Day 10

Friday was supposed to stop raining and go back to partly cloudy so I decided to try Xiangshan again. I followed the same path as Wednesday, only this time there was no torrential downpour and I actually made it to the stairs.

The signs were almost all in Chinese, with only occasionally an English one. It made for some interesting navigating, especially as the area is very large and covered in tons of trails, temples, huts, work-out areas, and scenic overlooks, some looking like they were built out of bits and bobs by random people. There was a temple at the top of these stairs, with a nice view of the city. The only way to get to it seemed to be up those steps, and so they had a motorized winch with a basket.

I then continued up more and more and more steps.

Until suddenly about 30 minutes later I was at the top of Elephant Mountain!

There were some amazing views of the city and the other peaks of the four beasts.

I actually ended up at that pavilion later on in the day

However, it was a much shorter hike than I anticipated, so I decided to explore further. I looked at the map and matched symbols with the signs and decided to go see some other peaks.

The vast majority of the trails aren't even on here

Bei, Nan, Dong, Xi (N, S, E, W)

More stairs, even through rocks!

He was waiting patiently for someone

There were temples all over the places, sometimes I could only hear them chanting or playing music.

Other times I could peek down into their grounds.

I climbed through bamboo

and past ferns

A cliffside temple

The trail got a bit interesting in some places (there's a pretty long drop-off just past those bushes on the left)

But the view at the peak was so worth it! After the bit with the ropes, I came around a corner the there was the peak. It was bare rock, like a knob and it was one of the highest points around with 360 degree views. Someone had put the ubiquitous Taiwan tiles on the rock so there were places to sit, but they were also rather slippery and with the long drop-offs surrounding me, I chose to sit on the rock instead. I was the only person I could see for a long while, until a random Chinese guy showed up, looked at me awkwardly for a bit, then left. I made a video for Sonny since with his fear of heights I don't anticipate him going there any time soon.

After this I was walking and trying to decide if I should turn around and walk the 2 km back to the MRT station I came in on or continue forward and hope there was another station in front. When I met an older gentleman who said something like, "Good afternoon, how are you?" instead of the stares or "Hello!" I usually get from Taiwanese, I figured I would try my luck and asked him if he knew if there was an MRT ahead. He turned out to more than helpful. He walked with me to show me the correct way out of the labyrinth of trails, hailed me a cab, and asked the driver to take me to the nearest MRT station. His name was Jerry, he was born in Taiwan but has lived in the US for a long time. He sells robotic golf cart caddy things and has two kids, a daughter my age studying to be an optometrist and a son who works for Google. He was a very nice man, and made my adventure end much easier than it could of been. On the whole the Taiwanese are like him, very friendly and helpful, and its made me getting around when I don't speak the language much easier.