Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓 or songxue lou, see official site) is the highest hotel in Taiwan (3150 m/10,335 ft!) and the only one in Hehuanshan area – considered the best place to see snow in Taiwan. The hotel has fantastic views plus some cool history, with the ruins of a former ski resort right behind it.
If you want to spend the night at Hehuanshan for its famous sunsets and sunrises, Songsyue Lodge will be your only option (besides camping or doing a sunrise tour from nearby Cingjing Farm).
However, getting a room at Songsyue Lodge is notoriously difficult. In this article. I’m going to describe in detail how I scored a room, rented a car and drove there, and what it was like staying overnight there.
Songsyue Lodge Introduction
Sonsyue Lodge was completed in 1966. Its main purpose was to house former president Chiang Kai-shek as he inspected the construction of Highway 14A .
The highway traverses the Central Mountain Range, running from Taichung and Puli in Nantou to Hualien county. There, it meets Highway 8 (the Central Cross Island Highway), which descends down into Taroko Gorge (closed indefinitely since the April 2024 earthquake).
The lodge is built just below Wuling Pass (3275 m/10,745 ft), the highest navigable pass in Taiwan and East Asia. It is common to see snow around the pass and lodge in January and February.
The hotel sits on the northern slope of Hehuanshan East Peak, one of the famous mountain’s five peaks, with Mount Qilai towering gracefully beyond it (see the cover image of this article).
Hehuanshan is right on the border between Nantou and Hualien counties and within Taroko National Park. The lodge itself is just inside Hualien county – see my guide to places you can still visit in Hualien after the earthquake.
Songsyue Lodge actually consists of two buildings: the main lodge (location), which we usually see in pictures is where Chiang Ka-shek used to stay.
Behind it and down a set of stairs (see left side of above photo), there’s a second building which served as a dorm for skiers (location) on the ski hill on Hehuanshan East Peak. You can see the former ski hill just above the main lodge building in the center of the above photo.
In the 1970s, there was more snow at Hehuanshan every winter compared to today. The hill was used not just as a public ski resort but also as a training camp for KMT soldiers, who at that point still planned to take back China someday.
In 1999, the original lodge was in a state of disrepair and was closed. In 2004, it was rebuilt and in 2009 it was reopened as a high mountain tourist lodge. Today, the lodge contains the hotel’s private rooms and restaurant, while the lower ski lodge contains shared dorms.
Both the lodge and dorms are incredibly popular among local trekkers. Because the online booking system is a little tough to navigate, foreign visitors rarely manage to get a spot (I’ll teach you how below!)
Most of foreign visitors end up staying at Cingjing Farm and visiting Hehuanshan by bus (only 3 per day!) or tour.
Songsyue Lodge is only five minutes on foot from the famous Hehuanshan Lookout (location), where most sunrise tours stop to see the sunrise.
In fact, you can even watch the sunrise from the hotel’s parking lot or from your own balcony, if you get one of the more expensive mountain-facing rooms. I’ll cover the best sunset locations around the hotel in more detail below.
How to Make a Booking at Songsyue Lodge
In the not-too-distant past, the Songsyue Lodge official website was in Mandarin only. With its complicated booking process, this made it just about impossible for foreigners to navigate. Foreign tourists were advised to email or call the hotel, but with limited success.
Now the hotel’s official website finally has English, and it is good enough that English speakers can actually understand how to make a booking with the information they provide. In summer of 2024, they totally changed the booking webpage, so I’ve had to rewrite much of this article.
A quick summary is that you’ll need to first sign up, log in, then you’ll be able to book a spot in the dorms or a private room anywhere from 2 to 30 days in advance (note: they count the day of staying as one day, so “two days before” means the day before staying, and “30 days before” is more like “29 days before” in English.
There’s quite a bit more to know about booking, so I’ll take you through each of these steps in more detail below.
While that may seem relatively simple, the most difficult part is the timing. In my experience, in busier months, all of the private rooms usually sell out within 5 minutes of being released. Dorms don’t sell out so fast on weekdays, but for weekends, they also sell out in 5 minutes.
So it is critical to be online the moment rooms are released for the date you want, and be ready to book as quickly as possible.
To be ready for your booking day, I suggest you do a “practice booking” one or two days in advance to familiarize yourself with the system and make sure you get the right date. You don’t have to actually pay – just test the system up to that point.
Step 1: Figure Out What Day to Book
Since all rooms and dorms may sell out within five minutes of being released, it is absolutely essential to figure out exactly what day and what minute your desired room or dorm will be released.
Rooms and dorms are released 30 days in advance at 8 AM Taiwan time. For example, in my test I wanted to book December 14. Looking at any calendar, I counted back 30 days, to November 15. Important: I counted the date I wanted to book (Dec 14) as day 1, Dec 13 as day 2, and so on. That brought me to day 30 (Nov 15) on my calendar.
Then I had to figure out what time that would be in my location. I am currently in Mountain Time Zone in Canada, which is 15 hours behind Taiwan in winter (note: Taiwan doesn’t have daylight savings time, but your country might).
