Tamsui to the north coast (863, 947, 867 Shuttle Bus, R37 Via The Ocean).
Nearby trails:
Linshan Cape Coastal Trail Map
GPX file available here on Outdoor Active. (Account needed, but the free one works just fine.)
Taiwan Trails and Tales 