Day 4 - Wuliaojian Hike & Nanya Night Market
Wuliaojian 五寮尖登山
Nanya Night Market 板橋湳雅夜市
There are several beautiful hikes around Taiwan, and we stumbled across this one. The hike was much tougher than we anticipated, but the climb was exhilarating and the views on top was amazing. This turned out to be the #1 highlight for Megan and the girls!
Nanya Night Market was another accidental find. Our taxi driver didn’t want to get stuck in traffic getting to Raohe night market and suggested we go to this one instead. It turned out to be our favorite night market in Taipei!
Wuliaojian 五寮尖登山
This hike was absolutely amazing! Be warned, however — This was one of the most technically challenging hike we have ever done. Most of the “hike” was more like rock climbing and rope climbing. Lots of vertical climbs and repelling. Bring gloves and lots of liquid, and get there in the morning to allow enough time for the hike.
We showed up in the afternoon without proper equipment and didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. We were very fortunate to run into a 71-year-old avid hiker who saw us and knew we needed help, and guided us the entire way. It’s hard to imagine how we could have done the hike without him. There are 8 marked stops to the top, and we got to Stop #6 which is the top of the first mountain. Our hiker guide suggested we don’t head to stop #8 as we would run out of daylight and did not bring headlamps. Still an amazing hike!
The hike is a loop, our hike up was extremely steep and the hike down was much more gradual and reasonable.
You can take the taxi to the hiking trailhead, as there are no MRT stations nearby. Taxi price is very reasonable and runs on meter by law. You may need to walk further down to call a taxi when you’re done hiking though.
Nanya Night Market 板橋湳雅夜市
This night market is fairly long and takes a while to get through, so conserve your appetite! The sesame chicken stand is popular. There’s a good mixture of traditional and newer food choices, too many amazing food to list here. There are also fun games to play, it’s a fun experience even if you don’t win. There is also a side street for shopping, keep an eye out for that. You can find great deals on clothes, bags/purses/luggage and shoes/sandals. We got some shopping done here too!