General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 20266 min read

Jade Mountain

Yushan (玉山), also known in English as Jade Mountain or Mount Jade, is a mountain in central Taiwan whose main peak, at 3,952 m above sea level, is the highest point on the island.¹ Official Taiwanese sources describe it as the highest peak in Northeast Asia;² some other publications, including Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, call it the highest summit in East Asia.³ The mountain lies at the center of Yushan National Park and gives the park its name.⁴

Key fact	Detail
Elevation	Main peak 3,952 m (12,966 ft), the highest in Taiwan¹
Regional rank	Highest peak in Northeast Asia per Taiwan's official World Heritage potential-site listing; other sources say East Asia²^•³
The five peaks	Main, North, East, South, and West peaks; West Peak is 3,528 m and the others exceed 3,900 m⁵
Yushan Range	About 180 km long, with 12 of Taiwan's top-100 peaks and 16 peaks above 3,000 m⁶
National park	Yushan National Park covers 103,121.4 hectares across Hualien, Kaohsiung, Nantou, and Chiayi⁴
Origin	The massif rose from the collision of the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate⁴
Visitation	Around 40,000 Taiwanese people climb the mountain each year⁷

Geography

Yushan stands in the Yushan Range, which is called "the roof of Taiwan," and is the highest mountain of that range.²^•⁶ The main peak sits just north of the Tropic of Cancer and is surrounded by four subsidiary summits, collectively known as the five peaks of Yushan: the main, North, East, South, and West peaks. Apart from the West Peak at 3,528 m, all rise above 3,900 m.⁵ The East Peak, at 3,869 m, is the third highest of Taiwan's 100 Peaks.⁸

The main peak lies at the meeting point of several administrative regions: Xinyi Township in Nantou County, Taoyuan District in Kaohsiung City, and Alishan Township in Chiayi County.¹ The Yushan Range itself runs from the southern bank of the Zhuosui River in Shuili Township, Nantou County, south to Shihbaluohanshan near Liouguei District of Kaohsiung City, a total length of about 180 kilometers. Five of its peaks, including the Main, East, North, and South peaks and Dongxiaonanshan, rank in the top ten of Taiwan's 100 Peaks.⁶

The park's terrain spans a vertical range from about 300 m at the Lakulaku River to the 3,952 m summit, producing tropical, subtropical, temperate, and alpine vegetation zones within one protected area.²

Names through history

The mountain has carried many names, reflecting the successive peoples and governments that have governed Taiwan. The Tsou people, the indigenous inhabitants of the area, called the mountain Pattonkan (rendered in Chinese as Batongguan) and the surrounding mountains "Patton kuanu," meaning "the mountain of quartz"; this may be the earliest name recorded for Yushan.² The Bunun people call it Tongku Saveq, and the Kanakanavu and Paiwan have their own names, Tanungu'incu and Kanasian.⁹

The Chinese name "Yushan" first appeared in the explorer Yu Yong-he's Small Sea Travel Diaries, written in 1697 during the Qing Dynasty. Yu wrote that among tens of thousands of mountains, Yushan was the highest, visible from far away, with white steep crags that shone like silver.² The name refers to the mountain's snow-covered appearance, described as gleaming white like jade.¹⁰

Mount Niitaka. During the Japanese colonial period, surveys by the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan found the mountain stood about 3,950 m, exceeding the 3,776 m of Mount Fuji. In 1897 the office asked Emperor Meiji to rename it "New High Mountain," or Niitakayama.² According to Lin Wen-chun's book Yushan History, the Meiji Emperor personally gave the name on June 28, 1897.¹¹ The Japanese set up a climate observatory on the summit to study the climate, weather, soil, and surrounding forests.² Western navigators in the mid-nineteenth century had earlier named it Mt. Morrison, after the captain of a British merchant ship.⁹

After Japanese rule ended, the name Yushan was restored; the Taipei Times gives the date of the reversion to the Qing-era designation as December 1, 1947.¹¹ In 1966 the government erected a bronze statue of the calligrapher Yu Youren on the summit, a gesture of political symbolism toward mainland China; the statue was later removed, and today a stone stele engraved "Yushan Main Peak 3952.430 meters" marks the summit.⁹

Geology and landscape

The Yushan massif rose from the ongoing collision between the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate. The main ribs of the massif form a rough cross shape, elongated north to south and short east to west, with the main peak at the center.⁴ The repeated collisions have left the rocks fragile, with numerous faults, joints, and folds, and metamorphism has produced pronounced cleavage and foliation that weaken resistance to weathering. The result is dramatic landslide and cliff terrain, including the Great Precipice, Mt. Xiangyang Collapsed Cliff, Jinmentong Cliff, and the Great Guanshan Cliff.²

The main peak's terrain is described by the park headquarters as forbidding: cliffs on the south and north sides, deep valleys and ravines on the west, and pebbles and rocks on the east.¹

Yushan National Park

A national park plan for the area dates to Japanese rule, when a committee designated a planned "New High Mountain National Park" in 1937; the plan was shelved after the outbreak of the Pacific War.² After Taiwan's retrocession, the proposed park area was approved by the Executive Yuan in 1982, and the completed plan was approved on February 7, 1985. A temporary preparatory office opened in Shuili Township, Nantou County, in April 1985, with management stations at Tataka, Nanan, Meishan, and Paiyun.²

The park covers 103,121.4 hectares and stretches over four administrative regions: Hualien, Kaohsiung, Nantou, and Chiayi. More than two-thirds of the park lies above 2,000 m, and besides Yushan peak it contains 30 mountains higher than 3,000 m, including Mt. Xiuguluan, Mt. Mabolasi, Mt. Xinkang, and Mt. Guan.⁴^•² The elevation range supports a complete forest ecosystem, and more than half of Taiwan's native plant species occur in the park. Recorded wildlife includes at least 34 mammal species (54.8 percent of Taiwan's mammal species, eight of them endemic), 151 bird species including 15 endemics such as Swinhoe's pheasant and the Mikado pheasant, and 228 of Taiwan's 410 butterfly species.²

Yushan National Park is listed among Taiwan's potential World Heritage Sites, meeting criteria VII (natural scenery), IX (geological processes), and X (biodiversity).²

Climbing

Yushan Main Peak is one of Taiwan's most climbed mountains, with around 40,000 Taiwanese people ascending each year.⁷ The standard route is the Yushan Peaks Trail, reached from the Tataka area in the northwest; hikers typically stay at Paiyun Lodge, the highest lodge in Taiwan, before a pre-dawn summit push.¹² Entry to the ecological protected area requires a park entry permit applied for online, and groups staying overnight at Paiyun Lodge or Guangao Cabin pay a fee; permits can be downloaded five days before the entry date.¹³ Trail status varies with weather and typhoon damage, and the park headquarters publishes current openings for the Yushan Peaks Trail, the Batongguan Traversing Trail, and other routes.¹⁴

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Landforms and terrestrial features › Mountains, plains, and other land terrain › Named mountains and peaks › Mountains of Asia

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026

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