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The usual first step to finding outdoor bouldering in Taiwan is an Instagram search. You see someone laying pads under a big boulder and start asking: where is that? How do I get there? How many pads do I need?
This is post 2 of the Outdoor Bouldering series. The earlier posts covered laying crash pads and spotting and reading a topo and crag etiquette. This one answers three questions: what bouldering areas Taiwan has, which one to visit first, and where to get pads. Etiquette in general is not repeated here; only what is specific to each area.
On scope: this post covers only areas already published on Mountain Project, in guidebooks or on blogs, and only information those sources have made public. For parking and detailed approaches, see each area's original page.
One more thing up front: for none of these areas could we find a bouldering notice from a land manager (the temple, the river authority, or the national scenic area administration). No notice does not mean anything goes. If you see a sign on site, or a landowner or staff member asks you to leave, do as they say. Rules for roped crags (the peregrine closure at Long Dong, the permit at Shoushan, the ban at Kenting) are in Choosing a Crag in Taiwan.
Where the information comes from
Taiwanese bouldering information is scattered across a few places:
- The first guidebook. Published in 2019, Taiwan Natural Bouldering (in Mandarin) covers four areas: Bihou in Nan'ao, Dabao in New Taipei, and Ruilong and Pingshi in Nantou. TOKYO POWDER's product page lists about 240 problems, 211 pages, in Chinese and English (the crowdfunding page says 238). On the crowdfunding page, the developers say they started finding boulders, clearing trash, cutting trails and brushing holds in 2015. Xiaowulai in Taoyuan is another area they developed.
- The second guidebook. The Big Bad Wolf and the Little Lamb Rocks (in Mandarin) is crowdfunding from 16 September to 20 December 2026. It documents one area on the northeast coast, about 75 problems, and nearly every problem comes with a QR code linking to a beta video.
- Mountain Project. Taiwan Bouldering lists Tai-An, Li-Yang, Bitou and Water Flows Forever as sub-areas. Local climbers upload the data, and the problem counts are far from complete.
- Blogs and Instagram. For example, KateMao's write-up of Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Beitou (in Mandarin), plus the developers' own accounts.
This information goes stale. The second guidebook's crowdfunding page says that after recent heavy rain and terrain changes, some crags and problems in the four mountain areas from the first book no longer match the book.
Before your next trip: once you pick an area, compare Mountain Project, the guidebook and posts from the past year, and check whether the approach and the problems have changed.
Taiwan's bouldering areas at a glance
The table lists only what the sources say; a blank means the source doesn't mention it. The "Land manager notice" column refers to a bouldering notice from the temple, the river authority or the national scenic area administration. We found none for any area in the table.
| Area | Location | Rock | Grades and problem count | Approach | Land manager notice | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chung Tai Chan Monastery ("Undersea World") | Beitou, Taipei | Sandstone | Whale Rock V2–V7, Scar Rock V0–V4 | About 17 min on foot from MRT Qiyan Station | None found | KateMao |
| Bitou | Bitou Cape coast, New Taipei | Sandstone | About 50 problems | Bus or car | None found | Mountain Project |
| Big Bad Wolf and Little Lamb Rocks | Northeast coast | Wave-cut coral reef rock | About 75 problems on 18 boulders | About 5 min on foot from parking | None found | Second book's crowdfunding page |
| Dabao | New Taipei | None found | First book | |||
| Xiaowulai | Taoyuan | None found | First book's crowdfunding page | |||
| Tai-An | Wenshui River bed, Tai'an, Miaoli | From VB (the English and Chinese pages give different top grades) | 5–10 min on foot from parking | None found | Mountain Project | |
| Li-Yang | Riverbed near Guguan, Taichung | Mostly V0–V5, plus one 8–9 m highball | 5–8 min on foot from parking | None found | Mountain Project | |
| Water Flows Forever | Guoxing, Nantou | Upstream and downstream sectors | None found | Mountain Project | ||
| Ruilong, Pingshi | Nantou | None found | First book | |||
| Bihou | Nan'ao, Yilan | None found | First book |
Beitou's Dapao Rock is mainly for toproping and bouldering; its rock type and the administration's reminders are in Choosing a Crag in Taiwan.
Notes on a few areas:
- Chung Tai Chan Monastery, Beitou. According to KateMao, Urban Climbing TW developed it and named it "Undersea World". The boulders are about 3 to 4 metres tall, the ground below is flat enough to lay pads level, and every boulder has a gentle slope to walk down after the top out. The downside is damp: moss and dust on the rock, plenty of ants, spiders and mosquitoes, and dirt and leaf litter underfoot that turns to mud in the rain.
