Mt. Qixing Mountain, Taiwan

Trip report by BestHike editor Rick McCharles

Qixing Mountain (also Cising) stands as the highest and most central peak in Yangmingshan National Park.

All trails are well-maintained with stone steps and converge at the windswept main peak.

The summit is the ultimate reward, offering a magnificent 360-degree panorama of the entire national park, the Taipei cityscape, and the northern coast on clear days.

The national park is known for its cherry blossoms, hot springs, sulfur deposits, fumaroles, venomous snakes, and hiking trails, including Taiwan’s tallest dormant volcano, Qixing (Seven Star) Mountain rising to 1,120 m (3,675 ft).

There are several Visitors Centres, each very helpful in helping you decide on hikes ➙ starting and finishing. Public transportation is super crowded here.

As you can see, clouds covered the peak when I was there. Not unusual.

Stone steps keep you out of the mud in most cases. But they are irregular shapes and sizes.

The summit is often crowded. I didn’t linger long.

Actually, I enjoyed the clouds blowing in and out, sometimes revealing the vista below.

It can get windy up here, of course

Volcanic sediments in this pond give it a milky appearance.

I finished near Lengshuikeng Hot Springs and would love to have finished with a soak. But these Springs have unusual opening hours. Locked when I was there. AND I was worried about getting back to Taipei on the busy tourist buses.

So I simply soaked my feet in the outdoor pothole.