Kaohsiung has a national park on its doorstep. Shoushan National Park was about 45 minutes away from where I was staying. I’d found some hikes online and decided to do one.
At some point I needed to take the light railway, which was walking distance from my hostel. On the way, I popped into the central library because it was stiflingly hot. It was a good decision. The library is a beautiful place to read or study. It had a roof garden too. I could have spent the entire day there, but a mountain awaited.
On my way to the light railway, I saw an Ikea store.
Shoushan National Park is sometimes called monkey mountain because of the macaques who live in the rocky park.
Most of the people hiking are seniors. Good paths are provided. For much of the walk, I stayed on these. However, when wooden steps appeared, I saw some people ascending via a rockier route. I followed them. I’m not sure this was the best move because it was hot and humid. Very soon this path turned into a steep ascent and sometimes I had to do a bit of scrambling because it was so rocky.
When I got to the top, there was a covered rest area. Water and tea were available in large vats. How civilised! That explained something I saw earlier. There was man, in bare feet, doing the same ascent. He had a large water container on his back, maybe 20kg. I thought he was training for some event, but he was taking up supplies for hikers.
The route I took was not the route I intended. The paths were not distinct, and some had been replaced by other, better, paths. I finished the walk just before it started getting dark and found a restaurant on my way back to the hostel. This restaurant grew some of its own vegetables, including mushrooms.
