Steven's Peak-bagging Journey

September 14, 2023

2130m

Taoyuan, Taiwan

Tamanshan, or 塔曼山 is the highest peak in Xinbei “New Taipei City” but the summit is on the border with Taoyuan and the ascent is from Taoyuan side. This peak subsequently boasts over 900 m prominence. It’s seldom known among the western peak-baggers but is quite popular in the locals. Almost every hiker that I talked to on various other Taiwanese mountains know the existence of Tamanshan, and I encountered at least several dozens of hikers during this hike. The ascent is rather a jungle hike and the summit is entirely forested with no view. There’s a minor viewpoint a few minutes beyond the summit on the east side, but I arrived there in the clouds so did not get to see anything from this peak. That’s not a problem as the reason to do this hike wasn’t the views anyway.

Adam and I opted for a later-than-ideal start in order to have some proper rest. The hotel’s breakfast would not open until 7 am so we did not leave until 7:30 am. The drive to the trail-head above Lalashan was much longer than expected with the majority of the distance on some narrow and winding roads. The entire road system was paved and the grade was reasonably mellow, and we did not have any problem driving the Mercedes there. Our driver has a fancy Mercedes that’s more for the highways than for the mountains, but it seems like the access in Taiwan is always paved. For the last few kilometers we were tailing a 9-passenger van and not to our surprise the van unloaded a group of ladies. They were extremely efficient in the transition and dashed up the trail immediately after parking the vehicle.

Adam and I needed several minutes to don sun protection and shoes but we were on the trail shortly after. Within 10 minutes we passed that group of ladies as they needed to take a break. Adam and I, on the other hand, would not take a single break until the summit. I anticipated about 1.5 hours of hiking to reach the summit and I was mostly correct. The route was definitely a typical one in the jungle that actually reminded us the hikes we just did in Indonesia, but the path was wide and easy to follow. The grade was also mellow such that there wasn’t “tree roots scrambling” required, but there were quite a lot of up-and-downs and micro-terrain that started to become tedious and annoying, especially nearing the summit. The final kilometer dragged on longer than expected. A group of hikers reminded us that there exists a viewpoint a few minutes beyond the summit towards 玫瑰西魔山 so we decided to check it out. Unfortunately we were in the clouds so did not get to see anything.

The ascent was rather disappointing because we literally could not see anything besides trees and hikers, so we did some trail running on the descent just to get out of here. Our round trip time was just over 2.5 hours which was half of what most people would take. There’s some weak cell reception so I texted the driver to come back and pick us up, while descending. The driver was already at the trail-head when we finished the hike. We made a stop in Lalashan for some peaches before driving down to Zhongli (near Taoyuan) for our final hotel stay in Taiwan. Adam had booked a 5-star hotel because we wanted some luxury and it sure was a nice one. At around 9 pm I decided that sleeping wasn’t that important and I’d rather get some more Taiwanese experience, so I went down and started talking to the receptionist. Another hour or two later I went out of the hotel, following the direction given by her and spent another hour or two in the night market. I wasn’t super hungry, but still stuffed something in. I eventually got back to the hotel at midnight and caught a few hours of sleep before the exhausting series of flights back home. I’m currently in Denver after a 10+ hour flight from Tokyo and there were a lot of sick people around. I got to sit right next to one sick Japanese dude. After hearing too much sneezing I talked to the flight attendants and changed my seat, but then the American guy beside me seemed to be just as sick and was shivering. I then went back to the original seat and covered my whole face up using a jacket. I did not bring a mask at all for this entire trip and that might not be the greatest idea. Nonetheless I’m on the way back home so I’m less concerned, but there’s definitely something going on right now. Starting from Kinabalu about 10 days ago I started to notice an increased percentage of sick people around.