Butterflies. It’s one of the major things that attracted Josh and I too this little Asian island. Nicknamed the butterfly kingdom, Taiwan is home to over 400 butterfly species, including 50 exclusive to Taiwan. And its home to an annual overwintering butterfly migration second only to the famous Monarchs of Canada/Mexico.
There are some great spots to see butterflies around Taipei. As well as some other special places around the island worth making special trips for. We’ve done a fair bit of traveling around the island with butterflies in mind. Here’s a running list of those we’ve been to, what we think of them and places we still need to check out.
(Green font = link to blog or website on that place or activity. Blue font = link to google maps pin)
Jiannan Trail: Taipei City
A free open air butterfly garden, just a few steps away from the MRT
I love this spot! It’s conveniently located just a 2 minute walk from Jiannan Brown Line Station. But you have to know its there to find it! You can tell a lot of thought and effort went into creating 
this trail and butterfly habitat although its a bit run down now (although recently we’ve noticed them doing some maintenance projects!). Basically its an outdoor butterfly garden. Host plants and nectar plants are planted all along the path, to encourage the native population there. Tons of signs are posted to help you identify the butterflies, caterpillars and host plants. (Although yes, its mostly in Chinese. But the pictures are cool. And scientific names of the plants & butterflies are provided too which is great).
My favorite spot is an area where host plants are planted in a row and clearly marked. If you just see a sign with a picture of host plant it can be hard to spot that specific plant among the hundreds of other green plants surrounding you in the tropics. But here you get to encounter the host plant up close, which also gives y
ou a much better chance of finding the other stages of the butterfly’s life cycle happening… ie, eggs, caterpillars and pupas.
Oh , and the views of the city along this path are pretty great too!
Directions: Take MRT brown line to Jiannan Station. Take exit 1, walk out and go left up the side street headed into the hills. Within a minute you’ll start seeing signs for the trail!
Taipei Zoo: Taipei City
A lovely butterfly garden you can enjoy in a day trip along with panda bears & Gondola Rides
Having owned our own butterfly garden in Costa Rica – Josh and I make a point to visit others around the world. Taipei zoo’s is a WONDERFUL one. (Check out our blog post for some tips on how to get the most of your visit to a butterfly garden). Not only does a butterfly garden like this give you a better chance of having up close and personal encounter with a butterfly, but you can also catch a glimpse of some of Taiwan’s more elusive butterflies. Pictured bellow are two I saw at the Taipei Zoo that I’ve yet to spot in the wild.
Directions: Take MRT brown line to the Zoo Station! Then follow the signs to the zoo 🙂
Cost of entry is a whopping $60NT (That’s right. Less then $2 USD)
The Purple Butterfly Valley: Kaohsiung County
The stuff National Geographic is made of.
Seeing the Monarch’s overwintering in Mexico is high on my bucket list. But I 
didn’t know until we started looking into Taiwan, that there was one other place in the world where a massive overwintering butterfly migration takes place: Maolin, Taiwan. Here hundreds of thousands of butterflies that descend on the valley- but they aren’t orange.. they’re purple!
The purple crow butterflies are in the same family as the Monarchs of Mexico and they take shelter here from December to March, only to disperse across the island again come spring.
We took this trip as our Christmas gift to each other. So we spent Christmas Eve 2016 in the purple valley. We were told by almost everyone we met that the numbers of butterflies were very low that year because it had been an especially long and warm fall, so the migration seemed to be happening later than normal. Still we were surrounded by thousands of butterflies! So it was hardly a disappointment. Although I would love to see it at its peak!
Directions: Start in Kaohsiung City. Go to HSR Zuoying Station. From there walk to the express bus terminal for Qishan. From Qishan take another bus (maybe Medical Care Bus H31?) or do like we did and pay for a cab from there (approx $20USD). I also read that you can take a cab or bus from Pingtung.
Fuyuan Butterfly Valley: Hualien County
Butterflies, hotsprings, a waterfall, monkeys and fireflies! …. maybe?
There are actually a few “butterfly valleys” in Taiwan. Maolin is unique because of the over-wintering migratory aspect. But there are also some other valleys in Taiwan that are known for hosting a large population of butterflies. Fuyuan Butterfly Valley is one such place. It’s not known for one particular butterfly species or family, but it does have a notable variety and quantity of butterflies. The season for its butterflies is from March – September.June – August is probably best for the butterflies really but in April and September there’s also the possibility to see fireflies!
We went here the second week of March. The only accommodations inside the Fu-Yuan National Forest Park is a hot springs resort. It’s VERY pricey, so we stayed at a hotel about a 15 minute car ride away in Ruisui. The resort itself seemed past its prime and I was incredibly glad we hadn’t splurged to stay there. The grounds were beautiful though and we did see some lovely butterflies and monkeys too!
They also had a sweet butterfly garden that had an incredible amount of kite butterflies as well as interesting caterpillar/chrysalis boxes. There’s also another building with pinned butterfly & insect displays. Both are included with the price of entry into the park (which was under $5 USD).
We were there at the beginning of March, so we didn’t see an exceptional amount of butterflies but we did see a lot considering it wasn’t peak season. There’s also supposed to be a really beautiful waterfall here but when went the path was closed due to typhoon damage. Also I had read that the season for fireflies there was March – April but when we tried to go see them at night, we told there weren’t any fireflies yet.
Those disappointments with the place that left us f
eeling a bit so-so about the place. But I think if you went in the summer, when the waterfall path is open it could be great. Oh and a soak in the natural hot springs was a wonderful way to top off a day of hiking around! And I will say, the hot springs is quite reasonably priced! (but bring your own towel or you’ll have to buy one 😛 )
Meinong Yellow Butterfly Valley: Kaohsiung County
millions of yellow butterflies and a village known for its hand crafted oil umbrellas
This picture is not from Meinong because we haven’t made it there yet! But it’s next on the list. This valley hosts the year round life cycle of a yellow-green Catopsilia butterfly (that I’m guessing looks similar to this one I photographed in Yangminshan Nat’l Park) The butterfly stage bursts forth between May and August, with late July supposedly being the peak season for the event, when millions of these yellow flying jewels cover the valley. Hopefully we’ll get to check it out this summer and when we do, we’ll let you know!
Check out this link for more on Meinong and the history of Taiwan’s connection to butterflies. Also the Smithsonian wrote a great article on this topic which helped point us to many of the spots we mentioned here!
***Hike with the Butterfly Conservation Association of Taiwan: Taipei City
Since writing this we discovered another way to enjoy Taiwan’s butterflies in the Taipei area. Turns out, Taipei has a very active butterfly conservation society! They offer free guided butterfly hikes every Sunday throughout the summer. And if you get really into, you can also sign up and pay for organized butterfly tours all around the country! It’s a great opportunity to meet locals and share a mutual enthusiasm for nature – even if your Chinese isn’t good enough to understand everything :). Check out our blog post about them here.