Cat Mountain Trail Introduction
❗️The summit station restroom and observation deck will be closed for construction and business adjustments every Saturday, Sunday, and national holidays starting from April 1, 2025. Thank you for your understanding! ❗️The entrance to the Mao Lan Mountain Trail is located next to the Fullon Hotel and leads to part of the Tea and Beverage Crop Improvement Station of the Council of Agriculture and the Sun Moon Lake Meteorological Station. The trail is approximately 4.6 kilometers long. The environment along the path is serene, and the vistas are excellent, allowing you to enjoy the panoramic views of the Assam tea gardens, cedar trees, and Sun Moon Lake. At the summit, you can also spot Jiufen Ershan and Jiji Mountain in the distance. The Sun Moon Lake Meteorological Station is located at an altitude of 1,020 meters, with an outdoor meteorological instrument. Early morning is the best time to stroll through Mao Lan Mountain, with a winding trail alongside the red tea terraced fields at the entrance, flanked by the famous Assam tea. The tea improvement station platform, overlooking the lake, is an excellent spot for watching the sunrise, sea of clouds, and morning mist. The shaded path from the tea improvement station to the meteorological observation station is a moderately strenuous tree-lined trail, with a 3-kilometer stretch featuring the Zilan olive tree pathway and straight Taiwan cedar forest, accompanied by the sounds of insects and birds. At the top, you can admire the scenic beauty of Sun Moon Lake, Jiufen Ershan, and Jiji Mountain. The tea improvement station at mid-mountain is a building from the Japanese colonial era with a strong Eastern flavor. Due to the expansion of research areas after the tea improvement station was renamed to “Tea and Beverage Crop Improvement Station of the Council of Agriculture” without an increase in personnel, starting from April 2015, the tea improvement station and its sub-stations will no longer accept visits arranged by travel agencies for domestic and foreign visitors. *Those wishing to visit the Tea and Beverage Crop Improvement Station are requested to contact the station's personnel two weeks prior to the visit date. After confirmation, the applicant must formally submit an application in the name of their organization or unit, which should include the unit name, number of visitors, date and time of the visit, items to be visited, expected duration of stay, contact person, and phone number.
