Rock Climbing and exploring Cijin Island, Kaohsiung, Taiwan Dec 2013

This past weekend a couple of visiting couchsurfers, Daisy, and I all decided to take a trip out to Cijin Island here in Kaohsiung for a little bit of exploration and climbing.  Being their first time in KS, I decided to give them a tour of the island since I knew this might be their only chance.  So we began our journey by hiking through the market and all its various vendors up the trail to the lighthouse.

Now the lighthouse is probably one of the most easily accessible areas on the island with a great view, but never being satisfied without being at the highest point in a general location, I decided I wanted to get on top of the lighthouse.  Well the staircase was blocked by a locked door, so what would any climber do?  Buildering.  Buildering is essentially just the sport of climbing buildings.  So that’s exactly what I did.  I found a way to make it to the highest point on the lighthouse and snapped some photos.  I wasn’t the only one snapping photos though.  Quite a crowd gathered around and being in Asia, as you can imagine there were cameras everywhere.  Who knows who’s photo albums or wanted posters I’m going to show up on.  One day I’ll be browsing the internet and find a picture of myself.  Anyway, that was all well and good.  The crowd offered a few oohs and ahs and gasps when they thought I would slip.  Our friends joked I should put a hat out and start taking donations instead of offering a free show.  Not a bad idea actually.

After the lighthouse we ventured further up the mountain to the old military Cihou Fort used in a failed attempt to fend off the Japanese back in the late 1930s.  There were machine gun bunkers and tunnels all over the place and we paid a visit to many of them.  Pretty neat to see something that played such a monumental role in the history of this country right here in Kaohsiung.

Finally, after a concerned call from Daisy who was waiting for us at the climbing area, we found our way back down the mountain and through the tunnel to meet up with her.  We didn’t waste any time though.  High above the tunnel, there was a trail leading to a cave in the mountainside that Daisy and I had always wanted to explore.  We managed to climb up on the tunnel, the four of us, and slowly and carefully make our way up the treacherous trail secured by a rope most likely attached there by local caving groups.  This once again generated a crowd, this time about 50 people thick.  One really can’t do much of anything out of the ordinary without gathering spectators here. 

Once in the cave, we ventured forward until we noticed it dropped about 25 feet into the earth.  After much debate and armed with headlamps, everyone volunteered me to be the first and only one to take the plunge.  There were many old broken rope ladders securing the decent so I grabbed as many as I could while chimneying down the crack.  It was incredibly eerie and a bit scary.  I found my way forward another 15 feet very slowly watching each of my steps and all that echoed in my head were the words of a caving guide I’d had the pleasure of meeting in Texas who told me people who go into caves when they are untrained end up not only ruining the caves, but getting hurt or lost thereby preventing any further exploration by true cavers.  So when I saw that to continue forward further, I’d have to shimmy down a 2x2 hole even further into the ground, I called it off and turned back.  With no ropes, gear, or trained guides, this was not a risk I was willing to take.  So a bit of he-man pullups and encouragement from the others and I was back out of there.  We made our way back down the trail one-by-one trying to avoid rockslides and each of us safely made it back down to ground level to the new crowd’s amazement.

After this we immediately hopped over the adjacent railing and began climbing down the rock face to the climbing area on the beach.  This gathered a few “Jaiyo” from the crowd as well.  This basically is an encouraging chant meaning similar to “yeah!” or “do it!”  So anyway we climbed down and after a quick tour to the CSers we walked over to the climbing area and began setting up all the gear.  As they were setting up the gear, I walked around the check out what was around the wall.  I did a bit of climbing and emptied my pockets including my wallet and set them down on a nearby rock.  Unfortunately I forgot about them and ended up leaving them on the rock for a while.  When I came back to join my friends, it seemed a large group of Philippino guys had decided to join us on the beach which was odd because almost no one ever ventures off the bridge.  They took pictures with me and meandered around for a bit.  I didn’t think much of it until later I walked back around my wallet sitting there.  I opened it up and realized all of my cash was gone.  About $65 USD worth.  Those bastards!  Whatever though.  My fault for leaving my stuff sitting around.

Anyway, so for the rest of the day we set up a few different climbs in various places on the wall using slings and a couple of bolts for protection.  We sport climbed and bouldered until dark and at the end of the day, we were all pumped from the overhanging limestone.  All in all it was a great time.  We finished the day with a treat and Daisy’s friend’s café called Seattlite on the island then parted ways until the next time we meet.  Twas a great day.