Exploring Xichi's rich environs in a day trip

From Hsiufeng Waterfall, a stepped path climbs to the road above the waterfall, and a few meters further uphill another path leaves the road and heads straight up the steep, darkly wooded upper slopes of Big Sharp Mountain. It's a short but exhausting and dull trudge up; at the top, turn left to a wooden ornamental rain shelter to claim your reward: a remarkable, bird's eye view of Xichi City, laid out along the valley of the Keelung River directly below.

　　　More visually appealing is the panorama across of Yangmingshan and Guanyin Mountain ahead, and, to the right, the twin pyramids of Keelung Mountain and Keelung Island, looming out of the East China Sea and presenting an especially sharp and impressive profile from this distant vantage point.

Starting the climb (as purists will surely want to do) at Xichi Station it's a long, long ascent to the summit via Hsiufeng Road; for the rest of us a little helping hand is in order. Take the free minibus service run by the local authorities that leaves the front entrance to the station every hour or so and shuttles passengers almost all the way to Tianxiu Temple, near the trailheads to both Hsiufeng Waterfall and Big Sharp Mountain. From here it's just over an hour's climb via the waterfall to the summit.

The single advantage in walking the entire way from the station is the opportunity it gives to pay your respects at one of Taiwan's most unique temples. Turn left off Hsiufeng Road up a side road beside a brightly colored temple, and follow this lane as it climbs stiffly to an enormous new temple complex at the top (a ten-minute puff from the junction). This is the much expanded and very handsome temple of Zihang Tang (茲航堂).

It's important to remember that the temple is a place of worship, and absolutely not a tourist attraction, but while in the area I generally find time to walk up through the fine temple complex to the pagoda at the top.

The figure covered in gold leaf within the glass case in the back of the chamber is actually the incorruptible (mummified) body of a former monk, who died in 1943. One of only three such incorruptible corpses in Taiwan, this is the most famous, and an object of veneration for countless Buddhists.

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