Beidawu mountain.北大武山
After our very successful Jinshui camp trail hike I convinced fellow hiker Joel to climb the mighty Beidawu (North Dawu) mountain that looks over the Pingtung plains and Kaohsiung city.
Time exposure looking west to the setting New Year moon. The twin urban glows of Pingtung and Kaohsiung shine up through the sea of clouds.
If you look due east from Kaohsiung past the suburban sprawl, Daliao, the Gaoping river and the Pingtung plains you should see the 3000m Dawu mountain range only 35 kilometres away.
Occasionally around sunrise and a few days after each typhoon the mountains are visible to everyone. Otherwise Dawu is obscured by the industrial smog, rural burns, tropical air and the very fine alluvial dust that 4 million odd people trample.
As soon as you start to climb above the population soup the mountains emerge.
After a long rough winding mountain road you reach the trail head at 1540m
It is a 4 hour hike from the trail head to the hut. The trail is well marked and a good climb.
The hut sleeps 60 with further camping grounds for dozens of tents. Because of the week long Chinese New Year holiday and the miserable northern Taiwan winter drizzle the trail was busy and the hut was full.
We slept on benches under the balcony which was fine until about 1:30 am when super-keen hikers started preparing to for an accent to the summit for sunrise. We started the final climb at 3:30am and reached the ridge for sunrise. It is a further hour or so along the ridge to the top of North Dawu peak.
There were a few patches of ice left over from the cold front two weeks earlier.
And lots of red cedars, pines and small patches of alpine bamboo.
There was a little wildlife too.
We met some wonderful people along the trail. Lots of young and older couples, hiking groups, a few family groups too. Even some Taiwan resident Canadians and Australian making a dry New Years get-away from the north.
Along with the view from the top, the highlight was the sunset viewed from just before Juniper lodge. The sea of clouds is famous in the southern mountains but not always reliable.
There really are two Taiwans. One is above 1000 metres and is clean, sparsely populated and beautiful. When you are lucky you can see for miles and miles above the sea of clouds. The other exists below 1000 metres and is crowded, polluted and when you are lucky you can sometimes see the other through the swamp of smog.
Looking due north along the Southern first Section trail to Guanshan and the Southern Cross island highway.
Practicalities
You can reach the trailhead through Taiwu on Pingtung county road 106. Get your mountain permit from the police station in Taiwu. The friendly police checked our gear, map and basic plan and waved us on when translation of the two forms became too difficult.
The trail requires some fitness but is not technically difficult. It can be easily done in two days if you start day 2 early. The hut is well set-up with water and “mountain dump” toilets.
It is shame that the Taiwanese residents never been to this place. We do not really enjoy what we have on this island, especially in the countryside. Again & again, I do wish that I can join in for the related hiking & camping.
Happy Chinese OX Year
Cindy Chih
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Stephen reply on February 2nd, 2009:
Thank you Cindy,
There are still more than 90 of the top 100 to climb.
Please do join us one day.
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Kat reply on February 24th, 2009:
It sure looked like a lot of Taiwanese residents were up there, judging by the pictures!
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What an awesome hike. Those floating clouds photos are absolutely stunning. I especially like the fist long time exposure photo. Nice work there.
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Stephen reply on February 2nd, 2009:
Thank you Ashish,
When all the conditions line up correctly, hiking in Taiwan is awesome.
Even when they don’t quite line up, the hiking is still fantastic.
With a little more phographic equipment, like a tripod instead of a rock, a remote shutter and a little wider glass, the night shot could be superb.
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Excellent pictures, the sea of clouds looks fantastic… Thanks for the report!
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Stephen reply on February 3rd, 2009:
You’re welcome,
The sea of clouds was fantastic. No butterflies at those altitudes unfortunately.
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[...] as a hiking destination but there is no lack of mountain trails. Shan Ding Lu hikes to the 3,000 metre plus peak of North Dawu Mountain. Taiwan Teacher goes rockclimbing near Taichung. Chris hikes some different trails over the [...]
Glad to see you made there! The pictures are fantastic, love the sea of clouds.
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Stephen reply on February 11th, 2009:
Thanks Stu for your recent info on making the Beidawu climb.
Great to see your http://hikingtaiwan.blogspot.com. Meet you on a Taiwan mountain somewhere.
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Beautiful shots. What day did you do this hike and how was the foot traffic on the trail?
I’m a bit curious about the history of North Dawu. What did the locals tell you?
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Stephen reply on February 15th, 2009:
We hiked on the Wednesday after the Monday Chinese New Year and the trail was full. 60 in the hut, a dozen sleeping on the more than adaquate balcony area and probably 20 tents. Well over 100 people. I heard the hut is generally full on the weekend and I guess midweek would be relatively empty.
There were lots of great people on the trail and we talked on lots of things but the history of the area was not one of them. As with all the mountain areas in Pingdong county they are strongly aboriginal. You get a feel for that as you move from the plain to the first mountain village. There is an old Japanese shrine near the summit you can see in a couple of the photos above. Dawu is an impressive and dominating mountian, it would most certainly have been legend for many.
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