Hiking in Jingmei 景美仙跡岩

Last Tuesday we went for another nature class. This time it was closer to home, in Jingmei.

It's interesting how one sees all these mountains around the city, but never thinks of climbing them. They are just too close, I never thought that there are so many mountain trails in the city. Fortunately thanks to the nature class that we joined, now I get a chance to explore new places and enjoy beautiful views from high above.

This time the meeting point was at the exit 2 of Jingmei MRT. Walk along Jingzhong Street until you get to Jingxing Rd. Cross the street and turn right. Soon you will get to the stairs going up-up-up the mountain.

This is where we started our hike:

On the way up kids (and moms) got a chance to try how the juices of some wild plants taste:

Sucking the juices out of wood sorrels (oxalis, 酢醬草) and some other plant ...

Kids had a chance to look closer at different kinds of ferns.

Learned interesting things about hydrangea plants 八仙花、草繡球 - the white "flowers that are not really flowers" are pretending to be butterflies to attract real butterflies.

We could also see what the curled leaves hold - a tiny caterpillar.

Kids learned which caterpillars are safe to handle and which are not.

Met a lady taking her parrots out for a walk (she had another one on the other shoulder).

Had to climb many, many stairs:

And of course it wouldn't be Taiwan if there wasn't a small temple on the mountain side.

In front of the temple you can find many, many Buddhist (or so I assume) books.

There is a legend or a story about this rock. If you know Chinese you can read about it below. Basically it's about a giant that stepped on the rock and left his footprint there. Can you see it?