Beitou's backdoor on Yangmingshan

Signposts point up the road beside the water channel to the foot of the white cliffs and the park at Gueihzikeng (貴仔坑), which doubles as a popular camping ground and a peaceful and rather charming nature park, popular with frogs and insects, which are a common sight around the park's small lake. Look out also for several more exotic residents: beautiful white parrots (probably escaped pets) that seem to have made the park their new home.

Gueizihkeng Park is a pleasant place to linger awhile if there are no noisy school groups around, but for a more impressive scenic attraction follow the water channel up a little further, towards a large temple perched on the steep escarpment. Instead of following the road up the hillside to the temple, follow the stream ahead as it enters a narrow little box canyon, and reaches a much smaller temple hiding in its depths.

The path that once continued up into the canyon was washed away in a typhoon a decade ago, but in dry weather it's possible (with care) to walk up the bed of the canyon beneath vertical walls of crumbly earth and stones. Round a corner, and a couple of minutes above the temple, the small but impressive Budong Waterfall (不動瀑布) is revealed, plunging into the head of the ravine in a narrow column about twenty meters high. This is a lovely, yet secret, little-known place, but don't attempt coming here after rain, when the sides of the gorge might become unstable.

Just outside the mouth of the canyon below Budong Waterfall, a signposted trailhead leads to a steep flight of steps that climbs to a water irrigation channel contouring the steep hillside, offering dizzying views down into the deep gorge above the waterfall.

Continue following the irrigation channel until a junction, turn right to cross a bridge above the Budong Waterfall, and follow the trail along the other side of the stream. There's a great view of Taipei City a little further on, near a small group of flowering cherry trees that put on a colorful display in early spring. Just after the viewpoint, the trail begins to descend, eventually leading to the main entrance to Gueizihkeng Park.

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