Paiyun Lodge (排雲山莊)

If you’re hoping to climb Jade Mountain, there’s a high chance that you’ll want to stay at Paiyun Lodge (排雲山莊). In fact, since there are no other accommodation options, the only way you could avoid staying at Paiyun Lodge is by doing a single-day ascent.

If you have successfully secured a two-day Yushan National Park permit, that means you will automatically get allocated a spot at Paiyun Lodge. You do not need to do anything else to book a bed. However, there are a couple more hoops to jump through or details to be ironed out.

A month before your hiking date, you will be sent an email asking to pay for your bed at Paiyun Lodge. At the time of writing, the fee was NT$480 per person. If you live in Taiwan, you can pay by bank transfer, but don’t have a Taiwanese bank account, you can opt to pay upon arrival.

The fee simply pays for the roof over your head, it doesn’t include bedding or food. If you prefer, you can take your own supplies, but if you want to have them provided for you, you can use this step-by-step guide to booking meals and sleeping bags at Paiyun Lodge.

And one last thing before the good stuff starts: If you find the below information helpful, please consider throwing a couple of dollars my way. I enjoy writing about hiking in Taiwan, but I loathe writing about this kind of administrative task. Sure, filling the gaps in Taiwan’s English information is a self-appointed burden, but a little love from appreciative readers goes a long way towards making me feel better about my decision to ~~waste so much of my life on creating this site~~ pour so much free time into this site.

Booking Paiyun Lodge

Step 1

Head to the website for Head to the website for Paiyun Lodge, then navigate to the “meals” page.

Step 2

Download a copy of the order form (you can choose from a Chinese or English version).

Step 3

Fill out the order form. For the most part, it’s quite self-explanatory. (My edits can be seen in red.) You can choose whether you just want a specific meal, just want a sleeping bag, or want a set that includes three meals and a sleeping bag. In our case, we wanted to try and catch the sunrise, so we opted for Set A (which includes an early breakfast). You will also have to specify whether you want the pork, chicken, or vegetarian option. After our experience in Tianchi Lodge, Teresa decided to join me in choosing the vegetarian set.

Step 4

The only slightly confusing part is the names at the bottom. The top name is the name of the person making the booking, while the second name must be the name of the person listed as being the team leader on your Jade Mountain permit.

Step 5

Download a copy of your filled-out form and email it to the people at Paiyun Lodge. The current address is: go177813@gmail.com.

The people at the lodge emailed me back within 24 hours to say they’d recieved my order. If you’re travelling from abroad, that’s it. Just make sure you have cash to pay them when you arrive. However, since I have a Taiwan bank account, I preferred to sort out the payment in advance. I sent them an email to check this was OK (“of course it is,” was the response).

Step 6

To pay them in advance, use the bank transfer information on the Paiyun Lodge website. (I don’t want to add it in here in case it gets updated.)

Step 7

Once you have sent the payment through, email them to let them know you’ve done so. They asked me to include my account number in the email so they could identify my payment.

Step 8

When you arrive at Paiyun Lodge, you’ll be asked to show your permits. If you haven’t already paid for the accommodation and/or bedding and meal fees, you will be asked to pay upon checking in.

If you requested meals and bedding, you will be assigned a sleeping bag and given meal tickets.

Step 9

When it is time to check out, make sure to return your bedding. The staff will ask you to stuff it back into its bag and may want to check that it’s undamaged. Aside from that, there’s no other check-out process required for the lodge. (You do, however, need to check out of Yushan National Park once you’ve completed the whole hike.)

Staying at Paiyun Lodge

By all accounts, staying at the modern Paiyun Lodge is a pretty comfortable mountain lodge. That said, it’s only comfortable in comparison to the alternatives which are tent camping or staying in the more dilapidated huts that can be found on some of Taiwan’s other trails. You’ll be safely sheltered from the elements and your basic needs will be met, but this is not luxury accommodation.

So long as you’re mentally prepared for a little discomfort, you should be fine.

What facilities does Paiyun Lodge have?

Paiyun Lodge has the following basic facilities:

Inside slippers — No outside shoes are allowed in Paiyun Lodge. Just inside the front doors, there are walls of cubby holes for storing your shoes, and when you check in, you’ll be shown which cubby hole to leave your hiking boots in (they’re allocated according to room number). You should find slippers in your cubby hole.
Wooden bunks — Hikers sleep on huge wooden bunks with around 30 people to a room. A thin foam mat covers the bunks, but it has been so compressed by years of use that it is almost non-existent.
Open lockers — Each hiker has a space to store their hiking bags in the same room as their bunk. You can leave your main pack here when you summit Jade Mountain, but there are no doors and there’s no way to secure your belongings, so make sure anything valuable stays on your person.
Toilets and tap water — There are squat toilets on the ground floor (no Western-style toilets). They’re a bit grubby and they get grubbier as the stay goes on. There are no showers but there are sinks.
A clothes drying room — A room beside the front entrance has been set aside for air drying wet gear.
Hot (or warm) drinking water — According to information at the lodge, hot water is only provided at specific times of the day, but in my experience, the large tank of hot water was never empty. I felt very smug to have brought sachets of hot chocolate up with me because there was nothing I wanted more than to enjoy a hot drink.
A cooking area — For anyone who chooses to opt out of the meal service, there’s a separate area for cooking (to the left of the lodge as you stand facing its front doors).
A limited number of charging sockets — There are a few charging sockets in the communal area, but don’t bank on being able to use them, there was a long queue for these.

Paiyun Lodge provides the following additional facilities for a fee:

Meals — As noted in the bulk of this text above, dinner, breakfast and brunch/lunch can be ordered in advance of your trip. The meals are simple but satisfying. Breakfast is Taiwanese style (so congee plus toppings), brunch/lunch is some kind of noodle dish, and dinner is rice with veggies and a protein.
Sleeping bags — Similarly, as noted above, sleeping bags can be booked. The bags are warm enough for the conditions. They may or may not be clean. If you’re a little grossed out by this, my best advice is to take your own sleeping bag liner (much less bulky than taking the whole bag).

What do I need to take to Paiyun Lodge?

I’m not going to go through an entire kit list for climbing Jade Mountain here, but I will mention a couple of things that you may not have thought to take.

Toilet paper — Paiyun Lodge does not provide toilet paper. You need to take your own.
Soap or alcohol — Leave No Trace principles dictate that we don’t burden the water system, but a biodegradable soap would be a good idea. The lodge provides water, but ideally, you’d want some way of properly washing your hands.
A small towel — You’ll probably welcome having something to dry your face and hands on.
Earplugs — An essential tool to help block out all the snorers. Personally, I think that the snorers should be relegated to their own noisy room so that the rest of us can sleep in peace, but until that happens, earplugs are the best defense.
A sleeping pad — This is a non-essential item, but if you don’t like hard beds, it would certainly make your life more comfortable.