Hill Trails, Sulfur-Vent Valleys, Spa Comforts
TEXT | RICK CHARETTE
PHOTOS | VISION
Let’s have a day in the famed Beitou hot-spring district in Taipei’s northwest corner. Look at Google Maps and you’ll see the Taipei Metro’s Xinbeitou Station pointing straight into a narrow valley at the base of the Yangmingshan massif. This is the heart of Taipei’s hot-spring resort getaway area. During this walking day we spend time in the verdant hills directly above the resort area, from which most of the magical water flows.
Just above the valley are two large depressions close to one another, Sulfur Valley and Longfeng Valley, sources of the preponderance of mineral waters used by this area’s hot-spring hotels and other bathing establishments. Beitou facilities are primarily in the valley that faces the metro station and around its edges above. We’ll be visiting both the Sulfur and Longfeng attractions, but first a trail outing just a bit higher – the Shibafen Canal Trail.
Shibafen Canal Trail
The upper trailhead is on Dongsheng Road at the small community of Dinghu. The paved/staired trail is 1.2km long, one-way along a mountain ridge down toward Sulfur Valley, requiring moderate fitness. In the Qing Dynasty, local farmers collectively created a narrow, gushing irrigation canal to bring water down from higher reaches, and blazed this pathway beside as a service artery. “Shibafen” means “18 sections;” the waterway is divided into 18 sections for shared maintenance. Today’s agri-operations are dedicated to horticulture, and cherry trees and maples have been planted along the route (cherry blossoms in winter). Other attractions are an old Earth God temple, beside which you may see hikers roasting yams inside small rock piles, and the Maple Fragrance Lookout near the very top. Sweeping far-off views are good at points all along the way, but especially inspiring at the lookout.
Sulfur Valley
Entering the “lost world” of Sulfur Valley, wider and deeper than Longfeng Valley, you’ll feel like a space traveler set down on the surface of a scalded, lifeless planet. Created by long-ago volcanic eruptions, steam vents hiss menacingly and hot-spring pools bubble away moodily, and all about you within the confines of the high bare-rock perimeter walls are yolk-yellow sulfur deposits. There are great opportunities for up-close viewing of igneous/sedimentary rock juxtapositions. A well-maintained pathway with some mildly steep sections takes you along from the parking lot at the basin’s lower end up to Xingyi Road passing by at the top. Other facilities include observation platforms above the small lake, rest pavilions, and foot-bath facilities popular with local seniors and Beitou hiking visitors. Across Xingyi Road from the higher-end trailhead of the valley pathway, enjoy a quick visit to the fetching Qingren (“Lovers”) Waterfall on the steep slope right beside the roadway.
Longfeng Valley
On the high ridge that separates Sulfur Valley and Longfeng Valley is the Longfenggu Visitor Center, at the intersection of Xingyi Road and Quanyuan Road. The two valleys lie within Yangmingshan National Park, which takes up much of the upper portion of the Yangmingshan massif. The center houses first-rate displays, with good and ample English, on the massif’s formation and volcanic activity, now-defunct traditional local industries such as sulfur mining and charcoal kilns, and the mountains’ flora and fauna.
Systematic sulfur mining/refining in Taiwan was launched here in 1697 with the arrival of a Qing Dynasty official named Yu Yong-he, charged with replenishing stock used for gunpowder manufacture after a major fire at a mainland facility. Local indigenous inhabitants worked in exchange for barter goods. In a landscaped area of the visitor center grounds by the Xingyi/Quanyuan intersection you’ll find a memorial stele to Yu Yong-he and an info board (with English) providing more detail. Sulfur extraction continued in the valleys well into the 20th century, with relics from the work visible in both, along with scores of man-made rock/cement pools from which pipes emerge taking the spring waters to hot-spring operations in the area.
A trail leads down into Longfeng Valley from near the visitor center, starting beside Xingyi Road, snaking the full length of the valley’s north side. Longfeng Valley offers the same type of scalded landscape as Sulfur Valley, though as said on a smaller scale. The trail emerges from trees near the valley bottom to wend its way through and over clusters of large boulders, hot-spring pools bubbling away right beside you, wending past a few small shrines. A branch comes up from the valley-bottom parking lot, where there are scenic-view rest pavilions.
The trees in the valley area are mostly acacia and fig. In the past, the charcoal and sulfur industries left the surrounding land wood-bald and prone to erosion, and these tree types were central in reforestation efforts. In Longfeng Valley you’ll see a steady stream of middle-aged and older fellows plying the trail and disappearing into the densely forested gorge above the valley’s northeast corner. The trail takes them to a nearby secluded nude bathing facility (open to all of male persuasion) by the Huang Creek. The creek is a wide waterway poetically bonny, gushing, and hurtling. It is colored by the mineral waters that it picks up as it races along out of the gorge, through the valley, and down to the Taipei Basin. Entertainingly, near the path in the trees as you pierce up-gorge is a squadron of pastel-painted statues of iconic Chinese mythological characters such as the Monkey King, Guan Gong (the God of War), Laughing Buddha, and Lotus-Seated Buddha.
