Gyeongbokgung in Winter

Uisangbong peak

April 2010, my last day before flying home. Woke up a bit late, but I decided to do another peak in the Bukhansan park: Uisangbong. This peak is much less crowded and lower (503m) than Baegundae, however more difficult to hike: some sections are a bit scrambling, and you better don't look backwards.

How to get there:

From Gupabal Station (Seoul Subway Line 3), Exit No.1, take City Bus No.704 bound for Bukhansanseong Fortress (북한산성). I recommend to have the Korean translation with you when looking for the bus.

Once in the park, it is nearly impossible to get lost with the good signposts.

Steep section

When going up here, I teared my pants a bit apart

View towards the top

Right underneath the top

Baegundae in spring

April 2010, Junseong and me did a hike towards Baegundae (백운대) which is the highest peak (836.5m) in the Bukhansan national park north from Seoul.

How to get there:

We took the subway towards Suyu Station (Line 4) and there is a bus stop near exit 3. Fomr here the blue bus #170 is the one you need. Get off at the end (where most people get off). There is road packed with outdoor shops which leads to Doseonsa Temple and Baegundae's trailhead. As there is not much to see on this road, besides being a warm-up, there is also a small bus from the temple that can lead you there.

Entrance to the trail

Beginning of trail

Ascent to Baegun shelter (looking backwards)

This park is beautiful and because it is so nearby Seoul, it can get quite busy. Indeed, per year, this park averages 5 million visitors and it is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the national park with the highest number of visitors per square meter.

Getting closer to the peak, I experienced my first traffic jam on the mountain. The parts towards the peak are a bit steep from time to time, but it is mainly the sheer amount of people that make it difficult. At some places, really have to watch you don't put your feet on somebody's hand.

My first traffic jam on a mountain

The traffic jam was building up, as after this ascend it goes to a more narrow ridge.

Ridge near the top. No more traffic jam

Don't look down

As the peak is quite prominent compared to it's surroundings, the view from the top was more beautiful than I first expected from its height. You have a clear view on Insubong peak, which is a place for wall climbers and also on Seoul.

View on Insubong peak from Baegundae

View on Seoul from Baegundae peak

Highest point!

As it was a sunny day, the granite at the mountain top heated up a little bit. Time to lie down, relax and enjoy the view on one of my favorite cities!

Time to relax a bit and enjoy the view

Bukhansan in winter

3rd January 2011, Injeong and me did a winter hike in Bukhansan (북한산) national park which is lying north of Seoul. This park offers some amazing views on Seoul and has beautiful, smooth granite formations.

The trail we planned was from west to east, combining Bukhansanseong Fortress with a climb towards Baegundae (836.5m) the highest point of Bukhansan, and going down towards Doseonsa Temple. At bottom of page, I put some information on how we get there.

As it is winter, it is strongly recommended to buy crampons to walk on ice, because with all the ice on the granite it can get dangerously slippery. The last days were really freezing, as demonstrated by the partial frozen river below. The day of our hike, it was around -5 degrees.



Pretty cold as the river is frozen


Bukhansanseong Fortress was built with a wall spanning about 8,500 m, built specifically to stop foreign invasion. It is nice to follow this winding road up and down.

Wall of Bukhansanseong Fortress

Wall of Bukhansanseong Fortress

View on Seoul

Some parts are quite slippery, so it was surprising to see people walking around with normal sneakers, we saw some people falling. However, they would have had difficulties getting closer to the top.

Last meters to Baegundae peak. Slippery!

Made it to the top!

Panoramic view from Baegundae peak

How to get there:

• Bukhansanseong: Gupabal Station (Line 3). Exit #1. Bus #704 bound for Bukhansanseong Fortress. Get off at the Bukhansan Mountain entrance bus stop. Most probably it is when all the people get off.
• Doseonsa Temple: Suyu Station (Line 4). Exit #3 and Bus #170.

Jiufen Mountain Village

Together with my friend Cheng-Hung (a.k.a Paul) and his girlfriend Maggie, we did an afternoon trip to Jiufen (九份), which is a small mountain village right at the coast in northern Taiwan. It is about one hour by car from Taipei.

In the past, this village only counted nine families, so for each time a shipment would arrive from town, the village would request nine portions (Jiu fen) of it. Later, this also became the village name. Jiufen was a bit isolated until gold was discovered and people rushed in, booming the town. After gold mines were empty, the town declined again until a movie picture made it popular amongst the bigger crowds. Now it is a tourist attraction with local shops, teahouses and of course its nice scenic area.

