The Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園) is one of the eight national parks in Taiwan, and is located near Taipei, which makes it a convenient day trip, although you could never see everything that Yangmingshan has to offer in just one day.
When we went on our class visit to the park, we first visited the Ecological Education Center where a tour guide took us on a short hike through the park. The scenery was beautiful, and we were introduced to different species in the forest as we learned about the mountain. We were also told to watch out for poisonous snakes that the park is known for, but we didn’t run across any of them (although the CYCU group did).
Yangmingshan was originally known as Caoshan (草山, ‘Grass Mountain’) because of the tall silvergrass that covers the high slopes. The tallest peak is Mt. Qixing with an elevation of 1120 meters that reaches its highest point in Taipei City. Yangmingshan is famous for its cherry blossoms (during the spring), hot springs, sulfur deposits, fumaroles, and hiking trails, including one over the old volcano Seven Star Mountain (七星山).
For lunch, we went to McDonalds (LOL). The food basically tasted exactly the same as it does back in the states. I got a spicy chicken sandwich, which was pretty good. The funny thing about visiting McD's was that they were in the middle of their monopoly promotion, so I got to see the Taiwanese version. Several of the places on the "game board" I recognised. They even had Yangmingshan National Park and Chung-Yuan on there!
The second place we went to in the park was closer to the peak, and was really nice to visit because of the beautiful view of the mountains. Overall, I was very impressed with the cleanliness of the park and how well it was maintained. It is a place where, if I were coming back to Taiwan, I would definitely want to visit again. I do enjoy going to the mountains and national parks a lot, but I think that Yangmingshan is a place that anyone could enjoy, regardless of how much they like going to national parks and mountains, and I think it I definitely a necessary stop for all tourists visiting Taiwan.
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ecological education center,
hot springs,
mcdonalds,
yangmingshan national park
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