about historic trails / 關於古道

Expecting a possible hike on the well-known Batongguan Historic Trail (八通關古道）, I thought of the historic trails I had been to.

Well, the most memorable one must be Caoling Historic Trail (草嶺古道) since everything started from there. Anyway, this trail, in the past, was the only way people traveled between the current Ilan and Taipei areas. It's actually a part of the longer Danlan Historic Trail (淡蘭古道), with Dan referring to the old name of Taipei area (any connotations to DANshui?) and Lan referring the name of Ilan area. I've been to this historic trail several times, and I still like this place. It takes about 3 hours to for this hike, and then you can go sit in the water at Fulong（福隆） if it's summertime.


I've also visited Yulu Historic Trail (魚路古道, that is, fish road historic trail, being the path by which the fishermen in the past carried their fish to Taipei to sell), a.k.a. Jinbaoli Path（金包里大道）, linking Jinshan (金山) in the northern coast and Taipei basin in the past. I've hiked the northern section of the trail, from Qingtiangang (擎天崗) at Yangming Mountain to Bayan（八煙） with the section between Bayan and Jinshan replaced by car roads, several times. As for the southern section, I think I've only hiked once, but I am not sure since the southern section is quite short, and mostly gone. The northern section of the historic trail takes about 2 hours. If you are hiking out of Yangming Mountain, you can catch a bus at Bayan to go to Jingshan and enjoy the beach there in the summer, or just stroll around the historic streets and have some sweet potatoes. YUM

I've walked downward on Tianmu Historic Trail（天母古道） several times. It's just a short hiking path for people to have a quick exercise. The view is quite nice on clear days. The stairs can be quite steep at some points. Now I wonder if Tianmu Historic Trail has anything to do with Yulu Historic Trail. Some people say it might possibly be the southern most section of Yulu Historic Trail but I don't know. I'll just let other people worry about it, and keep enjoying the hike and the scenery.

I just checked on the Internet and found that there are actually several historic trails in Yangming Mountain National Park. Maybe I've been to some without knowing it.