◼️Entrance-A:Bamboo Forest Tea House – in front of Taiping Elementary School,GPS:23˚33'39.2"N 120˚36'21.1"E ◼️Entrance-B GPS:23°33'33.5"N 120°36'11.9"E
The two ends of Xiaozilu Trail connect with the beginning and end of Taiping Old Street. One end is at Bamboo Forest Tea House opposite to Taiping Elementary School, an outdoor tea culture park. Moso Bamboos are planted all around the park. In the folk tales of “The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars,” Meng Zong, who was desperately seeking bamboo shoots to make soup with for his ill mother, cried so hard that he convinced god to allow bamboo shoots to sprout in winter. This is also the origin of “winter bamboo shoots” and the naming of this trail, “Xiaozilu,” road of a filial son. If you begin from Bamboo Forest Tea House, take the stone stairs up the hill. Along the two sides of the trail are moso bamboos. The lichens on the bamboos are very sensitive to SO₂ and therefore can serve as an indicator of air quality. Through the bamboo forest, you will come to a suspension bridge. Gazing afar from the bridge, you can see the surrounding hills, bamboo forest, villages, Sanyuan Temple, and the ridge lines of high and low mountains. The motorway below the bridge is County Highway 162A, which is also the outer circular road of Taiping. Continuing on, the trail alternates through tea fields and bamboo forest. Vegetation becomes rich along the way, with many plants rarely seen on the ground. At the highest point of 1000-m altitude, you will find a pavilion deep in the forest. Next to the pavilion, there is a fork road that leads to Dalongding Mountain, which is a popular hiking trail. After this section, you will continue downhill until you reach the entrance on the other end.