Snow Mountain and Chinese New Year in Taiwan

When I lived in Taiwan, I found that the locals tended to leave the cities and go to the countryside and the beaches during Chinese New Year holiday. It's therefore, a great time to visit the cities. If you want to stay in the south I'd suggest you go to Tainan for the fascinating history, temples and architecture. I wouldn't spend more than a couple days in Kaohsiung unless you're using it as a base for visiting Foguangshan (huge fascinating Buddhist temple complex in Dashu, in Kaohsiung county) or other day trips in Kaohsiung County. As far as I could tell there were no interesting museums in Kaohsiung (the art museum is not worth seeing and this is coming from someone who loves art museums). Shoushan (Longevity Mountain, also known as monkey mountain) in Kaohsiung is an interesting place to see monkeys (Formosan Rock Macaques) if you happen to be in the area. There are beautiful fireworks shows on Love River (in Kaohsiung) during Chinese New Year. Still, I would spend most of your time in Tainan and the surrounding area.

Hiking Gear-I would think Taiwan would be cheaper.[Thats what I was told]
All the major retail outlets at the Taipei Main Station Area-at the Junction of Zhongshan N Rd Sec 1 and Zhongxiao w Rd Sec 1.
One of the large stores is:Distributor for all the Major Brands. There are about 4 shops next to each other-all competitors.
Ting San Iou Mountain Equipment Co., Ltd 1F, No. 18 n 20, Sec 1, ZhongShan N. Road, Taipei, 10041 + 886 2 2311 6027
tingsanioutw@gmail.com

Edited by: nuttyazn

ooh okay thanks alot guys!

I'll take all of that into consideration.

:)

I suppose anything is possible, but off the top of my head I am not thinking it very likely that you'll find snow gear in Singapore or Malaysia. Maybe if there is a big sporting goods store in a large mall they'll have something. In Singapore you might try the Ngee Ann City mall as it's large enough that there might be a sporting goods store there.

A bit of unsolicited advice: don't count on getting the permit for Snow Mountain at that time of year. College is out and there will be a good deal of competition.
I agree with the above, Tainan is probably a fine place to stay over the new year holiday.

snow gears in Singapore - I saw crampons, pick axes at one of the outdoor shops in Peninsular Shopping Centre. Peninsular Shopping Centre is next to the City Hall MRT Station. I recall there are 2 outdoor shops there - somewhere on the upper floors.

Alternatively, you can try asking Yip Seck Hong (Himalayan Mountaineerng Club in Singapore)
http://pachome1.pacific.net.sg/~yipsh/

I risk saying that you don't really need any special snow gear for Snow Mountain. I myself certainly did not, and I got to climb to the top in fresh snow that was apparently quite deep by local standards (20 cm).
I did notice that 10-20 cm snow was taken much more seriously by the Taiwanese who are not used to it (in fact staff wanted to stop me from climbing Yushan because of it), so maybe the same applies to Aussies...

My earlier post dated 25 Dec 09 needs to be corrected. I visited Peninsular Shopping Centre, Singapore yesterday and realised that both outdoor shops there seemed to have moved out.

As Laszlo suggested, 20cm snow perhaps you don't need special gears. I have walked in about 30cm snow in Tasmania (Mt Fields) with just leather walking boots and gaiters. Abit tiring breaking path but okay. Boots and socks were wet though.

So if you still need special gears from Singapore, try these:-
http://www.outdoorlife.com.sg/
http://www.camperscorner.com.sg/main/index.php

Hope you managed to get all the way up there. We had great (snow-free) weather last May. Have a look at this guy's very snowy trip a couple weeks ago http://hikingtaiwan.wordpress.com/2010/01/12/snow-mountain-%E9%9B%AA%E5%B1%B1/

By the way, I found Richard at Barking deer http://barkingdeernews.blogspot.com/ very helpful when it came to permits and advice.

Combine Wulung and Snow Mountain with a trip into Taroko Gorge from above.