This week is Shida’s [師大] semester break, so today I decided to walk the Zhinan Temple Trail [指南宮步道] in Maokong [貓空] before heading to work. The trail is easily accessible by taking either the Maokong Gondola or a bus.

If you want to start at the bottom and work your way up, take the MRT Muzha Line to Taipei Zoo Station and hop on either the 236, 237, 282, 611, Brown 3, Brown 6, Brown 11, Brown 15, Green 1 bus or Minibus 10 to National Chengchi University stop [政大站]. From there walk toward the main gate of the university and then follow Zhinan Road Sec. 2 to the fork in the road closest to the National Chengchi Experimental Elementary School. The trail is across from the school on Lane 33, Section 3.

Those daunted by going up 1,200 steps to the temple can start at the top and work their way down by either taking the Maokong Gondola to Zhinan Temple Station [指南宮站] or take the 530 bus from the MRT’s Wanfang Hospital station to Zhinan Temple Station.

A word of caution: The temple’s main deity is Lü Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals. Since Lü Dongbin’s love to Immortal Woman He was unanswered, it is believed that he is jealous of lovers and any couple that visits together will soon break up.

Along the trail there is a fungus among us:

If I want to see something like this in Zhonghe all I have to do is open my refrigerator:

There are a handful of older houses along the trail:

It’s a very quiet trail (I only saw one other person) and most of it is shaded… what more could you ask for?

One lucky spider will be eating for months thanks to this catch:

Cropped:

Now I remember where I parked my scooter:

When I started my journey at the top I mostly rushed past the temple because of time constraints. I am currently looking through my photos to see if there are any salvageable ones of the temple. I will likely have a post focusing on the temple at a later date.