Yu Shan
Yu Shan or Yushan, also known as Mount Jade, Jade Mountain, or, and known under Japanese rule as Mount Niitaka, is the highest mountain on Taiwan at 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 surrounding mountains belong to 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.
The mountains are now protected as the Yushan National Park. The national park is Taiwan's largest, highest and least accessible national park. It contains the largest tract of wilderness remaining in Taiwan and is also valued for its pristine forests and faunal diversity, including many endemic species. On July 21, 2009, Yushan was elected one of 28 finalists in the New7Wonders of Nature voting campaign. It even had held the top position in the “Mountains and Volcanoes” category on the list of first round voting of the 77 nominees ended on July 7, 2009.
Names
Yushan or Yu Shan is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese name It is also known as,, and, calques of the same name. The name derives from its appearance in the winter, when its thick snow cover is thought to make its peak look like stainless jade. "Yushan" or Jade Mountain was also the name of a location in ancient Chinese mythology, a paradise said to be the home of the Queen Mother of the West.During the Qing Dynasty, Yushan was known in Chinese as Mugangshan from its surrounding forests. Other Chinese names included Batongguan, transcribing its native Tsou name "Patungkuonʉ"; Baiyushan ; and Xueshan. It was previously known in English as a name sometimes mistakenly thought to honor the missionary Robert Morrison, but actually simply the name of an American captain who sighted it.
Other native names for the mountain include Saviah and Tongku Saveq, Tanungu'incu, and Kanasian.
During Japan's rule in Taiwan, the mountain became known as or Niitakayama because new surveying showed that it was higher than in the Japanese Islands.
Geography and geology
The island of Taiwan is situated at the intersection of two tectonic plates – the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate. Even as “recently” as the late Paleozoic, the land here was still but a sedimentary seabed layered with silt and sand. As the two plates began pressing against each other, the land buckled, bent, and created the landscape – 165 mountains higher than above sea level on a relatively small island.Yushan is also notable in containing the highest point on the Tropic of Cancer and the only point on that circle of latitude where there is any evidence of Quaternary glaciation. As recently as seventeen thousand years ago, permanent ice caps existed throughout Taiwan's highest mountains and extended owing to the wet climate down to ; whereas currently, the nearest glaciers to the Tropic of Cancer are in Mexico on the Iztaccíhuatl volcano.
The ocean waters off Taiwan's east coast are deep; in fact, submarine slopes plunge down to the Pacific Ocean at a grade of 1:10 and the ocean reaches a depth of more than about from the coast.
Hiking
With panoramic views, overlapping mountains, and deep, plunging valleys, Yushan National Park is well known for its scenery, sunrises, sunsets, geological features, and views of the clouds from above. Sea of clouds often fill the valleys. Indisputably, Yushan itself is the focal point of the park.Yushan is one of the favorites among Taiwanese mountain climbers. International peak baggers Yushan is ranked as the 4th World Island Highpoints and the 3rd Asian Island Highpoints. After Puncak Jaya in Indonesia and Mount Kinabalu in Malaysia to form an "Asian Trilogy" hiking experience.
Yushan has five main peaks with the Main Peak being the most popular:
- Main Peak,
- Eastern Peak, – from Main Peak
- Northern Peak, – from Wind Tunnel
- Southern Peak, – from Paiyun Lodge
- Western Peak, – from Paiyun Lodge
Flora and fauna
, with the tropic of Cancer across the center of the island, has a climate between tropical and subtropical. The average temperature is. Here low elevation areas support evergreen broadleaved forests. As elevation increases, evergreen broadleaved forests are gradually replaced by deciduous forests and coniferous forests. At mountain peaks with alpine conditions, only mosses, liverworts and occasionally grasses can be found on the ground.All of the above vegetation variations can be seen in the Yushan area from low foothills to high summits with an elevation difference of. Because of this wide climatic and vegetation variations, this environment nurtures the richest and most diversified wildlife in Taiwan. Preliminary investigations reveal that there are 130 species of birds, 28 species of mammals, 17 species of reptiles, 12 species of amphibians and 186 species of butterflies in Yushan National Park. In fact, Yushan is nicknamed "the ark" by academics who see it as a repository of Taiwan's rare species. It is almost an encyclopedia of Taiwan's ecological systems, a geological museum and an important habitat of one-third of Taiwan's endemic species, such as:
- Formosan serow
- Reeves's muntjac
- Formosan black bear
- Formosan blue magpie
- Formosan rock macaque
- Hemimyzon taitungensis and Varicorhinus tamusuiensis – Two unique fish species living in the Lekuleku River area.
History
Under the Japanese, the anthropologists Torii Ryūzō and Ushinosuke Mori became the first people recorded to summit the mountain in 1900.
In 1900, during Japanese rule, two Japanese anthropologists, became the first people to have been recorded ascending the mountain. They gave it the name which was used as the name of the Niitaka Arisan National Park in 1937. The Imperial Japanese Navy also used the mountain's name in its signalNiitakayama Nobore or "Climb Mount Niitaka"to begin the surprise attack against the USN Pacific Fleet and its base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941.
Under the Republic of China, a large bronze statue of Yu Youren was placed on the Yushan summit in 1966. The statue was cut down and thrown into a ravine by activists for Taiwan independence in 1996.
In recent years, Yushan has played an important role in a new focus on Taiwan's identity. Because of its iconic status, Yushan has been chosen to be the background of the newly-issued NT$1,000 notes on 20 July 2005. Similarly, a newly-found asteroid by Lulin Observatory of National Central University was named after Yushan on 28 December 2007.
Climate
Yushan has an alpine climate. The tip of Yushan is usually covered with frost from November to March. Elevations above may sometimes see snow during the winter months, and there are four consecutive months of snow accumulation at places with elevations higher than. The first snow may appear in October and completely melts by May. Snow falls 24.3 days per year on average on Yushan, and the number is gradually decreasing.Yushan receives around of precipitation annually. It rains an average of 140 days per year, mostly between May and August. From May until the first part of June is plum rain season or monsoon season. Taiwan's typhoon season roughly falls between July and September. The peak month is in August, which sees of precipitation on average, compared to in December, the driest month.