As someone who loves hiking, photography, and animals, I couldn’t pass up day tripping to Elephant Mountain (像山/Xiangshan Trail) in Taipei. Although there’s no actual elephants here, you can get some of the best views of Taipei City from the top, and also try delicious elephant butter bread at the base of the mountain for only 30 TWD. The climb to the elephant-shaped rocks where this mountain gets its name from only takes around 30 minutes max, so I’d rate it as an overall easy climb. From the rocks you can reach a central viewing platform and get a fantastic view of Taipei 101 and all surrounding buildings. Perfect for traveling photographers like me!
To reach the start of Xiangshan Trail, you only need to ride the train 20 mins from Taipei Main Station to Xiangshan Station. It’s pretty straightforward from there–just follow all of the elephant-shaped signs to the mountain path to start climbing. What I loved about this mountain is that it had an open-air gym that’s free to use at the top. I saw less tourists and far more Taiwanese locals here going for walks with their dogs and also lifting weights. What a way to flex!
If you want to keep climbing to reach the other trail head, it takes around 2.5 hours, but the spot with the elephant rocks at the beginning has the best views of the city. I spent a good hour and a half here taking photos and also exploring the open gym area. After I was satisfied, I decided to pay a visit to the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall:
This is actually only a 5 minute ride from Taipei Main Station to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (yes, it’s so famous that it has its own station). This memorial was named after Chiang Kai-shek, the former President of the Republic of China. It has a number of building complexes to see and a statue as well. I had a lot of fun climbing the stairs and taking photos from different angles. Even if you’re not a history buff, this place is still a lot of fun to see.
I’ll be covering my next day trip to Houtong Cat Village in my next article. Thank you for reading as always!