City Center Tunnels

In Hsinchu City, not far from the very center, is a hill somewhat ambitiously called 18 Peaks Mountain. As you might guess, it’s not much of a mountain but local people like to go there for “hiking“ and jogging. The main entrance is big with several parking lots nearby but there is also a second entrance on the backside. Actually there are two entrances on the backside, the nice new one and the dilapidated old one. Last weekend I took my son out for some toddler friendly hiking and figured it could be fun to try the backside entrance. It was a pleasant but short hike and as we were coming back down we took a slightly different path and came out by the old entrance where, to my surprise, I spotted several tunnel openings in the hillside. The timing wasn’t right that afternoon, but this weekend I decided to go back and check out those tunnels.

There is a sign painted on each tunnel entrance that reminds me of ones I saw in the tunnels below Fengqi Sunset Trail. I figured it could be fun to make a map of theses tunnels, just like I did at Fengqi. The tunnel system under 18 Peaks Mountain si pretty small and not particularly complex so a map isn’t really necessary but making it was a fun little project. Here are the results:

Two quick notes for anyone wanting to explore the 18 Peaks Tunnels on their own: First, there are quite a lot of bats living in the tunnels. I doubt they are dangerous in any way but if you’re not prepared it can be quite scary when one comes swooping towards you out of the darkness. Second, I was there on a rainy day and there was quite a bit of water inside, shallow streams running along the floor, plenty of mud everywhere, and one tunnel was completely flooded. Basically, bring some good boots if you want to avoid getting your feet wet. There’s not much more to say, on to the photos.

I enjoyed exploring the 18 Peaks tunnel system but because it’s so small it was quite a limited experience. If you’re really interested in this kind of tunnels, I highly recommend you take the time to go out to the Fengqi Sunset Trail and explore the tunnels there instead because they are so much bigger and there’s a lot more to see. However, if you’re in the area and have some time to spare, stop scrolling on your phone and go check out these tunnels.