Taiwan's Sea-to-Summit:
The Complete Guide to the 177 km Shanhaizun (Mountains to Sea) National Greenway

Japan has a route that runs from sea level to the 3,776 m summit of Mt. Fuji, nicknamed "Zero Fuji", the single climbing route with the largest elevation difference in the country. Taiwan has a mirror image of it: the Shanhaizun (Mountains to Sea) National Greenway, 177 km long, starting at the mouth of the Yanshui River inside Taijiang National Park in Tainan and climbing all the way to the 3,952 m main peak of Yushan, a net gain 176 m greater than Fuji's. The idea was launched in 2007 by a community college in Tainan, approved as a national-level greenway by the National Development Council in 2018, and only completed its 8 stamp points and 19 waystations in June 2023. This guide pulls together official material from the Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association and the Forestry Agency to break down the 4 themed sections, the Paiyun Lodge lottery strategy for the summit section, and a full comparison with Japan's Route 3776.

1. 177 km to the Roof of Taiwan: What the Shanhaizun Greenway Is

The Shanhaizun Greenway (Mountains to Sea National Greenway, officially abbreviated MSTW) is one of the first three demonstration routes designated as national-level greenways in Taiwan, administered by the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency under the Ministry of Agriculture (formerly the Forestry Bureau). The route starts at the mouth of the Yanshui River in Taijiang National Park, Tainan (elevation 0 m), passes the Chianan Canal, Wushantou Reservoir, Zengwen Reservoir and Alishan, then links to Tataka and finishes on the main peak of Yushan (3,952 m).

Unlike a typical day-hike trail, what makes Shanhaizun distinctive is that it stitches four completely different landscapes into a single narrative line: coastal lagoon, irrigation canals across the Chianan Plain, Indigenous villages in the Alishan range, and the high alpine ridgeline of Yushan. It crosses 2 counties (Tainan and Chiayi), 10 townships, 3 national scenic areas and 2 national parks, and links six cultural layers: Han settlement, Japanese-era hydraulic engineering, Siraya, Tsou, Bunun, and high-mountain ecology.

2. Who Built This Route? From 2007 to 2018

Shanhaizun did not begin with the government but with the principal of a community college branch campus. In 2007, Wu Mao-cheng, then head of the Taijiang campus of Tainan Community University, proposed a greenway across greater Tainan running from the coast to the mountains, connecting the history of the Taijiang inner sea with the irrigation culture of the Chianan Plain. The following year, the "Little Taijiang" group along with students, parents and teachers at Haidian Elementary School launched a river-protection movement; a 2006 public hearing on conservation of the Chianan Canal had already drawn then-legislator Lai Ching-te, and the community campaign snowballed from there.

After Lai was elected mayor of Tainan in 2010, the route was folded into city policy. In 2014 the 45 km "Tainan Shanhaizun Greenway" (Taijiang to Wushantou) was completed; in 2018 the Executive Yuan approved it as a national-level greenway, and the Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association, commissioned by the Forestry Bureau, took over planning of the full extension to Yushan alongside consulting partners. In June 2023, the 8 stamp points and 19 waystations along the full route were unveiled, which is when the route truly took shape.

So Shanhaizun is not a mature, decades-old route like UTMB or the Camino. Its physical infrastructure and passport system are only one to two years old. International recognition is low, few people have walked it, and information about individual sections is scattered across personal blogs and hiking forums, which makes research messy. That is the bad news, but it is also the good news: go now and you will meet almost nobody. The experience is pure, and the route is still in its exploratory phase.

3. Mirror Image: Comparing It With Japan's "Zero Fuji"

Japan's Mt. Fuji Climbing Route 3776 (popularly "Zero Fuji") was designed and launched by the city government of Fuji, Shizuoka Prefecture in the 2010s. It starts from sea level at Tagonoura beach or the Fujizuka mound and covers 42 km to Kengamine, the highest point of Mt. Fuji (3,776 m), making it the official challenge route with the largest elevation difference on a single line in Japan. Finishers can mail their stamp record to the Fuji City tourism division to receive a certificate of achievement and a completion badge.

