Cycling Lions Head Mountain – Miaoli County, Taiwan
One of the highlights for me so far during my life in Taiwan has been the bicycle rides I’ve been on. The country here is simply amazing. Everything is green and if you venture out into the mountains you’re amply rewarded with scenery that just dwarfs you as a person.
One of the first rides I got to do while I was here in Taiwan was a pass through Lions Head Mountain. As far as scenic rides go this was definitely up there as one of the more beautiful rides I’ve ever been on.
Lions Head Mountain is situated in Miaoli County in Northern Taiwan and is 496 meters above sea level. It’s name came about because apparently the northern face of the mountain looks like a lion’s head. I’m not exactly sure where the north face was or if you need to look at it from a certain angle or what, but coming down the mountain from the south I certainly couldn’t see it.
If your cycling the mountain it’s preferable that you approach it from the south. Coming from the south one of the first things you see as you ascend the mountain are the various gateways along the road.
I have no idea what the writing said but the scope and detail put into the gateway was quite impressive. Someone even put red ribbons around the doggies…uh I mean lions.
As I got closer to the peak of the mountain I ran across this parculiar garden fence:
Some of the wheels looked like they’d been there a long time. There wasn’t anyone around to ask so I don’t know if the display had any relevance or was just one of those random things someone does. Still, being on a bicycle myself it gave me something to smile about. I knew where to come if I busted up one of my wheels in the area.
As I mentioned earlier coming in from the south is the better option. The climb from the south is much more gruelling then from the north, but it’s also much shorter. If you come from the north you’ve got less of a gradient to climb but it’s way longer. Personally I’d rather spend more time going downhill so putting up with the south climb is well worth it.
After climbing from the south the reward is a 6-7km run downhill. I was just coasting and topped out at 63km/h so there’s loads of potential if you can be bothered pedalling. The roads a bit windy too so it’s good fun to test your bike handling skills. Coming from Melbourne Australia where mountains are unheard of, the Lions Head downhill run was the highlight of the ride for me. I simply hadn’t experienced anything like it before on a bicycle.
About halfway along the downhill run you pass the Lions Head Visitor Centre. There’s not all that much to do here but there was a cafe and a multilevel goldfish pond.
Inside the pond were goldfish and some massive koi. Koi are banned back in Melbourne so I’d never really seen them up close.
Don’t think they’d go down too well in an aquarium, they were freaking huge!
Just before the visitor centre is a carpark and the trail that leads to Fanyin Temple. In the carpark are some food and drink vendors. The orange juice looked refreshing but I wound up paying $50 TWD ($1.70 AUD) a bottle for it and it couldn’t have been bigger then 200ml. The juice wasn’t bad or anything but given that I can buy 1L of milk tea for $35 TWD or 700ml of juice for around $25 TWD I did feel like this was pretty expensive.
Probably better to give it a miss if you’re up there.
The rest of the trip down the mountain is a series of downhills with the occasional mild climb. The best part about it is there’s not a skyscraper in sight and for the most part the area is pretty quiet. You do really feel like time is standing still. Well until you hit a main road again anyway.
Cycling through Lions Head Mountain reminded me of why I decided to bring my Surly Long Haul Trucker to Taiwan from Australia. Sure I might have had to sacrifice bringing over a lot of things in lieu of a heavy bicycle bag but when you’re able to cycle areas like Lions Head Mountain on a familiar and reliable bicycle, who cares.
Lions Head mountain is pretty easy to get to by bike and there are several major roads that run along it. The signage for the turn offs are in English and are the common tourist sign brown. There’s enough of them that it’s pretty hard to miss.
If you’re in the area definitely give this run a cycle up. Even if you’re in a car it’s worth it as there’s temples to visit and even some neat walking tracks to tackle. Just be careful if you’re looking at the map in the carpark at the top though, for some stupid reason it’s in mirror reverse!
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