A Climb to Yushan (Mt. Jade) Main Peak - the highest mountain in Taiwan & Northeast Asia

Yushan (aka Jade Mountain), located in east of Alishan and Chiayi in Taiwan's Central Mountain Range, is the country's and East Asia's higest peak (taller than Fujisan but shorter than Gunung Kinabalu). Unlike many other Asian islands, Taiwan has no volcanoes, but it does have mountains like Yushan that are created by earthquakes resulting from the collision of the Philippine and Eurasian tactonic plates. International peakbaggers often combine a trip to Yushan National Park (YNP) to climb this peak along with trips to Gunung Kinabalu and Fuji-san to form an "Asian Trilogy" hiking experience. Yushan has 5 main peaks with the Main Peak being the most popular:

Main Peak: 3952 m
East Peak: 3853 m (4.5 km from Main Peak)
North Peak: 3833 m (3.5 km from "Wind Tunnel")
South Peak: 3711 m (3.1 km from just above Paiyun Hut)
West Peak: 3582 m (4 km from Paiyun Hut)

The North Peak is also home to Taiwan's highest permanently occupied building, the Yushan Weather Station, where the occasional visitors are given a warm welcome.MAIN PEAK WEST FACE APPROACH: The shortest and most popular route to the summit is to ascend the class 3 West Face from the YNP Tatachia Vistors' Center (2610 meters / 8563 feet). The 10.2 km (6.3 mile) route is class 2 for the first 8.5 km (5.3 miles) to the Paiyun Hut (3460 meters / 11352 feet) after which it becomes a 2.6 km class 3 scramble to the top. This last part of the route is "enhanced" by a steel and net "Gate" structure erected to keep people from being blown off the mountain (based on past experience), particularly at a point called the "Wind Tunnel" 1 km from the summit. Popular descent routes include either retracing the route up or to hike down the East Face, described below. On the ascent, many people spend the night at or near the Paiyun Hut to make it up to the summit to view the sunrise the next day. (Quoted from summitpost.org)

Planned Yushan trail on Mapsource

GPS track log on Google Earth

Yusan Wiki

Summiting Yushan is always my dream. Fortunately I had this opportunity to have it come true on 9/11/2008. It was a 3-day trip (from 9/9/2008 to 9/11/2008) led by the prestigious guide, Mr. Sung-Yi Chen, and included two team members, Peter Chan and myself. Peter is a cousin to my best friend, Fred Chan. Before the trip, I was a little scared as trips to Yushan often got cancelled if typhoon warning declaring and September is a typhoon-prone month. Before this trip, I had won two lotteries to Yushan but all got cancelled due to typhoons. Luckily no typhoon was near during the period of our trip and we went on the trip without problem.

Guide: Sung-Yi Chen (Big Brother Chen)
Members: Jason Chiu and Peter Chan

Total: 25 km
Elevation gain: 1,500 m
Type: out-and-back group hike
Class 2 hike / class 3 scramble
Load: 10 kg
Gear: TNF Skareb 40 pack / Lafuma Warm'N Light 800 bag / Evernew hiking staff / Garmin eTrex Legend C

8.5 km from Taraka trailhead to Paiyun Lodge (class 2 hike)
2.5 km from Paiyun Lodge to Main Peak (class 2 hike / class 3 scramble)

GPS track log on Motionbased.com

9/9/2008 Peter and I took the Taiwan High Speed Train to meet our guide, Mr. Sung-Yi Chen, at Taichung station at 2:15 pm. Mr. Chen then drove us in his car via expressway 21 to Tung-Po lodge (2573 m - 51 Q 284097 2598728) and stayed there for the night to acclimitise the high altitude. The lodge is near the trailhead to Yushan and it's always hiker's favorite to have a good night's sleep before next day's big hike. During our stay at the lodge, we met a 72-year-old folk, from Seattle, US, who had summited the highest peak, Kilimanjaro (5895 m), in Africa recently and was also here to summit Yushan. We slept earlier at 9 pm for tomorrow's early wake at 4:00 am. To reduce the impact of high altitude, we all wear hat during sleep.

Fuci Tree

Tong-Pu Lodge (2573 m)

9/10/2008 04:50 After making preparation for hike at the Tataka Squad parking lot 上東埔停車場 (2595 m - 51 Q 284095 2598527), we strated our hike to the Tataka trailhead. I carried the light weight pack, TNF Skareb 40, and Garmin eTrex Legend C GPS receiver (track logging) for the trip. Rainwear, insulated layer, hat, glove and headlamp are also required as the temperature will be near 35 F on the summit and it would be a night hike to summit as well.

9/10/2008 05:40 After a 40-minute walk, we arrived at Tataka trailhead 塔塔加登山口 (2612 m - 51 Q 285516 2597757) and continuted the hike after a short break. Not too far away from the trailhead, we came to pass a big landslide (2650 m - 51 Q 285679 2597774). The trail crossing the landslide was narrow and without protection but we all passed the section safely.

Yushan trailhead at Tataka

Panoramic view from Tataka trailhead

9/10/2008 06:50 Arrived at Menglu Pavilion 孟祿亭 (2812 m - 51 Q 286608 2597265) and took 10 minutes break. The pavilion is to memorize the American, Mr. Menglu, who died here on the hike back from Yushan in the 1950's. The trail condition was far from good in the old days. You can find a rest room nearby for hiker's convenience.