- Bitou. Per Mountain Project, Qx and Kelly, who were running The Bivy in Bitou together at the time, found this coastal sandstone in December 2018 (Kelly now runs The Bivy on her own). The page was created in 2020 and gives Kuo-Kuang bus 1811/1812 to Bitou Cape stop; check the bus company's current timetable.
- Big Bad Wolf and Little Lamb Rocks. The crowdfunding page says it is about 50 minutes from Taipei, with a large free car park and a clear trail that needs no bushwhacking, and that coastal boulders don't grow moss easily. The page does not name the location.
- Tai-An. It sits on the Wenshui River bed. Summer is hot and winter is the best season, and because it is a riverbed, check the weather every time you go.
- Li-Yang. Being a riverbed, most landings are fairly good, which makes it a good place for beginners. The same area has an 8 to 9 metre highball whose main line, around V8/9, is still a project.
- Water Flows Forever. Developed early, but floods have changed the problems over the years; the upstream boulders were less affected.
Choosing your first area
Choose by transport, grade and pads:
- No car, around V2 in the gym: Chung Tai Chan Monastery, Beitou. Reachable by MRT, flat ground, slabs on Scar Rock starting at V0, low boulders with a gentle walk-off. Rent one pad from a gym and go.
- A car, good landings, mostly entry-level problems: Li-Yang, Taichung. Mountain Project says most landings are good, most problems are V0–V5, and the approach is only 5 to 8 minutes. The 8 to 9 metre highball there is not a boulder for your first trip; post 3 explains why.
- No pads, in central Taiwan: Tai-An. Mountain Project says gyms provide shared pads there (next section). But it is a riverbed, hot in summer, and the trail is hard to find.
- You want a book to carry: Big Bad Wolf and Little Lamb Rocks on the northeast coast. The crowdfunding page pitches it at beginners moving from gym to rock, with a video for nearly every problem. You can only get the book after the campaign ends (20 December 2026) and it is printed.
Wherever you go, on your first trip pick problems two grades below what you send reliably in the gym (see post 1 for why). KateMao also writes that the insecurity of being outdoors made the grades feel harder than in the gym.
Before your next trip: write down three things: whether you have a car, how many pads you have, and what grade you send reliably in the gym. Use the list above to pick one area, then read that area's original page.
Where to get pads
Renting
Some gyms in Taiwan rent crash pads. For example, T-UP Climbing Nangang (in Mandarin) requires booking two days ahead, signing a rental agreement and leaving an ID; a pad returned too dirty incurs a cleaning fee. Prices and rules are in post 0 and on the gym's page. The photos on T-UP's rental page were taken at Ruilong and Water Flows Forever in Nantou.
Taking a pad on the MRT
Taipei Metro's rules (in Mandarin) limit carry-on items to a longest side of 165 cm and a combined length, width and height of 220 cm. KateMao writes that their M2C crash pad was within the limits, just awkward when the train was crowded.
Shared pads
Mountain Project's Tai-An page says several Taiwanese gyms have left up to nine free crash pads at Tai-An so climbers without pads can still climb. The rules: put them back where they were and wrap them in a tarp to keep them dry. That note was posted in January 2024; how many pads are left and what shape they are in, ask someone who has been recently.
Shared pads are paid for and maintained by someone else. Wrap them and put them back after use, and if one is damaged, tell the gym that provides it. Don't let it turn into the kind of abandoned, ruined pad that post 1 mentions.
Conditions specific to Taiwan: rain, moss, typhoons, rivers
Moss takes the crag back
The second guidebook's crowdfunding page puts it plainly: in the mountain areas from the first book, Taiwan's rain lets weeds and moss quickly cover the trails and the rock again. That is one reason the second book chose a coastal crag. KateMao also mentions moss and dust on the Beitou rock, so watch for slipping hands and feet.
Don't climb wet sandstone
Chung Tai Chan Monastery and Bitou are both sandstone. Post 1 covers the practice at Fontainebleau and in the UK: wet sandstone is fragile and may need 24 hours or more to dry before you climb on it. Taiwan is wet, so this rule comes up often.
Typhoons and rivers change crags
- Mountain Project says floods have changed the problems at Water Flows Forever over the years.
- TOKYO POWDER's product page says proceeds from the first print run of the first guidebook went to rebuilding crags damaged by typhoons.
- Bitou and the northeast coast boulders sit by the sea. Mountain Project's Bitou page recommends checking the Central Weather Administration's sea forecast before you go, since some boulders in the northern sector are right at the tide line.
- Japan's Mitake has the same issue: Mitake Boulder notes that the riverbank sand shifts after heavy rain and can bury sit starts.
Before a riverbed trip, check the rainfall for the previous few days, and on arrival check whether the landing has been washed into loose rocks. When it rains or the river is rising, get out of the riverbed.
