The top 7 national parks and scenic areas in Taiwan
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Loading... - Asuka Chiba
- 12 Oct 2022
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Taiwan has nine official national parks – the establishment of them began in the 1980s – and another dozen or so "national scenic areas". Between them they offer endless opportunities to get back to nature, whether that’s trekking along the precipitous ridgelines of mountains, cycling remote coastal highways, or river tracing from one scenic waterfall to the next.
Here is our pick of seven national parks and scenic areas in Taiwan guaranteed to take your breath away.
Yushan National Park
Best for high-altitude escape
Taking up a large swathe of Taiwan’s Central Mountain Range, Yushan – literally "Jade Peak" – is named for Taiwan’s highest mountain, taller even than Japan’s Mount Fuji. It’s one of more than 30 peaks in the park over 3000 meters (9842ft) in elevation, which you can access via a huge variety of trails at every altitude, and for most of them, you won’t need a guide.
The best time of year to hike in the park is during spring and early autumn; May is the month for butterfly spotting. Tatajia is the jumping-off point for a variety of forested day hikes that suit all abilities, as well as the non-technical, two-day ascent of Jade Peak, overnighting at Paiyun Lodge on route to the summit (be sure to organize the necessary permits well in advance). For a multi-day back-country adventure, check out the 96km (59-mile) Japanese Occupation Batongguan Traversing Route, a colonial-era trail restored in the 1980s.
Shei-pa National Park
Best for multi-day mountain trails
You can choose your own adventure in Shei-pa, where the trails run from simple bird-watching nature walks out of the Wuling Farm entrance to treks focused around dramatic scenery like the Guanwu Waterfall Trail. There are also a variety of backpacking trails through the park that typically take 3-4 days to complete, as well as mountaineering routes that take in towering Xueshan (Snow Peak), the second-highest in Taiwan. Shei-pa’s mountains are the source of some of the island's most powerful river systems, which carve the rough topography into a multitude of ecosystems. That diversity means there are also a lot of animal and plant species to see, from salmon and black bears to Swinhoe’s Blue Pheasant and barking deer.
Like Yushan and other Taiwanese national parks, you'll need to apply to the permit lottery for entry, whether you are day-hiking or planning a longer excursion. Read More…
