Detour

Yangmingshan is not as wild or dramatic as Taiwan's other mountain getaways, but it has two great advantages: no mountain permit from the government is required to climb in the national park, and it is right on Taipei's doorstep. That means a day hike in the park can end with a hot dinner and a cold drink in the leafy suburb of Tienmu, rather than in a windswept tent at 3,000 m.

Unlike the sedimentary shale and limestone of the Central Mountain Range, Yangmingshan is volcanic. Its trails feature eerie craters; bubbling fumaroles; flat, green meadows; and thick, wet forests of oak, persimmon, maple and sugar palm.

The steep, one-hour trail from Yangmingshan highway to the top of Chi-hsingshan (Seven Star Mountain) penetrates a dark bamboo forest before emerging atop the 1,220-m mountain. On a clear day, you can see over sprawling Taipei to the ocean. One of the routes down leads to Matsao Hot Springs, a huge sulfur pit lined with steaming pools where locals like to boil eggs. A longer but gentler hike goes past a pond cradled in the crater of an extinct volcano to the top of Mount Tatun. On the other side of Tatun is the popular Butterfly Corridor, a cool, sheltered path about 3 km long that in April and May comes alive with 150 species of butterfly.

One warning: it's easy to get lost. The national park is riddled with a complex network of hiking trails that can confuse even native readers of Chinese. But don't worry, the city is so close that sooner or later the trail will hit a road, where you can find a taxi or scheduled bus service back to Taipei.