Yu Shan or Yushan, also known as Mount Jade, Jade Mountain, or , and known as Mount Niitaka during Japanese rule, is the highest mountain in Taiwan at

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

, 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 its surrounding mountains belong to the 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 Yushan National Park () is one of the nine national parks in Taiwan and was named after the summit Yushan, the highest peak of the park.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 Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...

. " 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 ("Wooded Mountain") from its surrounding forests. Other Chinese names included Batongguan, transcribing its native Tsou name "Patungkuonʉ"; Baiyushan ("White Jade Mountain"); and Xueshan ("Snowy Mountain"). 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 ( Bunun; the latter means "highest peak"), Tanungu'incu ( Kanakanavu), and Kanasian ( Paiwan). During

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

's rule in Taiwan, the mountain became known as or Niitakayama ("New High Mountain") because new surveying showed that it was higher than in the Japanese archipelago.

Geography and geology

Txu-pclmaps-oclc-6550512-niitaka-yama-2217-ii

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 (some 250 million years ago), 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 ( 38th largest in the world). 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 The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

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.Central Geological Survey, MOEA.

Hiking

With panoramic views, overlapping mountains, and deep, plunging valleys,

Yushan National Park Yushan National Park () is one of the nine national parks in Taiwan and was named after the summit Yushan, the highest peak of the park.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
/ref> Yushan has five main peaks with the Main Peak being the most popular: * Main Peak (玉山主峰), * Eastern Peak (玉山東峰), – from ''Main Peak'' * Northern Peak (玉山北峰), – from ''Wind Tunnel'' (風口) * Southern Peak (玉山南峰), – from ''Paiyun Lodge'' (排雲山莊) * Western Peak (玉山西峰), – from ''Paiyun Lodge'' (排雲山莊) The east, west, north, and south peaks surround the main summit. The east peak rises to a height of and is considered one of Taiwan's ''Ten Major Summits'' (十峻). The south peak is a sharp pinnacle of black

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

. The relatively accessible west side of Yushan is covered with thick forests. The north peak is part of a long, gently-rising ridge; this peak consists of two high points that resemble a camel's humps. The North Peak is also home to Taiwan's highest permanently occupied building, the ''Yushan Weather Station'', where the occasional visitors are given a warm welcome. File:YushanSeaCloud.jpg, Sea of Clouds at Yushan File:YushanSunRiseSqlHeng.jpg, Sunrise at Yushan File:YushanSeaCloud6.jpg, Sea of Clouds on Yushan Trail

Flora and fauna

Yu-Shan National Park(WDPA-9030)-PeterWen-6

Taiwan, with the tropic of Cancer across the center of the island, has a climate between tropical and

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...

. 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

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...

es,

liverworts The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of ge ...

and occasionally grasses can be found on the ground.Flora of China
/ref> 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

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s, 17 species of

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

s, 12 species of

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

s and 186 species of

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

Yushan National Park Yushan National Park () is one of the nine national parks in Taiwan and was named after the summit Yushan, the highest peak of the park.ecological systems, a geological museum and an important habitat of one-third of Taiwan's endemic species, such as: * Formosan serow (台灣長鬃山羊) *

Reeves's muntjac Reeves's muntjac (''Muntiacus reevesi''; ), also known as the Chinese muntjac, is a muntjac species found widely in southeastern China (from Gansu to Yunnan) and Taiwan. It has also been introduced in Europe, western United States and Japan. It ...

(台灣山羌) * Formosan black bear (台灣黑熊) * Formosan blue magpie (台灣藍鵲) * Formosan rock macaque (台灣獼猴) * '' Hemimyzon taitungensis'' (台東間爬岩鰍) and '' Varicorhinus tamusuiensis'' (Oshima) – Two unique fish species living in the Lekuleku River area.