The main street was extremely crowded, I was too busy watching around to all the food stall that forgot I brought my camera with me. However, here you can see some of the shots I did take.



Old street

Teahouse

More teahouses



Main temple in Jiufen

Dragon detail on Jiufen temple

Sunset view, just amazing.

Panoramic view

A hike in Four Animals Mountain

Weather cleared up after the rains. A great day for a hike as it did not seem to hot (what a mistake that was!).

I decided to go to Four Animals Mountain (Sì shòu shān, 四獸山) which is located within Taipei's city limits. This mountain is known for it's great views on Taipei city and in particular on the Taipei 101. The mountain area consists of four separate peaks - Tiger, Leopard, Lion, and Elephant - hence it's name. Many trails are lighted as well.

It is quite popular, so you are never really alone, luckily it was not too crowded.

My original plan was to follow the Public Forest Crest Line Nature Trail, which passes by all four peaks. I started at the trail going towards the Tiger peak, which was not the easiest to find. By public transport you can go to Houshanpi Station and walk to the Fengtian Temple. The road winds up a bit, and right at the moment you think this road can't be it, just persist about 100m, and you will find the trailhead.



View on 101 from Tiger Mountain trail



Small staircase upto Tiger Mountain



However, after talking to some local people which I met around Tiger peak, I decided to go for the 9-5 peak (Jiuwufeng – 九五峯), which is the highest point in this mountain area (375m). They told me Leopard and Lion Mountain were not the best places. So I followed the Nangan Shan hiking trail passing by the Fuxing Garden.

On the way, you can find some nice gardens, work-out, resting and meditation areas.

Meditation area along the way to 9-5 peak

Although 375m does not seem to be that high, I underestimated the walk a bit as the weather really cleared up by now. Doing it at temperature of 32 degrees and around 90%, it was a transcendental - euhm transpiring- way up... 

However, it was really worth the sweat. The view at the top was stunning and as sunset was coming soon, I decided to wait until all the lights in Taipei would lit up.

  

Sunset from 9-5 peak

Lights litting up over Taipei. Bring a tripod!

Panoramic view

The trail down to Elephant Mountain is not lighted compared to the other trails down, but some friendly boys told me to join them, as they brought some flashlights. So I did. As it rained before, many frogs came out on that trail, and unfortunately we are not sure if we could avoid all of them in the poor light: sorry little frogs, it was really not on purpose!

View from Elephant Mountain

Hwahsi Night Market

This alley of noodle and fish restaurants, specialty shops, foot massages and street vendors is a popular street for local and foreign toursists. Snake handles and snake-derived fluids and foods (also called medicine here) gives Hwashi street its common name: Snake alley.

Chen-Hung convinced me to have a shot with some snake blood and alcohol. Normally I don't turn much food down, but here I had some small doubts. But he is convincing!


Entrance to Hwahsi Night market

   

Here is the menu: from left to right: snake oil pills, bowl of snake soup, snake oil shot, snake poison alcohol shot, snake guts shots. Sounds like my kind of Saturday night food.



Snake restaurant: From left to right: snake oil pills, snake soup, snake oil shot, snake poison alcohol shot, snake guts shots



Voila, soup anyone? Friends asked me whether this was actually edible. It is edible, but it was not very delicious. But it can also be due the very basic preparation: basically water and snake. The snake tastes like chicken completely filled with the bones of a fish.

Snake soup

"I thought we would come here for the blood?" I asked. This was arranged in no time, so there I was with my big mouth. However, it was not so bad at all. Honestly, somewhere deep inside, I hoped to taste some more blood than the alcohol!

This would keep me going on those looooong Taipei Saturday nights :-).

Enjoying the blood alcohol shoot.





Longshan Temple

Menjia Longshan Temple (艋舺龍山寺) is one of the most known temples inside Taipei. It dates from 1738 and was build originally as a worship place for Chinese settlers. During World War II, this site was bombed by Americans thinking it was a Japanese hiding place. However, only months after the end of the war, the Taiwanese rigorously rebuilt the temple.

Now it must be one of the most popular sights to visit next to the Taipei 101 and the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall.

Praying and offering food and flowers

Flower offering

Lively inner square, also many young people

Temple

Playing with colors on some nice details