So 8 AM on November 15 in Taiwan is actually 5 PM on November 14 in my location. That’s when I had to be online to book.
Note: this way of rushed booking may seem crazy, but Taiwanese are very familiar with and used to it, as it’s the same for booking train or HSR tickets for holidays, booking the Alishan Forest Railway, booking hotels at Taipingshan, and more.
Step 1: Go to the Official Site
The official Songsyue Lodge booking page is now here. When you first visit the page, there should be a popup with some key info including the following:
- Bookings can only be made from 8 AM to 11 PM (Taiwan time).
- Check in time 3-5 PM, check out by 10 AM.
- Only one room can be booked at a time (per order).
- The annoying popup keeps scrolling to a Mandarin sentence saying “click here and this won’t be shown again for two hours).
Step 2: Choose Date and Room
You are no longer required to sign up for membership before booking a room. Simply visit the website during the booking hours (8 AM to 11 PM Taiwan time) and make your booking.
Due to the fact that private rooms sell out so quickly (see last section), there’s a good chance you’ll be waiting online for 8 AM to come. When I tested this, I kept refreshing my screen as 8 AM was approaching.
As soon as I refreshed and the below popup disappeared, I knew it was time to book.
When I tested the new system, I found there were two ways to input my dates. The first way (which I don’t recommend) is to click “private room” or “dorm room” (I missed those buttons the first time!), choose your number of rooms and guests, and click “search”. See the below screenshot.
Why not do it this way? First, I found the buttons so slow. Each time I pushed any button, I had to wait many seconds for it to register. Second, when I clicked search, it just took me to a page where I had to input the same things instead.
The second (better) way is to scroll down to the room types (see screenshot of the dorm rooms below), then simply click any “Booking Now” button beside any of them.
Besides the dorm rooms, if you scroll down further, you will also see the private rooms with similar “Booking Now” buttons.
For this option, you don’t have to waste those valuable seconds clicking the number of rooms, number of guests, and date. Just scroll down, click “Booking Now”, and that’s it!
And don’t worry, you will still get to enter the items like date and number of people on the subsequent pages. What matters most here is that you click that booking button and get to the next page ASAP, before other people do.
In my testing, I clicked one of those dorm room “Booking Now” buttons and it took me to the below two screenshots.
The first one shows the dorm room info, and if I scrolled down, the second screenshot shows a calendar.
On the calendar, it shows the price (TWD 1200 for one dorm bed) and the number under the price indicates how many spots are remaining per day.
Since I was online 30 days in advance, I was trying to book for the newest available day (December 14), which shows 10 spots left. Note: as I was playing around on the system, three minutes later, these 10 spots were all sold out – Saturdays are highest demand.
When I clicked on December 14 on the calendar, it showed on the calendar which day i would check in and which day I would check out.
Then it took me to the below page, which confirms the booking info. At this point, I knew I got the spot. Go as quickly as possible in all the previous steps, but once you get to the below page, you can feel less stressed.
But there are still some more steps to complete your booking.
Step 3: Enter Personal Info and Pay
After confirming the above details, I was taken to a page to key in my personal details, as below.
For this, your name should be as it appears in your passport, and this must be the passport you will show when checking in.
For phone number, I entered my 10-digit Canadian phone number (with no country code) and it worked. The phone number won’t matter and won’t be used. But it might need to be exactly 10 digits, just like Taiwan mobile numbers.
For the password, numbers and/or letters work, but the maximum is 10.
Below, there was a bad English option saying “Yes No,whether the person ordering the same man and accommodations”. Click “yes” if you are the same person who will actually stay there. Click “no” if you are booking for someone else.
Scrolling down, the screen looks like the below. Choose credit card and submit. Then there will be a popup, where you agree to the terms and click “send”.
Next, I was taken to a payment page (see second screenshot below) where I entered in my credit card info. Note: sometimes certain foreign credit cards just don’t work at certain places in Taiwan. If yours doesn’t work, try a different one.
Also note: I was taken to an authorization screen where I had to receive a pin in a text message to authorize the transaction, but this may vary depending on your bank/credit card.
Ignore the bad English “Complete the Booking”. It should say “Booking Complete!”, meaning that you are done!
Step 4: Check Booking and Emails
In the above screenshot, click “My Bookings”. You’ll be taken to a page where you can enter your ID (passport number) and password (the one you set earlier) and the verification code to access your booking.
You can also get to this page anytime (even outside the booking hours) by going to the booking home page and clicking “My Orders” at the top right. Or you can just click this link.
I also received two emails. The first was a booking confirmation from Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area. The second was an email from a Taiwanese bank confirming the payment. Both were in English.
Step 5: Canceling Your Reservation
In order to test the new system for updating this article, I actually made a reservation and canceled it the next day.
First, I logged into my booking, as described in the above section. Then I saw my booked and clicked “Apply for cancelation”.
After I clicked it, the system informed me that I’d get all my money back (up to 3 days before, which actually means 2 days before, because they count the check-in date), only 50% back (2 days before, which actually means the day before the check-in date) or nothing back (on the check-in date).