Huang Creek Ridge Scenic Trail
Just below Longfeng Valley is another depression, significantly smaller, through which the Huang Creek pushes downwards impatiently. Reach it via Lane 402 of Xingyi Road. Walk up along one wall of the upper section, which is another barren world of exposed yellow-hue rock and spewing sulfur-laden steam, via the new Huang Creek Ridge Scenic Trail. The trail is a 200m wood-built staircase pathway that ends with a high-perch lookout. It is part of an ongoing redevelopment project, set to be completed at the end of 2025, that is transforming the depression.
Flat flagstone walkways now run along through lawn-style grass and young shade trees on both sides of the creek in the depression’s lower section, before the creek disappears into trees where the walls almost come together again. There are spas here, one of which you’re visiting momentarily. The steep creek banks are now lined with boulders neatly fitted together, about 5m high. In two locations broad cut-stone staircases bring you right down to the water, facilitating foot-bathing in the warm mineral waters.
Other Suggestions for Your Expedition
Here are other suggestions for your day-outing bucket list. To explore all, of course, well more than a single day is required. More immediately, to set these places up planning-wise, some geo-explaining helps:
Emperor Spa is a good example of the scores of high-quality hot-spring facilities in the area that each possess unique character and particular suites of facilities, enabling exact matching with your overnighting or shorter-duration apres-hike desires. Located off the Huang Creek, as are all local soaking facilities, it’s surrounded by spirits-exciting mountain views. Tucked away in tree cover, it has the architectural styling, interior décor, and landscaping of a Japanese high-mountain onsen. There are three fully separated bathing areas and two restaurants, serving Taiwanese/Chinese and Japanese, along with private karaoke rooms (it’s not an inn, no guestrooms for overnight stays). Among the culinary highlights beloved by regulars are the casserole porridge (reservation before taking a bath recommended) and the steamed soup dumplings. There’s one nude pool area for men, one for women (private rooms available at these two), and a third family-friendly pool with swimwear used. All pool facilities are open 24H, NT$250 per adult and no time limit for public areas, all pools are cleaned daily, and note – cash-only.
Emperor Spa
(皇池溫泉御膳館)
Add: No. 42-1, Ln. 402, Xingyi Rd., Beitou Dist., Taipei City
(台北市北投區行義路402巷42之1號)
Tel: (02 2862-3688
Website: emperorspa.com.tw (Chinese)
For more hiking in the area consider the well-known Tianmu Historic Trail. While it is possible to walk from the Emperor Spa to the trail, this is only recommended for experienced hikers who are familiar with the area, because the connecting path is narrow and not signposted.
Instead, start your hike at the southern trailhead on Lane 232, Section 7, Zhongshan North Road. Zhongshan runs parallel a few hundred meters east of Xingyi Road in Tianmu’s northern section. The trail is 3km one way, ending up on Yangmingshan by the Chinese Culture University. The tree-lined pathway is very shady, features over 1,400 stone steps, and famously runs beside a large gurgling, groaning pipe bringing spring water down-mountain. This is the southern half of the historic mountain-traversing Yulu (“Pathway of the Fish”) Historic Trail, along which marine catch was transported from the coast in imperial times.
Because of Tianmu’s pronounced local expatriate population, the Tianmu Commercial District has a markedly international flavor, with a delicious Taiwanese/international mix of eateries, shops, and watering spots. It’s concentrated on the Zhongshan Road/Tianmu Road intersection, not far south of the Tianmu Historic Trail trailhead. A plaza at this intersection is home to the popular weekend outdoor Tianmu Life Market. Here you can browse a cornucopia of creative handicrafts and secondhand goods.
Another popular hiking destination in Beitou District is the massive Battleship Rock, located in undeveloped forested hills southeast of our Xinbeitou Station valley, west of our Huang Creek run. This is a hulking warship-resembling outcrop of sedimentary rock, formed 24 million years ago, from which sweeping views of the Taipei Basin, Tamsui River valley, and mountains north are enjoyed. To get there, take the MRT to Qilian Station and walk to the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. The trail starts inside the university campus; just follow the signs.
After having worked up an appetite, consider exploring the Shipai Night Market, purveyor of sundry traditional Taiwanese snacks, just a few blocks from MRT Shipai Station. The Shipai community is adjacent to Tianmu, likewise tucked up against the Yangmingshan massif base. Three especially popular market operators are Shangcheng Mackerel Thick Soup, Cenlin Mung Bean Smoothie, and Douhua Lin (tofu pudding).
A closing note on transportation – public buses on numerous routes ply the areas we’ve explored here. For this article, your writer took the Small 9 up from Beitou Park before MRT Xinbeitou Station to the Dingpu stop, then used the Small 36 along Xingyi Road and onto MRT Shipai Station.
About the author
Rick Charette
A Canadian, Rick has been resident in Taiwan almost continually since 1988. His book, article, and other writings, on Asian and North American destinations and subjects—encompassing travel, culture, history, business/economics—have been published widely overseas and in Taiwan. He has worked with National Geographic, Michelin, APA Insight Guides, and other Western groups internationally, and with many local publishers and central/city/county government bodies in Taiwan. Rick also handles a wide range of editorial and translation (from Mandarin Chinese) projects.
