Fujoushan Park

Acclimatisation is a serious problem for expats from cold countries who live in Taiwan. After a couple of years, 15 degrees Celsius starts to feel cold, and anything under 10 degrees is positively freezing. This is my excuse for not doing much in the way of trail walking over winter.

A few weekends ago the weather warmed up, and we broke our hiking fast with a pleasant walk Fujoushan (Fuzhoushan) Park. We were just in time to see the rhododendrons coming into bloom, which reminded me of our visit to Maokong last year.

Fujoushan Park is for the least ambitious of hikers. It isn't even difficult to get to. About ten minutes' walk from Linguang MRT Station on the brown line, the entrance to Fujoushan Park lies in Wolong Street.

It was cloudy but warm the day we went for our walk. Near the entrance to the park is a handy set of guidelines on unacceptable activities. I love reading these, because they're an indication of what some people would like to do in the park, given the chance.

In this case, as well as the usual littering, destroying park facilities and urinating, it seems people would love to bring their own desks and chairs, gamble and wash and dry their clothes in Fujoushan, were it not for the intervention of the authorities.

Butterflies were the best part of the walk for me. I managed to take a couple of blurry snaps.

 I've since found out this is a Common Bluebottle (Graphium sarpedon subsp. connectens)
Not sure what these are. Some kind of swallowtail?

As usual, there were various small exercise facilities, viewing platforms and rest spots around the place. My son had fun on monkey bars meant for monkeys much smaller than he.













Fujoushan adjoins the more famous, but much smaller, Fuyang Eco Park. This park is divided into areas devoted to tree frogs, butterflies, flying squirrels and other wildlife and ecosystems. Fuyang Park is just a few minutes from Linguang Station. By wandering around Fujoushan for an hour or so and over to Fuyang, you can complete a round trip for a couple of hours without backtracking.

It was cloudy, and the air was a little smoggy, but we enjoyed our short trek through Fujoushan. Hopefully the first of many more walks this year.