About Qingshan Waterfall (青山瀑布 [Qīngshān Pùbù])
The Qingshan Waterfall (青山瀑布 [Qīngshān Pùbù]; translated as “Blue Mountain Waterfall”) was a modestly-sized waterfall on the quieter north side of Yangmingshan (陽明山 [Yángmíngshān]).
This area was more known for hot springs than a nature hike like this.
Our relatively quiet experience with both the hike and the waterfall itself was a bit of a surprise to us because it was so close to the metropolitan city of Taipei.
Yet despite it being just on the other side of Yangmingshan from the big city, the Qingshan Waterfall experience seemed like a whole other world away as the scenery was very naturesque and tranquil.
Anyways, as you can see from the photo above, this waterfall had a pleasing fan or triangular shape.
That said, it was probably aided from the heavy rains in the area earlier on in the morning of our hike.
As far as the waterfall’s size, I’m guessing it was probably about 15-20m tall.
Hiking to the Qingshan Waterfall
From the signed car park (see directions below), we walked back along the road towards a roadside stand.
After passing through the stand, which had picnic tables and locally-sourced food, we then climbed up a flight of steps ascending above the road and ultimately to a small plot of farm land.
Next, the trail meandered alongside these small-scale agricultural lots (where they were growing local vegetables).
Then, it curved alongside a valley carved out by the Laomei Stream (老梅溪 [Lǎoméi Xī]; translated as “Old Lady Stream”).
Along this stretch of the trail, we followed along a ditch that I’m guessing diverted water from the creek somewhere further upstream and ultimately irrigated the small farm plot.
The trail continued to follow along the ditch while the valley closed in the further along the trail we went.
After another 300m or so, the irrigation ditches started to disappear as the trail then crossed and meandered alongside one of the forks of the Laomei Stream.
We then crossed a few bridges traversing the stream as the trail became a bit rougher.
It continued to follow along the stream banks, but now this hike involved a small bit of minor bouldering.
We had to be careful in this stretch due to the wet nature of the boulders given the rains.
Anyways, this stretch would persist for the next 400-500m before we finally climbed up to the lookout deck yielding the view of Qingshan Waterfall that you see pictured at the top of this page.
Once we were at the falls, I noticed that the trail apparently kept going up the mountain.
However, it was closed so we can’t say anything more about it.
Thus, we spent time basking in the reward of making it all the way to the Qingshan Waterfall.
When we had our fill of this place, we then did the mostly downhill hike all the way back to the car.
On the return hike, we noticed quite a few more people making their way up.
Apparently, we were the only people at the falls as well as the entire hike up here, but seeing more people on our return hike must have illustrated just how popular this place can be despite the bad weather.
When all was said and done, we wound up finishing the hike in a little over 90 minutes covering a distance of around 3km round trip.
Authorities
The Qingshan Waterfall resides in Yangmingshan National Park in the Shimen District near the city of Taipei in Xinbei (New Taipei City), Taiwan. It may be administered by the Taiwan National Government. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, you can try visiting this website.
Since we made our visit to the Qingshan Waterfall from Keelung (基隆 [Jīlóng]), we’ll make the recommended driving route from there.
We’ll spare you the unnecessary detours that our Taiwan GPS made us go on and give you the most direct route.
So from the junction of the Tai-2 Highway and the Tai-2甲 Highway (the character is pronounced “jiǎ”) in Keelung, we drove north along the Tai-2 for about 15km.
Next, we turned left at a light onto the Zhucaotan Road (豬槽潭路 [Zhūcáotán Lù]; also labeled as 北17 Road where the character is pronounced “běi” meaning “north”).
We had to pay attention to this left turn because we missed it when we first got here, and we didn’t recall seeing a sign for the Qingshan Waterfall going west on the Tai-2.
That said, we did see it going east on the Tai-2 when we were backtracking.
Nevertheless, we would continue on the 北17 Road for the next 5km eventually reaching the well-signposted turnoff for the car park on our left.
This was as the road was climbing just past Qingshan Waterfall Trailhead, where there was a food stand.
There were a couple of legal spots on the upper part of the car park, but there were more unpaved parking spaces further down the car park if the upper part was full.
Overall, this drive would take us a little over an hour covering about 42km.
Finally, for some geographical context, Keelung was about 24km northeast of Taipei (臺北 or 台北 in simplified Chinese [Táiběi]; taking roughly 30 minutes using mostly the expressways). However, we also managed to make the 42km drive from Qingshan Waterfall to Taipei City (to return the rental car) though that wound up taking us nearly 2 hours due to the heavy congestion within Taipei City itself as this route was devoid of expressways.
Find A Place To Stay
Sweep starting with the rough (and closed) trail continuing beyond the falls before walking back to the main viewing deck for a more frontal look at the falls
Related Trip Reports
Related Top 10 Lists
No Posts Found
Related Itineraries
Trip Planning Resources
Nearby Accommodations
Featured Images and Nearby Attractions
Visitor Comments:
Got something you'd like to share or say to keep the conversation going? Feel free to leave a comment below...No users have replied to the content on this page
Visitor Reviews of this Waterfall:
If you have a waterfall story or write-up that you'd like to share, feel free to click the button below and fill out the form...No users have submitted a write-up/review of this waterfall
Nearest Waterfalls
