Basianshan National Forest Recreation Area. The recreation area is richly covered with exquisite huts, bamboo forests, cedar trees, and poplar plum trees! You can also encounter beautiful blue-bellied silver pheasant strolling along the trail, and you can experience the full flavor of nature in one day.

Table of Contents

Two-story Chalet（二層木屋）

The two-story wooden house is next to the second parking lot, once you get off the bus, you can see the wooden house hiding in the forest ~ when I came almost after noon, tourists are sitting under the trees to rest, I also ate a banana + drink a cup of soybean milk before I started to stroll around the park, there are still trails to climb the main peak of the Baxian Mountain, is the highest of the Valley of the Seven Heroes, this time there is no plan to climb, so I only got here at noon ~. (I don’t think I was strong enough at the time)

Every now and then, a butterfly will fly by and have lunch with me.

Light and shadow through the trees hit the wooden house, the contrast between light and dark is quite attractive, the right side of the wooden house there are tables and chairs for tourists to rest and eat, there are trees to shade the sun. (The photo was not taken, the tourists were eating)

I was lucky to meet a Blue-bellied Pheasant male in this area. This one was just replacing its plumage and its neck hairs were still very sparse. Usually, the ones we met in the forest recreation area were not afraid of people, probably because they were fed by tourists, but not feeding them is the most favorite way to protect them.

Imagery of Carpenter’s Terrace Station（佳保台車站）

There is also an image of a station not far from the second parking lot, which was mainly used for lumber transportation. (This area of Mt. Hacienda used to be an important part of the logging industry.)

honeymoon house（蜜月屋）

A little further up the hill, you can still see a whole row of cabins, also under the trees, each with its own little balcony and all with cozy shade ~ I really want to stay here for a few days, it must be very cozy.

Jinghai Temple（靜海寺）

The road to the Jinghai Temple is gently uphill, the park is not as big as imagined, it is recommended to walk slowly ~, if you don’t take pictures directly from the second parking lot to the Jinghai Temple, it will take no more than 20 minutes to get there.

Passing by the Jinghai Temple in silence, everyone here will not be noisy, at this time the sound of nature is particularly prominent, the slight wind cut, the sound of leaves flapping, insects and birds chirping, listening to listen to the mood of the calm down.

And behind the Jinghai Temple is the hiking trailhead to the main peak of Baxian Mountain, which needs to climb more than 1,000 meters to get there…for me, I have to rest for many rounds before I can finish it… (In this trip plan, no hesitation to remove ~).

If you don’t climb the main peak, you will pass through a cedar forest if you are heading towards the bamboo forest.

bamboo forest（竹林）

Next to the bamboo forest, there is a large grove of poplar trees. On that day, we came across a large group of macaques, about 20 or so, a few of them were fighting and screaming loudly, and a group of people stood on the footpath watching a group of monkeys jumping around, among which there were 5 or 6 small monkeys, so I photographed one of them ~ (most of the photos were taken against the light, so I deleted them in the end)

Small mushrooms and ferns can be found in the shadows of the forest, which are inconspicuous but delicate compared to the taller trees.

shiitake (Lentinus edodes), an edible mushroom

Beyond the Yangmei tree forest is a sea of bamboo trees, and from here it’s all downhill.

The afternoon sunlight slanting into the bamboo forest, really beautiful, the interesting thing is that everyone in the process of walking down, did not take the normal stone steps, I am no exception, because the route to the stone steps is not very obvious, everyone directly through the left side of the bamboo forest ~ so I took the following two photos will not be blocked by someone in front of the camera! (I realized I was going the wrong way because other tourists warned me)

There are a lot of birds here, most of them are traveling between the tall trees, it’s really hard to get a good shot of them. Rarely, there is a tree magpie stopping at the relatively open area for me to take a picture, I must take a few pictures for him.

Cherry Blossom Forest（櫻花林）

From the bamboo forest, there is a continuous descent to the cherry blossom forest, which is full of greenery in October, but of course no cherry blossoms bloom at this time of the year.

Even if there are no cherry blossoms, the forest here is still very beautiful, and there are more than ten pairs of tourists coming and going in a short period of time, and the trees are relatively small, which gives the feeling of being closer to nature.

Preparing to walk back to the Baxian Mountain restaurant on the road, some places have a good outlook, the previous route are walking in the forest, so there is less of this kind of outlook, looking at the thick clouds in the distance, not drifting over the really very thankful.

Restaurant, Chalet（餐廳、木屋）

On that day, I came with two friends to go trekking, one of them wanted to take care of some work, so he stayed at this restaurant alone to drink coffee and work on his laptop. Sitting at the outdoor table, I could look at the scenery when I was tired, which was really nice! (It’s great to work like this on weekdays, but on holidays, I just want to stare at the scenery!)

Next to the restaurant, there is a whole area of wooden huts for tourists to stay in, and they are super beautifully built! At that time, almost all of them were occupied and had their own balcony space for chatting, so I always look for the angle when the balcony is not occupied to take photos, which was actually very busy at that time.

Tangle Trail（天籟步道）

At the end of the wooden hut area (next to the Shwenxi River), you can come to the TianLai Trail, which is named the “Heavenly Charity Trail” because of the healing sound of the stream that can be heard here all the time! Walking on the gentle wooden trestle and listening to the sound of flowing water is a great pleasure.

The “Heavenly Charity” Trail was supposed to go all the way up to the Jinghai Temple, but due to the heavy rains, part of the trail was damaged, so it was only opened up to the observation deck in the picture below (about halfway up the trail), where there is a small pavilion where you can sit down and listen to the sounds of the nature, and I sat there for a few minutes before I finished the day’s journey!