Jinmian Mountain Hiking Trail is actually a very famous hiking trail but I did it only this year.

To go there, take the brown line until Wende Station. Walk until Bihu Park where there is a big water pond. The way up the Mountain is somewhere behind the Park.

My advice is, if you don’t mind people, maybe to go up the trail by the usual way, not fare from Xihu Station. It’s the official entrance, where, for sure, you will see people going up. We had some difficulties finding the way up from behind Bihu Park but at least we crossed no one, almost all the way up.

We didn’t cross anyone and also at the top there was a beautiful little garden with flowers.

Maybe that’s why I saw this beautiful swallowtail butterfly right in front of me, so I stayed there some time, trying to get a nice photo, but as you can see, I didn’t succed.

There was also a great view on the city and on Bihu Park.

The way up is not that difficult and not that long.

The more we came close to Jinmianshan Cliff, the more people we saw. Already at one spot before the main one, we could see a whole amount of people agglutinate on the rocks and especially to climb on the famous scissor-rock. People were literally queueing to take a picture there and all this only to post on their instagram.

Because we did this hike the other way round, unlike most people, we came down by the main path, through the rocks. And it’s while walking there, that I understood why the hike is so famous. This part is really cool. You walk on the rocks all along and the view on the City is one of the best of all the hiking I did.

We saw a women who must have been at least 80 years old or even far more, struggling climbing on those big rocks. Even for me it was sometimes difficult to climb or to keep my balance. It was very impressive to see this old lady in this environment. I was already suprised the first time I came to Taiwan, 3/4 of the people you will see in the Mountains are people over 50 years or even over 60. Besides the ones exercising in the park. People in Taiwan are very very active and for sure that’s one of the reason they live so long. Having nature so close to the city and never stop being active is the way !