Placing the two routes side by side, you find that they share the same narrative (walk from sea level to the country's highest peak, collect stamps in a passport) yet are fundamentally different animals.

The core contrast is this: Shanhaizun sells a cultural mosaic, Route 3776 sells vertical devotion. The former threads together many ethnic groups and successive eras of waterworks, farming and forestry over a long, low-density distance. The latter compresses the story of a single sacred mountain into 42 km, short but dense, backed by a Shugendo tradition running back to the 12th century and by UNESCO World Heritage status.

If you want a genuine Japanese counterpart, a blend of the Kumano Kodo and Mt. Fuji fits better than Route 3776 alone. The Kumano Kodo is likewise a multi-day pilgrimage across layered cultures, with water worship and a fully developed passport system, and it too is UNESCO-listed. So while marketing often calls Shanhaizun "Taiwan's Camino", in spirit it is closer to Taiwan's Kumano Kodo.

4. The Four Themed Sections: Inner Sea, Canal, Homeland, Sacred Mountain

The Thousand Miles Trail Association divides the route into 4 themes of roughly 30-50 km each, which you can complete piecemeal or link together. Each section differs completely in terrain, resupply, difficulty and cultural theme, so understanding these four is the first step in planning a trip.

5. Must-See Landmarks and the Stamp Passport System

In June 2023 Shanhaizun officially launched a physical passport and a digital stamp system, currently making it the only national-level greenway in Taiwan with a complete stamp certification scheme. Collecting stamps is free, and a full set of 8 earns a digital completion certificate.

6. The Hardest Stretch: The Sacred Mountain Way and the Paiyun Lottery

The Sacred Mountain Way (Alishan → Yushan main peak) is the one part of the 177 km that you cannot simply walk your way through. On the first three sections you can choose to walk, ride or take a bus; the Sacred Mountain section must be covered entirely on foot, and it requires a lottery entry, permits, and a favorable weather window booked well in advance.

From the Tataka Saddle parking area (2,610 m) to the main peak of Yushan (3,952 m) is 11.5 km one way with 1,342 m of climbing. At the 8.5 km mark sits Paiyun Lodge (3,402 m), the only place you can legally spend the night up high. The standard approach is to hike from Tataka to Paiyun Lodge on day 1, then summit before dawn on day 2 and descend the same day.

The Paiyun Lodge lottery, step by step

Paiyun Lodge is run by the Yushan National Park headquarters and all beds are allocated by online lottery. The whole process from application to stay can take one to two months, so plan well ahead.

7. Viability as a Long-Distance Trail Run: The 7-Day Traverse Record

There is currently no credible public FKT (Fastest Known Time) for Shanhaizun. There are two reasons. First, the route includes urban bike paths and road sections, so pure running-FKT logic does not apply. Second, the Sacred Mountain section depends on the Paiyun lottery, which caps how freely you can time a summit. The benchmark record at present is a 7-day, 6-night traverse by mountain writers A-Tai (Yang Shih-tai) and Dai Dai (Tai Yi-ting).

Invited by the Thousand Miles Trail Association, the pair walked the entire route in reverse (Yushan to the mouth of the Yanshui River) and finished in 7 days and 6 nights. Their trip has become the most frequently cited benchmark in media coverage, with reports and reflections published by the Environmental Information Center, Global Views Monthly, and a Verse podcast.

8. Resupply and Bail-Out Strategy: Where the Convenience Stores End

Resupply and escape routes are the most underestimated part of planning a long greenway. Along Shanhaizun, resupply density decreases steadily from start to finish: the early sections run through towns with convenience stores everywhere; the middle sections enter the mountains, leaving village shops and guesthouses; and on the final Sacred Mountain section the only resupply is a pre-ordered meal at Paiyun Lodge, with everything else carried on your back.

9. Gear and Climate Notes

Shanhaizun spans tropical lowland to alpine tundra, a climate range equivalent to driving from Tainan to the Canadian Rockies, so gear planning has to be done section by section.

