Yangmingshan

Yangmingshan National Park is one of the nine national parks in Taiwan, located between Taipei and New Taipei City. The districts that house parts of the park grounds include Taipei's Beitou and Shilin Districts; and New Taipei's Wanli, Jinshan and Sanzhi Districts. The National Park is famous for its cherry blossoms, hot springs, sulfur deposits, fumaroles, venomous snakes, and hiking trails, including Taiwan's tallest dormant volcano, Seven Star Mountain (1,120 m).

For the park in Hunan, see Yangmingshan National Forest Park.
Yangmingshan National Park
IUCN category II (national park)
Seven Star Mountain with hot springs on the side
LocationTaiwan
Nearest cityTaipei (majority of park within city limits)
Area113.38 km2 (43.78 sq mi)[1]
EstablishedSeptember 16, 1985
Yangmingshan
Traditional Chinese陽明山國家公園
Simplified Chinese阳明山国家公园

History

This mountain range was originally called "Grass Mountain" (Chinese: 草山; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chháu-soaⁿ) during the Qing Dynasty, in reference to Datun Mountain (大屯山; Tōa-tūn-soaⁿ).[2] Officials during this period were worried about thieves stealing sulfur from the rich sulfur deposits in the area so they would regularly set fire to the mountain. Thus, only grass and not trees could be seen.

Daiton National Park, Taiwan's first national park, was established on 27 December 1937.[3] It was one of three national parks designated by Governor-General of Taiwan Seizō Kobayashi during Japanese rule.

In 1950, President Chiang Kai-shek, renamed Grass Mountain to Yangmingshan, to commemorate the Ming Dynasty scholar Wang Yangming.[2][4] In 1962, the then Taiwan Provincial Bureau of Public Works began to plan the Yangmingshan National Park. The initial planning area was 28,400 hectares, including Mount Kwan-in and the Tatun Volcano Group.

Landscape and geology

Different from the high mountain national parks, Yangmingshan National Park has a lower elevation. Even though mountain elevations range from only 200–1120 meters, beautiful landscapes such as ridges, valleys, lakes, waterfalls and basins are abundant. Andesite rocks make up most of the area's geology.[5]

Xiaoyoukeng

Xiaoyoukeng is a post-volcanic geological landscape area located in the north of Taiwan in Yangmingshan National Park.[6] at the northwestern foot of Seven Star Mountain. It is approximately 805 meters above sea level and is famed for the fumaroles, sulfur crystals, hot springs and spectacular 'landslide terrain' formed by post-volcanic activity.

Hiking trails to Seven Star Mountain are accessible from the Xiaoyoukeng parking lot. The top of the trail is 1,120 meters above sea level, which is the highest peak of Taipei City. The Xiaoyoukeng trail can connect to Qixing Park, Menghuan Pond, and Lengshuikeng. The trail also connects to visitor center, Yangmingshan Second Parking Lot and the Yangmingshan Bus Station.[7]

An active fumarole at Xiaoyoukeng.
A distant view of the fumarole of Xiaoyoukeng.

Flora and fauna

Due to the effects of post-volcanic activity and precipitation, soil in the region is highly acidic. With the influence of the northeast monsoon and the area's microclimates, winter temperatures are much lower than the surrounding areas.[8] The above factors cause the vegetation to differ from those in other regions at the same latitude. Some medium and high altitude plants can be found here such as bird-lime tree and hairy Japanese maple. Vegetation groups can be divided into subtropical monsoon rain forests, temperate evergreen broadleaf forests and mountain ridge grasslands. There are 1360 species of vascular bundle plants in the region.[9] Some of the common ones are red nanmu, large-leaved machilus, Formosan sweet gum, Taiwan cherry, Mori cleyera and dark spotted cherry. The most famous is Taiwan isoetes in Menghuan pond, an aquatic fern only found in Taiwan. Mt. Datun is one of the most well known places to see some of the 168 species of butterflies in northern Taiwan. The best time to view the butterflies is from May to August. The most common ones are from the families Papilionidae, Danainae and Nymphalidae. There are also 122 species of birds in the region.[10] Semi-feral cattle are one of notable attractions in the area.[11]

Historical and cultural sites
  • Dream Lake.
  • Cherry Blossom
  • Closer view of fumarole on Seven Star Mountain.
  • Chung-Shan Building in Yangmingshan.
  • Chinese Pavilion and Cherry Blossom.
  • Guangfu Building.
  • A park near the entrance.
  • Statue of Chiang Kai-shek in the park.
  • Yangmingshan hot springs
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See also

References
  1. 各國家公園基本資料表 (PDF) (in Chinese). Construction and Planning Agency, Ministry of the Interior, R.O.C.(Taiwan). June 6, 2014. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
  2. Barron, James (April 4, 2020). "Shadows at Yangmingshan". Taipei Times. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
  3. ivil Affairs Handbook: Taiwan (Formosa), Taihoku Province. United States Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. November 1, 1944. p. 180. Archived from the original on September 10, 2008.
  4. "Tourists will surpass million mark by 1976". Free China Review. September 1, 1972. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
  6. Park, Yangmingshan National (April 9, 2017). "Yangmingshan National Park". english.ymsnp.gov.tw (in Chinese). Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  7. Park, Yangmingshan National (April 9, 2017). "Xiaoyoukeng". english.ymsnp.gov.tw (in Chinese). Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  8. "Yangmingshan". Archived from the original on January 30, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
  9. "A Bird-watching Trip in Yangmingshan National Park". Archived from the original on June 12, 2010.
  10. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 5, 2012. Retrieved April 7, 2010.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. 太厲害！擎天崗的牛 乖乖跟「他」走！. The Liberty Times. Retrieved on May 08, 2017
  12. "Guangfu Building Overview". Archived from the original on July 21, 2011. Retrieved January 27, 2011.
  13. YC-Wang, Daal. "荷馬李將軍夫婦靈骨厝葬 - VCenter:影音分享網站(Video Sharing Website)".
  14. "個人簡歷". Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved February 9, 2011.

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