History

Under the Qing Dynasty, W. Morrison, captain of the American steam freighter ''Alexander'', sighted the mountain while departing from Anping Harbor (present-day Anping, Tainan) in 1857. His log was the first western mention of the mountain, which took his name in European accounts.. It was not possible for European mountaineers to access the mountain at the time due to hostile relations of local aborigines to both Qing authorities and Europeans. Under the Japanese, the anthropologists

Torii Ryūzō Ryuzo Torii (鳥居龍藏; May 4, 1870 – January 14, 1953) was a Japanese anthropologist, ethnologist, archaeologist, and folklorist. Torii traveled across East Asia and South America for his research. He is known for his anthropological resear ...

and Ushinosuke Mori became the first people recorded to summit the mountain in 1900. They gave it the name which was used as the name of the

Niitaka Arisan National Park Yu Shan or Yushan, also known as Mount Jade, Jade Mountain, or , and known as Mount Niitaka during Taiwan under Japanese rule, Japanese rule, is the highest mountain in Taiwan at above sea level, giving Taiwan the List of islands by highes ...

in 1937. The Imperial Japanese Navy also used the mountain's name in its "Go" signal''NIITAKAYAMANOBORE 1208 ( anji: '', meaning "Climb Mount Niitaka 1208"to begin the

surprise attack Military deception (MILDEC) is an attempt by a military unit to gain an advantage during warfare by misleading adversary decision makers into taking action or inaction that creates favorable conditions for the deceiving force. This is usually ac ...

against the USN Pacific Fleet and its base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 December 1941 (8 December 208in Japanese calendar). The

Yushan weather station The Yushan weather station is a weather station operated by the Central Weather Administration. Overview The Yushan weather station is located on the north peak of Yu Shan. It is the highest weather station in Northeast Asia and the highest bui ...

on the north peak was finished in 1943. Under the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

, 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 Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

in 1996.1
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.Bulletin Board of Central Bank of the Republic of China.
/ref> Similarly, a newly-found asteroid by Lulin Observatory of National Central University was named after Yushan on 28 December 2007.Yushan Asteroid.

Climate

Yushan has an alpine climate ( Köppen ''ETH''). 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, with the greatest frequency 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.

Gallery

File:玉山主峰 (6786349819).jpg, Yushan (玉山) during winter season File:玉山主峰 (6786353517).jpg, Yushan (玉山) during winter season File:DSC04198雄偉的玉山主峰.jpg, Yushan (玉山) during winter season File:玉山主峰 01.jpg, Yushan (玉山) during winter season File:玉山主峰 02.jpg, Yushan (玉山) during winter season File:玉山主峯_海拔3952公尺_單攻.jpg, Yushan Trail signage File:Yushan Taiwan.jpg, Yushan (玉山) File:Laonung River.jpg, Laonung River at the northeastern side of Yushan File:YushanSeaCloud2.jpg, Sea of clouds on Yushan Trail File:YushanSeaCloud3.jpg, Sea of clouds on Yushan Trail File:YushanSeaCoud4.jpg, Sea of clouds on Yushan Trail File:YushanSeaCloud5.jpg, Sea of clouds near ''Tatajia Anbu'' on Yushan Trail File:Yushan(jade mountain) in the morning.jpg, Mountain in the morning File:YushanSunrise.jpg, Sunrise at Yushan File:YushanSunrise1.jpg, Sunrise at Yushan File:YushanSunrise2.jpg, Sunrise at Yushan File:YushanSunrise3.jpg, Sunrise at Yushan File:Yushan(jade mountain) with sun set.jpg, Mountain with sunset File:YushanPeak1.jpg, Hikers at the summit File:FormosanRockMonkey.jpg, Formosan rock macaque found on Yushan Trail File:Yu shan range as seen from Shin Kang mountain (Summer 2005).jpg, Yushan Range, eastern side view File:新高主山與東山.jpg, Yushan on November 1, 1935 File:Mountain Yu.jpg, Painting of Yushan by Nasu Masaki (那須雅城)

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . * .

External links

Taiwan Review

Yushan Scenic Beauty

Book on the first ascent (German)

Yushan Main Peak Trail Introduction
{{Authority control Mountains of Taiwan Landforms of Nantou County Highest points of countries