Want to See Taiwan's Second Highest Peak? Here's the Xueshan Permit Guide.
- braveontw
- Aug 3
- 5 min read
The cirque, the Black Forest. You can see them yourself, no tour required.
Most hikers who look past Yushan land on Xueshan (雪山 Xuěshān) next: 3,886 meters, Taiwan's second highest peak, and at the top a glacial cirque unlike anything else on the island. Fair warning from someone who has climbed both: the trail is steeper than Yushan's, not gentler.
This article is your teaching guide.
Xueshan at a Glance
The Xueshan Permit Application for Foreigners
Same portal as Yushan, hike.taiwan.gov.tw. The difference is which options you pick.
Step 1: choose Shei-Pa National Park.
Not Yushan National Park, this is a separate park with its own application flow.
Step 2: the one correct option.
Select Xue Mountain Trail (Foreign Advanced Application). Unlike Yushan, where the foreigner quota is buried inside a form called "Advanced Application" with no mention of who it's for, Xueshan's portal actually spells it out: this option has "Foreign" right in the name. Harder to pick wrong, but still worth double checking before you submit.
Step 3: pick your hut. From here it works the same as Yushan.
Choose Qika Hut or Sanliujiu Hut depending on your itinerary. Qika is generally easy to get, this is not the bottleneck. Sanliujiu is the one to worry about, currently under renovation with a limited number of temporary campsite spots, so confirm availability there first if that is part of your plan.
Step 4: passport scans for the whole team, same as every other mountain on this list.
The Dates That Decide Your Climb
Xueshan Permit Windows and Foreigner Quota at a Glance
Rule | Detail |
Reserved beds | 24 per night at Qika Hut (七卡山莊 Qīkǎ Shānzhuāng). Sanliujiu Hut (三六九山莊 Sānliùjiǔ Shānzhuāng) is under renovation with no announced reopening date, check the official site before you plan around it |
Nights covered | Weekdays only, Sunday through Thursday nights. Never national holidays |
Application window | 4 months to 65 days before your climb |
How beds are assigned | First come first served |
Documents | Passport scan for every foreign member |
Where | hike.taiwan.gov.tw, full English version |
Last verified: 2026-08-03
The Weekday Logic (With a Current Exception)
Here is the current exception worth knowing: because Sanliujiu is under renovation, fewer people are climbing Xueshan right now, which means Qika Hut is easy to get even outside the reserved window. If Qika is your base, you do not necessarily need to stick to weekdays the way this rule usually demands.
Getting There
Fewer buses run to Wuling Farm than to Yushan's trailhead, but the bus does exist.
Option one via Yilan. First, get to Yilan Station:
Intercity bus routes like 1915 or 1916 run direct to Jiaoxi, Yilan or Luodong stations, about 1 to 1.5 hours
From Taipei City Hall bus station (convenient if you're staying near Xinyi District), Capital Bus route 1571 runs via Zhuangwei direct to Yilan, or route 1572 via Jiaoxi depending on the schedule
From Yilan Station, connect to the 1751 for Wuling Farm
Then, Yilan Station to Wuling Farm, take Kuo-Kuang Bus route 1751.
Departing Yilan: daily at 07:30 and 12:40
Departing Wuling Farm (bus continues from Lishan): daily at 09:20 and 14:20
One way takes about 2.5 to 3 hours, either departure works
Option two, the direct route:
the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle runs straight from Taipei to Wuling, no transfer needed. About 4 hours, runs daily, but you have to book by phone at least 72 hours ahead (02-2796-5696).
Taipei Train Station (East 3 exit) → Wuling National Guesthouse bridge: 07:30–11:30
Wuling National Guesthouse bridge → Taipei Train Station: 13:30–18:00
The phone booking is the catch here, no English hotline and no online form. If you're already working with me on your trip, this is exactly the kind of call I can make for you.
The Itinerary
Standard 3 days:
Day 1: Taipei → Yilan Station, take the 12:40 bus → Wuling Farm → Qika Hut (just 2km from the trailhead, plenty of time)
Day 2: Qika Hut → through the Black Forest (黑森林) on the way up → Xueshan Main Peak → Xueshan East Peak → back to Qika Hut
Day 3: Qika Hut → trailhead, catch the 14:20 bus home
If Day 2 feels too long, split it differently:
Day 1: same as above, to Qika Hut
Day 2: Qika Hut → Xueshan East Peak → 369 campsite (currently temporary tent sites only, capacity depends on how fast you apply, right now just 24 spots)
369 Temporary Camp Day 3: 369 campsite → through the Black Forest (黑森林) → Xueshan Main Peak →
back through 369 and straight down to Qika and the trailhead (369 sits directly on the way down, no backtracking needed), catch the 14:20 bus down
A safety line worth writing down: be off the Main Peak by 7:30 to 7:45am at the latest, then start heading back. The descent to the trailhead takes 5 to 6 hours on its own.
Winter season note: Shei-Pa National Park's official winter management period for Xueshan runs January 1 to March 31. Climbing inside that window requires real snow gear and the skill to use it.
Meals and Sleeping Bags
Booking ahead makes the whole trip more comfortable, same as Yushan.
Reserve through bununclimbers.com, or email bunun0422@gmail.com.
Taiwan's mountain huts are each run by a contracted hiking team, and Xueshan's is handled by the Bunun Climbers Team. The site has no English version, Google's page translate gets you through it, or you can reach out to me and I'll help coordinate with them directly.
Pricing:
Sanliujiu / full package (dinner, breakfast, sleeping bag, tent): NT$1,600 per person, no single-item rental
Qika / full package (dinner, breakfast, sleeping bag, tent): NT$800 per person, without sleeping bag NT$700, tent alone NT$600
Altitude Risk and Medication: The Prescription Trap
Xueshan's main peak stands at 3,886m, close enough to Yushan's altitude that the same risk applies. Qika Hut alone sits around 2,510m, so you're already well into acute mountain sickness (AMS) territory from your first night on the mountain.
The golden rule of acclimatization
Riding straight from sea level to Qika Hut in one push raises your odds of AMS. The local fix: spend the night before at Wuling Farm or in Yilan, giving your body a head start on the altitude change before you start climbing the next day.
The hard truth about buying medication in Taiwan
Same as Yushan: altitude sickness prevention drugs like Acetazolamide (Diamox) are prescription-only in Taiwan. You cannot walk into a pharmacy here and buy it. A foreign visitor needs to register at a major hospital's Travel Medicine Clinic, which is slow and expensive without Taiwan's NHI insurance. The local fix: get it prescribed by a doctor in your home country before you fly. If severe symptoms hit on the mountain, intense headache or vomiting, tell the hut staff immediately. The only real cure for AMS is descending, immediately.
What to Bring
Carry your physical passport and the permit at all times, they check.
Navigation app: Hikingbook, made in Taiwan with a full English interface, or AllTrails.
Weather: download Windy.
GPX track and elevation profile: downloadable from Hikingbook's Xueshan Main and East Peak trail page
Xueshan is genuinely one of Taiwan's classic peaks. A cirque like this might be easy to see where you're from, but in Taiwan, seeing terrain this intact, especially looking down on it from the summit, is rare. Worth the trip on its own.
Not sure how to sequence all this, or worried about not being able to reach the hut booking contact in time? Where this climb fits into the rest of your trip, that is something you can hand to me too.
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