It’s very easy to overeat and gain unprecedented amounts of weight in Taiwan. There’s simply too much good food to eat and too many bubble tea places to check off the list!

We clocked quite a number of steps everyday walking around Taiwan, but for most of the time we were taking bus, train, or taxi (oops). Their train stations are fortunately a lot less complicated than that of Korea’s and involve fewer stairs. Pedestrian walkways are also much flatter – in comparison to Korea’s constant uphill slopes!

That being said, we decided it would be good to burn off the excess calories and also train for our upcoming hike up Bukhansan. This would be achieved by hiking Xiangshan, which literally translates to Mt Elephant in English.

How to Hike Xiangshan: Our Experience

Located in Eastern Taipei, you’ll know you’re in the right place when you see this sign:

This is the entrance to the hiking trail. I would say it’s a little easy to miss if you’re not looking or paying enough attention.

And from here, you can already predict that your way up would be nothing but stairs, stairs, and even more stairs…

To be fair, Xiangshan’s Mountain Trail is supposedly considered as moderate (my friends sold it to me as an easy hike).

It’s a bit like Seongsan Ilchulbong Sunrise Peak where it’s wildly popular for both locals and tourists to hike. I have to say though, that Xiangshan is a lot more crowded due to the fact that it’s located in the city (just 0.85km from Taipei 101).

This mountain is also very near the MRT station – much better than the other mountains in Korea that require you to travel high and far just to get to the foot.

Xiangshan Rock

After climbing some flights of stairs, we saw the rock above inscribed with the words Xiangshan. Now you may be thinking – oh, we’ve reached the top!

Not quite.

If anything, the rock is just a sign that you’re in the right place. If you look ahead, you’d also realise that there’s a rest stop here.

I hate to admit it, but I was sorely disappointed. Granted, the hike wasn’t too difficult (yet). But try climbing a never-ending series of stairs, and you’ll know why I’m so eager to call it quits. Your knees would be crying and you’ll find yourself panting endlessly!

Fortunately, the rest stop gave us a good reason to take a break and admire the views for a bit. The unfortunate thing was that we went on a rather cloudy day. Hence, our view of Taipei was a little gloomy.

Famous viewpoint

We started our hike in the afternoon after having a scrumptious lunch at Din Tai Fung, so we got a bit worried that we would be hiking in darkness if we stayed at the rest stop for too long.

We got up and continued climbing even more stairs up to the famous viewpoint. This ‘viewpoint’ is basically a rock where everyone will climb up to take posed photos of themselves against the Taipei skyline. This of course includes a great view of Taipei 101:

As it turns out, we actually did the hike at a good timing and ideal pace. We managed to catch golden hour as the sun slowly set. The golden glow of the Taipei skyline from Xiangshan was magical!

While the views were stunning, the one thing that did irk me was the queue of people who were clamouring to climb atop the rock for Instagram-worthy shots.

Most people were quite considerate and made their photo-taking sessions quick, but there were some who kept hogging the rock despite knowing that many others were waiting for them. Heck, I even saw influencers holding up products to take their money-making shots!

Other trails

If you’re fit (fitter than me at least) and have time to spare, you can consider taking a loop past the viewpoint to explore other parts of Xiangshan.

So, is Xiangshan worth hiking?

Objectively speaking, Xiangshan was tougher than I expected, but it’s mainly because I wasn’t very fit and didn’t know what to expect on the hike.

I would say the trail itself is similar to Seongsan Ilchulbong Sunrise Peak where it’s just stairs after stairs. The stairs themselves are well-maintained so you probably won’t get any nasty surprises, but they can get rather steep. Bukhansan’s was a lot more unpredictable where your steps are sometimes just slippery rocks.

The views were really very spectacular, and I have to (begrudgingly) admit that the workout was considerably good. I would definitely do this hike again the next time I’m in Taipei, especially now that I’m much better prepared!

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Address: 110024, 4F, No.1, City Hall Rd., Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan

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