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登山道の黄色のカーペット Yellow carpet on a trail
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天上山は、新北市の中和區から土城區に至る辺地の南に伸びる山脈である。最高峰が標高430の天上山だ。人口密集地に近く、山もそれほど高くない。つまりは都市に近い自然がある場所であり、また市民の憩いの場所でもある。アクセスも簡単である。筆者は、かなり前にほとんどルートを歩いている。その後数年ずっと訪れることがなかった。
今回、ちょうど油桐花の時期なので久しぶりに訪れることにした。全く同じルートでは、面白くないので、少し変化をつけたり下りにとった道を登るなどして歩いた。期待していた油桐花は、時期を過ぎていたようで遠目にみても山肌の白い花は少なかった。また道に散った白い花も、あまり見かけなった。目立ったのは、小さな相思樹の黄色の小さな花や、その他地元民が植えた鑑賞用の花であった。それはそれで、春が過ぎ夏の到来を予告している。天気は曇りで、気温もあまり高くなく楽であった。
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| Map of our hike |
Tianshang-shan (天上山) means a mountain of above sky. It is of course up to each person to judge whether this name fits a peak of just 430 meters in elevation. That being said, the peak is the highest point of a mountain range that runs about 20 kilometers south of the densely populated area of New Taipei City, including districts of Zhonghe (中和), Banqiao (板橋) and Tucheng (土城). The mountain range is very close to residential zones, so residents can easily access all parts of the range. It is in a sense a back yard of the nearby residents. Even a whole community has been developed on a nearly the top of the mountain range like Lvyexiangpo (綠野香坡) just next to Mt. Wenbi-shan (文筆山).
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| Fallen tung flowers |
Not high the mountains are, they offer good vistas of the whole Taipei metropolitan and beyond because nothing stands between the mountain range and the flat land below. Every spring brings numerous flowers to this mountain range. One species worth mentioning is Tung flower (Vernicia, 油桐花), of which white flowers come in full bloom in late April through May and covers a large part of mountain green. The fallen flowers cover trails as if white snow covers, so they are called May snow. The Tianshang-shan mountain range holds countless tung flower trees and let us enjoy their white flowers in spring. I visited the place for that purpose more than a couples times in the past.
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| All members in front of the large stone sing of Tainshang-shan trail |
The season of tung flowers this year seemed to have come earlier to Tianshang-shan. By the time we visited on this occasion more than a half of all trees had already lost their flowers and we did not see as much as the past. Instead we saw more of little yellow flowers of acacia trees. This species of acacia trees originates in southern Taiwan and was transplanted throughout theTaiwan rural areas during the Japanese era. The timber of the acacia is good for agricultural tools and furniture, and was used as material for charcoal production. Tung trees on the other hand produce seeds from which oil was extracted for industrial use. This species come from southern China a couple of hundred years ago to Taiwan and was planted at countless locations. It is associated with Hakka people (客家人), who are known for their diligence. A story goes that tung trees have very strong resilience and endure hash environments, which would represent the characteristics of the Hakka people.
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| Lane 587 of Qingyun street |
Since it turned into May this year, we have had more rains. It rained a lot during the labor-day holidays. I fount it raining in early this morning. The weather forecast showed that it should turn OK later, so I decided to go as planned and told my friends so. When I arrived at Banqiao bus terminus (新北板橋公車站) for a #245 line of bus, 6 friends showed up. A #245 bus came around at 7:40 and we took a ride of it for Qinghuali bus stop (清化里站). Another member happened to be on the same bus and one more member showed up there in a short while, which added up to the total nine of us.
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| A platform of Qingfengling |
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| Climbing up |
There is a platform just below the summit where two local people are exercising. Some exercise equipment are placed around, which local people brouth up for regular use. In fact you find many such platforms along the trails over this mountain range and other mountains near Taipei as well. The mountains are their backyard indeed. We come down to the original trail and keep going up along it for Mt. Qingshui_dajian-shan (清水大尖山), our next destination. Rain of the past few days made the trails muddy, but stairs made of wood help prevent from slipping. We come up a viewing deck at 9:00. We are at an elevation of some 190 meters above sea level and this deck affords a wide view towards the metropolitan. Mountains behind the buildings are too hazy for us to make out their skyline.
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| Summit of Wujian-shan |
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| Walking on ridge trail |
We follow the ridge trail down to a untidy bottom where trashes are scattered and climb back onto the ridge. The ridge runs above the community of Lvye Xiangpo. The community area is pretty big with many residential buildings from bottom to top of the hillside. Another mountain range of
Mt. Shizitou-shan (獅子頭山) to Mt. Xiongkong-shan (熊空山) across the valley is seen over the community buildings. The ridge trail further goes up to the summit of Mt. Wenbi-shan (文筆山, 375m) just by an electric tower, which we get to at 11:01.
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| Trail gate |
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| Going along Shibixi wooden trail |
We wash our dirty boots by a toilet across the street and set off for our final leg along a wooden elevated trail called Shibixi trail(石壁溪棧道) parallel to its namesake river. The wooden trail goes all way down for about 15 minutes. We then leave the trail and walk along streets among factory buildings to MRT Yongning station (永寧站). We complete our hike at 15:42.
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| Tromanthe flowers by the trail |
The hike lasted 7 hours and 20 minutes with all rests included and covered 12.3 kilometers. The total ascent and descent was 722 meters each, all of which calculates the route physical index to be 25. Cloudy sky of today was a forerunner of the Maiyu (梅雨) rainy season that would last for a month or so in Taiwan. It was rather cool during our hike thanks to cloudy sky which would otherwise be very hot under the sun of May.