Bouldering areas can disappear
The first guidebook's crowdfunding page records an episode: the developers started cleaning up a bouldering area beside the Dajia River in Taichung in 2017. When they returned in 2018, excavators had removed many of the boulders, and part of the riverbed had been paved into a concrete platform for a riverside sports park. They wrote that it is hard to make people who don't know bouldering understand how precious these boulders are.
That is why the etiquette post keeps returning to "keeping access": whether a bouldering area survives sometimes depends on how locals see climbers.
Summer: heat, insects, silvergrass
Mountain Project says Tai-An is hot in summer and best in winter. A climber writing on Hiking Biji about Tai-An (in Mandarin) warns that a late-summer visit means silvergrass that scratches, a hard-to-find trail, bees, heat, and the need to carry a lot of water. KateMao notes that in Beitou in February the sun is gone after 4 p.m. and the mosquitoes come out, and summer is worse.
Before your next trip: the day before, check three things: rainfall over the past two days, the temperature on the day, and whether anyone has posted from the area in the past month. If any one of them looks wrong, go somewhere else or go another day.
Going with someone who knows
On your first trip, it's best to go with someone who has been there. A few ways to find them:
- Workshops. KateMao writes that she joined a hands-on outdoor bouldering workshop in Hsinchu (Fengcheng) at the end of 2024 and learned how to read problems, place pads and protect the climber. These run irregularly; watch gym and local climber announcements.
- Guides. Kelly of The Bivy passed the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) Rock Guide exam in April 2025 and runs custom climbing trips and courses in Taiwan year-round. Whether she guides bouldering, ask her directly.
- Local community. Developers and regulars tend to be active on Instagram, and Mountain Project area pages often name the developers.
Practice: four scenarios
1. You have no car and no pad, have only climbed V2 in the gym, and live in Taipei.
Answer
Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Beitou. About 17 minutes on foot from MRT Qiyan Station, flat ground, slabs on Scar Rock starting at V0, boulders about 3 to 4 metres tall with a gentle slope to walk down. Rent one pad from a gym, check that its folded size meets the MRT limits, and bring a friend to spot.
2. You drive to Tai-An and find only two shared pads left, one of them soaked.
Answer
Use the dry one. Leave the wet one to air somewhere the rain won't reach, and afterwards wrap it in the tarp and put it back as the rules say. Back home, tell the gym that provides the pads or leave a note on the Mountain Project page. Next time, ask someone who has been recently first, or bring your own pad.
3. A typhoon passed a week ago, and you want to go to Water Flows Forever in Nantou.
Answer
Mountain Project says floods have changed the problems there before. First check whether anyone has been recently and whether the river has dropped. On arrival, check whether the landings have been washed into loose rocks and whether the approach has been cut. If the river is still high, stay out of the riverbed.
4. At Li-Yang, a friend points at the 8-metre highball and says, "It's a riverbed, the landing is great, give it a go."
Answer
A good landing doesn't make the height irrelevant. The main line is still a V8/9 project. At this height, post 3 recommends toproping by default, and covers when extra pads and spotters can still make sense and when not to climb. On your first trip, climb the V0–V5 problems in the same area.
What's next
The 8 to 9 metre boulder at Li-Yang carries a completely different level of risk from the V0–V5 problems beside it. How high counts as a highball? When are pads and spotters not enough? When should you rig a toprope instead? That's post 3, Highball Bouldering: How High Is High, and When to Toprope Instead.
The whole series:
- Post 0: Crash pads and spotting
- Post 1: Reading a topo and crag etiquette
- Post 2 (this one): Taiwan's bouldering areas
- Post 3: Highball bouldering
References
- Support Taiwan natural bouldering: publishing Taiwan's first natural bouldering book (zeczec crowdfunding page, 2019, in Mandarin)
- Taiwan natural bouldering guide: Big Bad Wolf and Little Lamb Rocks (zeczec crowdfunding page, 2026, in Mandarin)
- TAIWAN BOULDER GUIDE (TOKYO POWDER)
- Taiwan Bouldering (Mountain Project)
- Tai-An Riverbed (Mountain Project)
- Li-Yang Bouldering (Mountain Project)
- Bitou Boulders (Mountain Project)
- Water Flows Forever (Mountain Project)
- Outdoor bouldering: Chung Tai Chan Monastery in Beitou, the easiest to reach (KateMao, 2025, in Mandarin)
- Just after summer: outdoor bouldering at Tai-An (Hiking Biji, 2024, in Mandarin)
- Outdoor crash pad rental, T-UP Climbing Nangang (in Mandarin)
- Carry-on item rules, Taipei Metro (in Mandarin)
- About Us (The Bivy Climbing Guides)
- Choosing a Crag in Taiwan
- Mitake Boulder