Things to do in Taipei, Taiwan: Elephant Mountain

By Jodie Tue, 17/11/2009 - 00:24

If you've ever wandered around in the busy center of Taipei, feeling bored of shopping, or tired of meetings. Elephant mountain is a different experience. It's almost like Central Park in New York. You would imagine that mountains would be far from the city center, but Elephant mountain is only 5 minutes walk away from the Taipei center, the tallest building, Taipei 101.

Many tourists spend US$10 to see the view of Taipei from Taipei 101. But in fact, many of the great photos of Taipei 101 are taken from Elephant mountain. To enjoy the scenery only takes 20 minutes on the hiking path. In fact, as well as being free, the view is better than the view from Taipei 101, because you can see the whole city, including 101.

Elephant mountain is also famous for the night scenery of Taipei city – the main path is lit so you can walk up in the evening.

If you have more time, like two hours or so, there are trails that will lead you higher. From there, you can see the three rivers that flow through Taipei to the sea, and the mountains that surround the city.

The highest point of the mountains around Elephant mountain is only about 350 meters (around 1000 ft), and the main hiking trails are mostly paved and quite easy to walk on. There's no need to have super professional hiking gear. And this is a 24-hour mountain for a 24-hour city, people start hiking by three o'clock in the morning, and some lovers are still embracing each other on the big rocks after midnight.

By the way, this is one of the oldest mountain ranges around Taipei, geologically speaking, and has unique flowers, trees and plants. Big solid rocks are the special feature of the mountains.

How to get to Elephant Mountain?

From Taipei 101 it takes about 15 minutes to get to the start of the hiking path.

First, walk east along Xinyi Road for about 10 minutes to the junction of Song Ren Rd and Xinyi Road Section 5.

Keep walking in the same direction across Song Ren Rd and past NY Bagels. After about 30 seconds, you will see a sign pointing right for the hiking trail (picture and map).

Follow the sign(s) and walk through the park, or along lane 150, for five minutes. Walk past the two small temples and the basketball court and keep going. Don't take the small roads or path that go uphill inside the park, because they don't go very far.

When you get to the other end of the park, the next sign for the hiking trail is almost impossible to see. Anyway, just take the road uphill past the 30-storey Golden Global building (picture), and then past the large temple. Next to the temple you will see steep steps going up to Elephant Mountain. The first section of the trail is the most tiring, so take it easy!