Yushan Main Peak
Interesting facts
- Under its Japanese name Niitakayama it was the highest mountain of the Japanese Empire for about half a century, 176 metres taller than Mount Fuji.
- The coded order that launched the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 was "Niitakayama nobore 1208", meaning "Climb Mount Niitaka".
- Because it is the top of its island, its topographic prominence equals its full height of about 3,952 metres, ranking around 27th in the world.
- About 17,000 years ago permanent ice caps on the mountain reached down to roughly 2,800 metres above sea level.
- The massif has five main peaks: besides the Main Peak, the East Peak reaches 3,869 metres, the North 3,858, the South 3,844 and the West 3,467.
- A weather station was completed on the North Peak in 1943, at about 3,858 metres above sea level.
- The summit area receives around 3,100 mm of rain and snow a year, and temperatures there have been recorded as low as -18.4 °C.
- The German explorer Karl Theodor Stöpel is credited by some with reaching the summit in 1898, two years before the first recorded Japanese ascent.
- Since 2005 the mountain has appeared on Taiwan's NT$1,000 banknote, and an asteroid discovered at Lulin Observatory in 2007 is named Yushan.
- The surrounding national park is home to the Formosan black bear, the Formosan serow and the Formosan blue magpie, among some 130 bird species.
Why it is worth it
Yushan, Jade Mountain, is the highest peak in Taiwan and the summit of a much wider region: at 3,952 metres it is the highest point in the western Pacific outside Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula and one of the highest island summits on Earth, ranking fourth among the world's island high points. Its main peak rises in the interior of the island, and on clear mornings the summit can stand above a sea of cloud.
The mountain is a product of collision. The Philippine Sea Plate is pushing against the Eurasian Plate here, and rocks that formed on an ancient seabed around 250 million years ago have been thrust up nearly four kilometres into the sky. The summit area also preserves traces of glaciation during the Quaternary, making Yushan the highest point on the Tropic of Cancer with evidence of ice-age glaciers.
Yushan has carried several names. Western sailors called it Mount Morrison, after an American captain, W. Morrison, who sighted it in 1857. During the Japanese colonial period it was Niitakayama, the "New High Mountain", a fitting name, since it is higher than Mount Fuji. The first recorded ascent was made in 1900 by the Japanese anthropologists Torii Ryūzō and Mori Ushinosuke, and in 1937 the mountain became the centre of the Niitaka-Arisan National Park. Today it lies within Yushan National Park, founded in 1985 and covering more than 1,000 square kilometres across Nantou, Chiayi, Kaohsiung and Hualien; it is Taiwan's largest and highest national park. From 1966 to 1996 a bronze bust of the statesman Yu Youren stood on the summit before it was removed. The usual route climbs from the Tataka area through the Great Precipice to Paiyun Lodge, and on to the main peak.
Getting there
The usual approach starts near the national park's Tataka visitor centre. The nearest town is Lugu in Nantou County, about 37 km away, and the nearest airport is Chiayi Airport (CYI), about 58 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Yu Shan or Yushan, Tongku Saveq, Mount Niitaka, is the highest mountain in Taiwan at 3,952 m (12,966 ft) above sea level, giving Taiwan the 4th-highest maximum elevation of any island in the world. It is the highest point in the western Pacific region outside of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Yushan and its surrounding mountains belong to the Yushan Range. The area was once in the ocean; it rose to its current height because of the Eurasian Plate's movement over the Philippine Sea Plate. Yushan is ranked 40th by topographic isolation.
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