A place to go hiking

I've found a place in Zhongshan district (where I live) that has decent hiking trails. I've been wanting something like this for a long time. It's even better than what I've seen of Yangmingshan national park.

To get there, you go from the Tatung University campus along Zhongshan north road toward the Minquan west road MRT station. A little bit after you come across the huge hotel, you'll see an entrance to a wooded area with big hills. Follow the signs that say "Hiking Trail", and soon you'll be in the woods.

I don't know how far the trail network extends. The first time I discovered this place, I had already been walking up and down a lot of hills by the time I decided to see how far the trails went, and I was tired. That in itself wouldn't have stopped me for another kilometer or so, but I kept seeing these rather disconcerting signs. They had what seemed to be warnings in Chinese. I wouldn't have been able to discern what they were talking about except that they had alarming drawings. One of them said something like "[blah blah Chinese characters blah blah] COBRAS!". I went on cautiously, talking to myself in full street-lunatic mode to let any possible cobras know that I was coming, when I saw another sign with a big picture of a bee on it. That wasn't a huge thing either; after all, what harm are a few honeybees?

Then I got to thinking: while the Japanese giant hornet is most common in the mountains of Japan, they can sometimes be found in Taiwan. I didn't know what kind of bees the sign was talking about, but you don't really want to chance it with the suzumebachi (literally "sparrow bee", because it's the size of a sparrow). These things are a lot nastier than the bees we're used to. A single giant hornet can shred 40 honeybees per minute with its mandibles of death, and its sting not only contains a neurotoxin that can be deadly in large enough doses, but it can also eat through cell membranes. The venom also contains chemicals which attract more hornets. And it can sting repeatedly; none of this "sting once then die" nonsense for them! A few of them can wipe out a colony of European honeybees in minutes, and the Japanese honeybees manage to narrowly avoid this by swarming over the hornets' scouts and killing them with their own massed body heat. These monsters are basically the Bolos of the insect world, only evil. And that's why I turned back from my exploration.

It's a nice place anyway. Lovely woods, and all within walking distance.