Qualla: Xueshan Range

Xueshan Range: Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peellden, CC BY-SA 3.0. Taiwan gets the mountains. It often surprises visitors how seriously — the island is only 394 kilometers long but contains more than 260 peaks above 3,000 meters, a concentration that rivals ranges far more famous. The Xueshan Range is where much of that drama concentrates. Stretching across northern Taiwan and bordered to the southeast by the Central Mountain Range, this is a world of glacially carved cirques, raked ridgelines, and rivers falling toward both the Pacific and the Taiwan Strait. The highest point, Xueshan itself at 3,886 meters, is Taiwan's second tallest peak — Snow Mountain, as the name translates, and in winter it earns that name completely.

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Image: Peellden | CC BY-SA 3.0

Xueshan Range: A Range of Many Names

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit peellden, CC BY-SA 3.0. Naming a mountain range requires naming it from somewhere, and the Xueshan Range has been named by many: the Atayal people who lived among its peaks for generations, the Qing dynasty officials who mapped it from administrative distance, the Japanese colonial authorities who renam...

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Image: peellden | CC BY-SA 3.0

Xueshan Range: Fifty-Four Peaks Above Three Thousand Meters

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CharlesTcharles, CC BY-SA 4.0. The numbers alone are staggering. The Xueshan Range contains 54 peaks taller than 3,000 meters, of which 19 appear on Taiwan's prestigious list of the 100 Peaks — a mountaineering challenge that draws climbers from across Asia. Xueshan Main Peak at 3,886 meters leads the list, fo...

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Image: CharlesTcharles | CC BY-SA 4.0

Xueshan Range: The Holy Ridge

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Piano08647, CC0. Between Xueshan and Dabajianshan runs a traverse that Taiwanese mountaineers call the Holy Ridge — 聖稜線, Shènglíng Xiàn. Japanese mountaineer Numai Tetsutaro named it in a 1928 article, and the name has stuck for nearly a century. The route stays above 3,000 meters for its entire ...

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Image: Piano08647 | CC0

Xueshan Range: The Tunnel That Remade an Island

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Piano08647, CC0. For most of Taiwan's history, crossing the Xueshan Range was the problem. Yilan County on the eastern side was effectively cut off from Taipei by the mountains — a two-hour drive on winding roads in good weather, much longer when typhoons closed the highway. The Hsuehshan Tunnel ...

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Image: Piano08647 | CC0

Xueshan Range: Snow and Season

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peellden, CC BY-SA 3.0. Xueshan's high zones receive snow from roughly October through April, and the cirques on the northern and eastern faces hold it longest. The peak sits in a classic alpine cirque — a bowl carved by glacial action into the rock, now filled with alpine grasses, dwarf rhododendrons, ...

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Image: Peellden | CC BY-SA 3.0