Above the rest
The temperature on Yushan stays at 10°C or below all year round, and the main peak is snowcapped from late December to April, which further accentuates the mountain’s grandeur. The name “Jade Mountain” derives from the clean, white peak of wintertime.
The first recorded use of the name Yushan occurs in the 1697 book Fan Jing Bu Yi (“More About the Barbarian Borderlands”), in which author Yu Yonghe writes: “Among the many mountains there, Yushan stands the tallest, and can be seen from a great distance. The jagged peaks shine white as silver. Seen from afar, Yushan looks much like the snowcapped Mt. Taibai. Guarded by sheer peaks on all sides, one may look upon it, but not set foot upon it.”
During the Japanese colonial period, the Japanese called it Niitakayama, or “new highest mountain,” a reference to the fact that Yushan is more than 170 meters higher than Mt. Fuji, at 3,776 meters the tallest mountain in Japan.
But is tectonic action affecting the height of Yushan? One wonders in particular about the 921 Earthquake of 1999, which had its epicenter in central Taiwan. Is Yushan getting taller?
According to Wu Herong, head of the Interpretation and Education Section at Yushan National Park Headquarters, the Ministry of the Interior resurveyed Yushan after the 921 Earthquake and found that it had shifted over 40 centimeters in a west-northwesterly direction, but its height was virtually unchanged.
A study has concluded that the northwesterly push of the Philippine oceanic plate is raising Taiwan’s mountains by about two centimeters a year. If so, then Yushan should be getting continually higher.
However, notes Professor Lin Jiun-chuan of the Department of Geography at National Taiwan University, at the same time as the mountains are rising, weathering and other factors whittle constantly away at alpine mountains.
“Yushan is not at rest. Its height is changing,” says Lin, adding that big landslides are an ever-present fact of life in Taiwan’s mountains.
Mountains give people the power to keep moving in a positive direction. Quite often, a hike in the mountains amounts quite literally to a walk in the clouds. The loose shale scree shown here makes for a very tough go. (photo by Lin Xinzhi)