[Taiwan Taipei] Spend a Day in Yangming Mountain

Yangmingshan National Park is one of nine national parks in Taiwan and is located north of Taipei City. It offers a beautiful volcano landscape. Mountain ridges, valleys, lakes, waterfalls, and basins are abundant. No matter what season you are going to visit, there will always be special scenes welcome you.

What is the BEST month to visit, then?

There are thousands of wild and artificial cultivation trees and flowers species to find in the mountains in every season. The most famous and welcomed, of course, are the cherry blossoms from March to April every year. The Sea Otter flower, Du Fu, and camellias are sprouting continuously in the following months, after April.

The famous Cherry Blossom season attracts thousands of Taipeiness people. Hence, don’t even think about driving there, as it requires heavy traffic control during the cherry blooming season. You will be prohibited to drive private vehicles if you cannot provide proof of residence around the mountain. Just take a bus.

How to get to Yangmingshan?

There is no public transportation that will take you to Yangmingshan except via bus. You can take a bus from Taipei Main Station, Jiantan MRT Station (red line), or Tamsui MRT Station (red line). There are also a few buses that can take you to the Yangmingshan Tourist Center (Yangmingshan Bus Terminal). Once there, you can transit to Yangmingshan Circular Bus (NO.108) and proceed wherever you would like, on your visit to Yangmingshan.

Here is the Yangimingshan Circular Bus map.

The bus stops at each popular spot and you should plan to hike a little, to take a subsequent bus to the next destination once you get to Yangmingshan Bus Terminal. Busses are cheap, at about $15 NT per ride. You may pay by Easy Card.

Let’s check 4 hike-trail systems cover whole national park:

Datun Nature Park (Green)
Qixing Park (Brown)
Qingtiangang Circular Trail (Purple)
Pedestrian and vehicle separated road (Blue)

The must visit spots start from tourist center and clock-wise listed as below:

Yangmingshuwu 陽明書屋
Xiaoyoukeng 小油坑
Mt. Qixing 七星山
Lengshuikeng 冷水坑
Juansi Waterfall Trail 涓絲瀑布
Jingshan Suspension Bridge 菁山吊橋
Qingtiangang 擎天岡

We recommend the trail that begins from the Yangmingshan Tourist Center, towards Xiaoyoukeng, through Qixin Park, which ultimately leads to the highest point (1,120m) of the National Park. Here you view the beautiful Taipei City. You may also see the remarkable view of an active volcano at Xiaoyoukeng.

Active volcano at Xiaoyoukeng

After Xiaoyoukeng you may take a bus to Lengshuikeng to relax your feet in the hot springs, free of charge. There is also a public hot spring bath, at an affordable price, but this is not particularly recommended (it may not be cleaned regularly).

Foot Hot-springs (Free)

Once you recover your energy, you can walk approximately 5 minutes to see the Jingshan Suspension Bridge and the Dreamy Lake, down below. Take another bus, up the mountain, towards Qingtiangang, where you will see a few wild cows if you are lucky! This place has been wildly herding cows since the Japanese occupation in Taiwan.