Teapot Mountain is one of the best hikes in Taiwan. The trail boasts stunning views of the ocean, the nearby town, and the mountains on the other side. If you’re looking for a hike not too far from Taipei or something to do in the area of Jiufen, Teapot Mountain is your answer. Below is everything you’ll need to know about visiting Teapot Mountain in Taiwan.
About Teapot Mountain in Taiwan
Teapot Mountain (無耳茶壺山) is located near Jinguashi in Ruifang District on the northeast coast of Taiwan. It’s called Teapot Mountain because the rocks at the peak look like a teapot. It’s also known as “Lion Rock” because it looks like a crouching lion from another point of view.
Level of Difficulty
Teapot Mountain is not difficult at all in terms of distance and difficulty. Most of the trail consists of stone steps. The trail is 2.2 miles and in my most recent trip, it took us 4 hours starting and ending at the Gold Ecological Park. It’s a fantastic short hike for children, families, couples, friends, and solo travelers!
Preparation
I highly recommend bringing 1-2 bottles of water and some snacks per person. We all ran out of water on our way down from the peak and it would have been nice to have an extra bottle of water. Hiking boots provided a lot more support for me, but I know people who have done this hike in regular shoes, sneakers, and flip-flops, so wear what feels comfortable.
Best Time to Go
One of the best parts of this hike are the views! They are absolutely stunning! On a beautiful, clear, and sunny day, you’ll be able to see Jiufen, Jinguashi, Keelung Mountain, the Yin Yang Sea, and the North East Coast of Taiwan. However, this area is known to rain something like 263 days in a year, so pay attention to the weather forecast before making the trek out there.
I’ve also done this hike in a fog and it was still enjoyable. The temperature was cooler and because the sun wasn’t out, I didn’t need to walk with an umbrella to shade from the sun. Hiking in hot summer weather gave us stunning views, but we were also sweating buckets and there’s no shade on the trail.
How to Get to Teapot Mountain Trail
What I love about Teapot Mountain is how it’s accessible by public transportation in Taiwan. There are three options:
Option 1: Bus – #1062 departs from Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT Station (exit 2) every 15-20 minutes. #965 departs from Banqiao MRT Station via Ximen MRT Station. Depending on where you’re staying, I highly recommend taking either bus #1062 or bus #965. The buses are long-distance buses, so they’re comfortable, they have drink holders, wifi, and they don’t make many stops in between.
Option 2: Train + Bus – If you’re not a fan of taking the bus, you can also take the train from Taipei Main Station to Ruifang. From Ruifang, walk 5 minutes and get on bus #788 or #965. You can check train times here.
For both options, you want to get off at Jinguashi Gold Ecological Park (金瓜石黃金博物館). There are public restrooms right across from where the bus drops you off. There is an entrance fee to the park, but we arrived before they opened, so we just walked through. When you enter the park, you want to keep walking straight and follow the path. Along the way, you’ll see a Family Mart. This will be your last place to get water and snacks. (If you bring your own reusable water bottle, there are water dispensers next to the ticket booth and across from the Miner’s lunchbox restaurant.)
At the end of the path, you’ll see a large tree on the right. Go up the little hill and up the stairs on the left and turn right. Walk straight and go up the large set of stairs. When you get to the top of the stairs, keep walking straight along the train tracks on the ground. At the end, you’ll see a small sky bridge. Cross the bridge, turn right and go up the stairs. Keep going all the way up. The stairs eventually meet a paved road. Keep going up the road to get to the trailhead.
Option 3: Car (Less walking)
You can also get to the trailhead to teapot mountain by car. My co-workers took me by car the first time and they just parked on the side of the road. There is a portable bathroom at the trailhead. To my knowledge, they parked for free. If you go by car, you can shave off 1 hour of walking from the Gold Ecological Park to the trailhead.
The Hike
The trail begins with a lot of small rocks. They did this on purpose, because the dirt path can get really slippery on rainy days. The rocks help a little bit, but on dry days you might feel the rocks are slippery. The hike is pretty easy to follow. It’s mostly stairs up to the peak at an altitude of 600 meters. I don’t feel the stairs are steep and the ascent is gradual, but I still stopped a few times to rest.
When you reach the peak you can choose to continue through the rocks by climbing the rope to get pictures of the view from the top, which I highly recommend. Be very careful though!
Return Hike
The trail continues around the peak and down the other side to Banpingshan Trail. We walked maybe 20 minutes further before turning back because everyone told us on the trail that it was a large loop around and we probably wouldn’t make it down before the sunset.
After Hiking Teapot Mountain
There’s actually so much to do in this area. You can visit the Golden Waterfall which is nearby, or you can hike Keelung Mountain and see the sunset from there, or you can grab a snack in Jiufen.
Keelung Mountain
As if we didn’t already do enough hiking, we hiked to the top of Keelung Mountain which is also straight up. What was nice was we got to see a rainbow and it was pretty cool to see the town all lit up at night. We didn’t see the sunset we wanted because it was too cloudy. The not fun part was walking down the stone steps in the dark, but that’s expected with any sunset hike.
Jiufen
I’ve never actually been to Jiufen at night, but it’s definitely worth a visit if you haven’t been and you can also see the sunset from here. Teapot Mountain and Jiufen would be a great day trip from Taipei. Click here for my full blog post on Jiufen.
Hope everyone who visits Taiwan can get a chance to hike Teapot Mountain. Let me know if you do this hike and tag me in your photos! Hope you guys enjoy and explore outside of Taipei! Thanks again for reading! Be safe, be healthy, be happy! Love you guys!
xx Tina
