Sunday, November 4, 2007

My Neighborhood

One of the reasons I live in the southern part of Taipei is the proximity to the mountains. It doesn't hurt that I get this view out my front window, either.


The highest point in the background is Monkey Mountain. Some mountain biking friends say they have seen Formosan Macaques in the morning, but I never have. I suppose I just go out to late.

In any case, the new gondola system has a stop up there and I can see the little cars gliding up and down the wires from my windows. It's a glorious ride up, both day and night, and for both city and nature views. I'll try to post some pics later.

From the gondola station you can walk up to Monkey Mountain and continue on a natural path along a ridge for about 9 hours until you reach the next town. If you had the time, you could walk for two days to reach Fengtou Ridge - site of last weekend's hike - with only one short stint on a road.

Taipei is not a beautiful city at ground level but it's very lovely from the surrounding hills in my neighborhood.


Evenings and nighttime are quite dreamy.
I couldn't stand another day at home, cold or not, and went out tonight. Lots of begonias, wild ginger and red orchids blooming alongside the dike.

Down by the river a group of monks and mourners were burning a massive pile of ghost paper. Obviously someone important and wealthy has died recently. A gangster perhaps, judging from the cars.

I really need to carry my camera with me at all times.

4 comments:

Kate said...

A nice neighborhood. I never try to explore my neighborhood, it seems I should did the same thing, finding new aspects of my hometown. But the rainy days sucks, I am wondering where is the good place for hiking in the mildly rainy days.

Unknown said...

Definitely Mucha is a nice place to live and explore. I grew up in Mucha, but didn’t realize how nice it is until I moved back here from Taoyuan a couple of years ago. There are many trails in Mucha, long hikes and short hikes too. I enjoy walking on the trail to 銀河洞 a lot. It’s a perfect distance for me. The other short walk I like is the trail to 樟山寺. I went up last weekend and had sweet potato soup by the temple. Chinese people always like to have some kind of rewards after achieving something.

David said...

Nice to find your blog and I look forward to reading about more of your hikes.

Todd Alperovitz said...

Hello, I just discovered your blog via David's daily links. I look forward to more.