9/10/2008 07:25 Arrived at the Front Peak trailhead 前峰登山口 (2875 m - 51 Q 287316 2597151) and took 20 minutes break. If wished, you might turn left here to summit the Fornt Peak. Without doing so, we pressed on to continue the trip. For safety, a lot of bridges and wooden passways have been installed on difficult terrains.

On the way to Yushan (2874 m)

9/10/2008 09:10 Arrived at Observation Platform below West Peak 西峰下觀景台 (3040 m - 51 Q 288594 2596377) and stayed there for lunch until 10:00. We served hot noodle soup for the lunch. You can find a rest room nearby for hiker's convenience.

9/10/2008 11:06 Arrived at Great Precipice 大峭壁 (3202 m - 51 Q 289558 2596873) for 12 minutes break .

9/10/2008 12:10 Arrived at Paiyun Lodge 排雲山莊 (3402 m - 51 Q 290583 2596632) and stayed the night there. Until now, the high altitude didn't seem to have to great impact on my hiking performance except having difficulty to have big breath. The lodge was crowded with hikers to Yushan. I spent the afternoon wandering in the proximity and were luck to witness the apperance of a rarely-seen animal, Martes flavigula (黃喉貂). We served the dinner at 17:00. The meal with 10 entrees was prepared by a professional cook hired by the other hiking team and ready to serve 40 hikers. It was one of the best meal I ever had in the high altitude. Went to bed at 18:30 for tomorrow morining's early hike. As the hour was still early, I just lied on the bed motionlessly until 2:00 next morning.

Paiyun Lodge (3402 m)

Changing clouds at Paiyun Lodge

Changing clouds at Paiyun Lodge (20 minutes later)

9/11/2008 03:20 Departed from Paiyun Lodge (3402 m) for Main Peak. This was a night hike with headlamp on and proper clothing to cope with the low temperature. Due to the impact of high altitude and poor sleep I had last night, I struggled to hike up slowly with great effort.

9/11/2008 03:50 Arrived at the trail juction 主峰南峰叉路口 (3550 m - 51 Q 290993 2596695) of Main Peak and South Peak and took 5 minutes break. Taking the South Peak trail for one more mile, you may go to Yuanfong Cottage which is another nice place to stay before summiting Yushan but accommodates fewer hikers than Paiyun Lodge (15 vs. 82). Continued on the Main Peak trail, I still struggled up slowly with heart pumping rapidly. A few moments later, I could see a zip-zap line of light flashing in the distance. It is the famous bottleneck to the summit traffic as hikers tend to line up here due to the rugged terrain in the area. Near the next trail junction, we came under a gated trail to shelter hikers from the rockslide-prone area. As the dawn washed darkness from the sky, I could see the summit was almost there.

9/11/2008 05:15 Arrived at the trail juction 主峰北峰叉路口 (3865 m - 51 Q 291234 2597072) of Main Peak and North Peak and took 5 minutes break. As my situation was worsening, I decided to take the altitude sickness medicine. From this point beyond, hikers need to follow the cable system to go up. This is for safety reason due to the gusty wind, rugged terrain and steep slope in the summit area. The cable system is the famous bottleneck. At this point, I was totally exhausted and had less confidence to reach the summit. Thanks to the patience from Big Brother Chen, he constantly guided and encouraged me to go up. Step by step, the summit was closer.

9/11/2008 05:40 Arrived at Main Peak 玉山主峰 (3952 m - 51 Q 291360 2597041). There was already a huge crowd on the top waiting to see the sunrise. With luck, we saw the sunrise a few minutes later after summiting as it was a cloudy day. Everyone also waited in turn to take pictures with the summit post. What a fantastic view looking around. With everything under your feet and hot tea at hand, floating clouds and colored sky seemed to be within your reach.

Yushan Main Peak (3952 m)

Teamwork for successful summit

Sunrise at Main Peak 5:45 am

Panoramic view from Main Peak

9/11/2008 06:30 We stayed on the summit until 06:30 before going down. On the way down, I felt live again and was able to hike with good speed. It seemed the high altitude did take a great toll on me in the earlier ascent hike.

Going down from Main Peak

9/11/2008 07:35 Back to Paiyun Logdge. We took a short break and packed up for the return trip. We departed at 8:00.

Back to Paiyun Lodge

9/11/2008 09:10 Back to White Wood Forest. On the way down, we started to hear the news of typhoon warning declaration. Also met a park staff hiked up to ask hikers to go down immediately as the park is closed due to the declaration of typhoon warning.

9/11/2008 10:00 Back to the Front Peak trailhead. Not too far away, I twisted my left angle and needed to reduct the hiking speed accordingly.

9/11/2008 10:25 Back to Menglu Pavilion.

9/11/2008 10:50 Back to Tataka trailhead and took the commute shuttle back to the parking lot. It started to rain not too long after we drov away from the parking lot. We arrived at Taichung station of THSR at 15:00 and returned to Taipei at 16:30.

Post Note:

We were really lucky to leave the park the same day after the typhoon warning was declared. Typhoon Sinlaku with wind speed up to 115 miles per hour hit Taiwan 3 days later and caused great damage to the island, especially in the mountain area. One of the tunnel we drove by on the way back actually collapsed during the typhoon period. Quient a few people died in the collapse and incident afterwards. For those who didn't leave the mountain in time, they were forced to stay there for 4 days due to the landslides.