10. Cultural Depth: Hatta Yoichi, the Tsou, and the Island Traverse Narrative

Treat Shanhaizun as nothing but a trail-running route and you turn a color film into black and white: you miss the most valuable thing about it. Its designers deliberately stitched together cultures from different eras and different peoples, so each section is its own historical layer.

Hatta Yoichi and the tragedy of Wushantou Reservoir

The centerpiece landmark of the Canal Way is Wushantou Reservoir, built under the direction of Japanese engineer Hatta Yoichi in the 1920s and 1930s. On completion it was the largest reservoir in Southeast Asia and the third largest in the world, irrigating 150,000 jia of farmland across the Chianan Plain and transforming agriculture in southern Taiwan. Hatta's grave and a bronze statue stand beside the reservoir.

His story has a tragic ending. In 1942, while being sent to the Philippines on a survey mission, the ship he was aboard, the Taiyo Maru, was sunk by a US submarine and he died. Three years later his wife, Toyoki, drowned herself at the reservoir's outlet, commemorated today by a memorial stone. It is worth stopping here to read the history: this is precisely the design intent behind Shanhaizun, turning simple geographic movement into a cultural pilgrimage.

The Tsou "kuba" and the Tefuye Historic Trail

The Homeland Way passes in sequence through the Tsou villages of Chashan, Xinmei, Shanmei, Lijia, Dabang and Tefuye. The Tsou kuba is a men's assembly house, and only two intact examples survive in Taiwan, at Dabang and Tefuye. The kuba is the political and ceremonial center of the village and outsiders may not enter, so keep a respectful distance as you pass.

The Tefuye Historic Trail (6.32 km) that starts from Tefuye is a conversion of the old Shuishan forest railway: gentle the whole way, with Japanese-era railway relics, old-growth cypress forest and seas of cloud along the route. This is the most restorative stretch of the whole greenway, enjoyable even for hikers with only average fitness.

Yushan as a symbol of the island traverse

The main peak of Yushan is the highest point in Taiwan. From the Qing-era Batongguan Historic Trail, through the Japanese-era construction of mountain huts, to the designation of Yushan National Park in 1985, the meaning of this mountain has shifted from a summit to a national totem. Putting the finish line on Yushan means the designers consciously framed the route as Taiwan's sea-to-summit pilgrimage: the physical act of walking from sea level to the highest point of the country is itself a body-scale ritual that says "I belong to this island".

11. How I Would Actually Walk It

The best way to take on this route is not a single continuous 7-to-14-day push but a year of section challenges. Three reasons:

First, the Paiyun lottery is the ceiling on your schedule. You cannot predict months in advance that you will arrive at Tataka exactly on the entry date you happened to draw, so the Sacred Mountain section is best planned on its own. Second, the sections differ so much in scenery and rhythm that walking them back to back dulls the experience, while splitting them lets you savor each. Third, Taiwan's weather is volatile, and splitting the route gives you the flexibility to pick a good forecast for every section.

A suggested annual rhythm:

Plan it this way and you can comfortably finish all 4 sections, collect all 8 stamps and earn the digital completion certificate within a single year, walking each section in its best season with a light physical load and the best possible scenery. For most people, that is the version that actually gets done.

12. Sources

1. Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association, official Shanhaizun National Greenway information: tmitrail.org.tw/roadmap/1643
2. Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, Taiwan Forest Recreation network, Shanhaizun section: recreation.forest.gov.tw/Topic/MSTW
3. Yushan National Park entry permit applications: npm.cpami.gov.tw
4. Environmental Information Center, "A 177 km national greenway you can walk on a whim": e-info.org.tw/node/221943
5. Global Views Monthly, "Guided by experts: walking Shanhaizun in 7 days": gvm.com.tw/article/69681
6. Hiking Biji, Shanhaizun National Greenway hub: hiking.biji.co
7. Hatta Yoichi Foundation: hattayoichi.org.tw
8. Mt. Fuji Climbing Route 3776 official site: route3776.jp
9. Fuji City government, Mt. Fuji tourism division: city.fuji.shizuoka.jp
10. Wikipedia entries for "Yushan" and "Mountains to Sea National Greenway", cross-checked in Chinese and English