Maokong Gondola: Riding to the top!

Ever taken a trip on the Maokong Gondola? The word 'gondola' always creates a mystique and romance that is evocative of Venice. Of course, to engineers, it refers as much to a type of 'cable car' called a gondola lift.

So with romance in our hearts, Christine and I decided on a trip to MaoKong via Maokong Gondola : I'm including a video from YouTube. As a weekend trip would have meant hours of standing waiting for a gondola! Neither of us have the patience, so a weekday trip was decided upon.

I've included some views from the cable car but pictures were taken from inside the gondola so they aren't so clear at times:

Christine and I are waiting to board the first gondola!

A view of the lines of gondolas heading up and down the mountains.

The line has 4 primary and 2 secondary stations on the line:

* Taipei Zoo
* Corner One
* Taipei Zoo South
* Corner Two
* Zhinan Temple
* Maokong

We rode from Taipei Zoo all the way up the Mountain to Maokong. We had intended to come back from Zhinan Temple station so we could see Taipei twinkling in the early evening ... but we got lost on the walk from Maokong to Zhinan and ended up catching one of the numerous Maokong area buses that ferry people around the area.

It was a good afternoon in all... next time we go, though, perhaps we'll do the journey in reverse: taking a bus up the hill, then riding down on the Gondola!

For those of you who are not in Taipei, I found this great 3D animation of the trip on Youtube.