A Disappointing Day At Yangmingshan National Park

Situated on Mount Yangming (阳明山), Yangmingshan National Park is the only national park in Taipei City and is one of the more popular national park in Taiwan amongst the Taiwanese and tourists. The park also features popular scenic sites such as 擎天冈 (Qing Tian Gang) and the 竹子湖 (Zhu Zi Hu).

Despite being one of the famous tourist spot in Taiwan, this place was a disappointment because the weather was really bad when we got there. With that, it was pretty much a wasted trip. We didn't get the best view of all the scenic spots due to the foggy and wet weather.

Getting There
劍潭 (Jian Tan) Station (Red Line), Exit 1 (Turn left)
Take Bus Red-5 or 260 to 阳明山 (Yangmingshan) stop

Upon arriving at Yangmingshan stop which is also a tourist information centre, there will be a queue area just beside the tourist information centre that's where you can take the shuttle bus to travel around the park.

These are the recommended spots that you should visit:

• 绢丝瀑布 (Juan Si Waterfall)
• 冷水坑 (Leng Shui Keng)
• 擎天冈 (Qing Tian Gang)
• 小油坑 (Xiao You Keng)
• 二子坪 (Er Zi Ping)
• 竹子湖 (Zhu Zi Hu)

Not all places are accessible by the shuttle bus. So if you are travelling in a big group, it will be better to engage a driver.

Our first stop was 擎天冈 (Qing Tian Gang), a ranch for cattle to graze.

The area was supposed to look like this:

Credits x

But when we were there, it looked like these:

This area of Yangmingshan is easily shrouded in clouds due to its elevation on top of that, the weather wasn't the best to begin with. Instead of going further up, we decided to leave as we couldn't see what was in front of us and it felt dangerous.

Then we began to roam around, in search for 竹子湖 (Zhu Zi Hu) aka Calla Lilies Farm.

Google Map isn't the most reliable, we didn't manage to locate Zhu Zi Hu so we went to the shuttle bus pick up point to head to the next attraction.

Our next destination was 二子坪 (Er Zi Ping). To get to the top, we have to take a 1.8KM trail.

Thankfully the weather turned better and the fogs seemed to have cleared up which then we managed to enjoy such pretty scenery.

And this seemed like a land of eulalia, I've never come across any places with so many eulalia that grew this tall. 

After, we went back to the entrance of the trail and the weather seemed to have change for the worst again. Thence, we decided to give up on exploring the other attractions and go back to the city since it was getting late as well.

It was rather depressing that we didn't get to enjoy the picturesque landscapes after hearing so much about this. Yangmingshan, I'll be back!