I agreed and submitted. On the next page I had to enter a reason for canceling in the box at the bottom, clicked submit, and the pop-up told me that the cancelation was complete.
I then received the refund and an email confirming it four days later.
My Experience Staying at Songsyue Lodge
I had a fantastic night on Songsyue Lodge, mainly thanks to the amazing sunset and sunrise I got to witness there. You can read all about those in my Hehuanshan guide. In this article, I’ll focus mainly on the hotel itself.
Getting to Songsyue Lodge
I started by taking the High Speed Rail from Taipei to Taichung (order discount HSR tickets here). I rented a car here with pickup at Taichung HSR station. I highly recommend starting at the HSR station because it’s outside the city. Read all about how I rented the car and drove to Hehuanshan here.
It was a very winding but stunningly beautiful drive, especially the section from Cingjing Farm to Hehuanshan.
As I mentioned above, I stayed at Cingjing Farm for one night on the way. The drive from Cingjing Farm to Hehuanshan area is only 45 minutes.
But since there are multiple stops, lookout platforms, and hikes on the way and around Songsyue Lodge, it’s entirely possible you could spend half or even a full day before you actually check in to the lodge.
I describe all the possible stops and hikes in great detail in my Hehuanshan guide.
By bus, there is only one possible bus departure per day from Taichung to Hehuanshan, and you’ll need to switch buses in Puli and Cingjing Farm on the way. You’ll leave Taichung’s Gancheng Station or HSR station at 8:30/8:50 AM and arrive at Songsyue Lodge at noon.
From Cingjing Farm, there are three buses daily, departing at 8:20, 11:10, and 2:30, arriving at Songsyue Lodge at 9:10, noon, or 3:20.
The bus stop you’ll want to get off at is called Songsyue Lodge bus stop. It’s one stop and only a few minutes’ drive after Wuling Pass, the highest pass in Taiwan. You’ll maybe want to consider getting off at Wuling Pass just to see it, as it has an incredible view and access to Hehuanshan Main Peak trail. Then you can hike (20 minutes) down the road to the hotel.
When you get off the bus at Songsyue Lodge bus stop, there’s a visitor’s center on the left side of the road which sells some snacks and hot drinks. The famous sunrise lookout platform is opposite the center, on the right side of the road.
You can see Songsyue Lodge from the bus stop. In fact, the view of the lodge from there is one of the classic views of Hehuanshan area. And it’s very easy to see the small road you need to walk along to get to the hotel. Cars have to buzz the front desk to have the gate opened, but pedestrians can just walk right in, even if you aren’t staying there.
A different road provides access to the lower ski lodge (you can see it in the above photo). If you’re staying at the ski lodge, you should check in at the main lodge first. Then you can drive out and back in to the lower road. If you’re walking in, you can follow a staircase behind the main lodge down to the ski lodge.
Read my guide to getting to Cingjing Farm and getting to Hehuanshan for even more details than I’ve provided here, including the complete bus schedules and all the main bus stops at Cingjing Farm.
Rooms and Facilities
I stayed in a private room in the main lodge. I chose the cheapest one, which is the classic double. The room felt a little dated in terms of color and design. But overall it was a very typical, generic, mid-range hotel room for Taiwan.
The room is clean, heated, and the shower is large and hot, so that’s what mattered most to me. You can’t control the heat, so the hotel staff told me that I should open the balcony door a little if I get too hot. Completely typical for Taiwan, the bed was a little hard.
My balcony faced the forest behind the hotel, which is why it was a cheaper one. The more expensive double rooms face the mountains and sunrise.
My room came with hot water kettle, coffee, and tea. It did NOT come with a towel, so you must bring your own or rent one from the front desk. It also did not come with all those free disposable toiletries that most hotels in Taiwan provide. The hotel is understandably trying to limit water use and waste.
All the rooms are on the second or third floors, with elevator access. On the first floor, there’s the check-in desk, a small waiting area, a room with emergency oxygen supply, and the dining hall.
In the shared rooms in the sky lodge, you’ll basically get a mattress on the floor, with blanket and pillow.
You’ll be in a room with some strangers (male and female mixed), who will mostly be Taiwanese hikers (and most likely very friendly!) Showers, bathrooms, and hot water will be available outside the room, but you’ll have to hike up to the main lodge for dinner and breakfast.
Outside the Lodge
The view from the parking lot just outside Songsyue Lodge is fantastic. You could even watch sunrise right from the parking lot or mountain-facing room balconies, though you’ll get an slightly better angle if you walk to Hehuanshan Lookout on the highway (which is usually crowded in the morning).
Or you can get the best view if you climb Shimenshan (20 minutes, my most recommended) or Hehuanshan East Peak (1 hour).
There’s a set of stairs from the main lodge going down to the Songsyue Ski Lodge. If you’re staying at the main lodge, you can visit but not enter the ski lodge.
For sunrise, the view from the ski lodge isn’t quite as good. You’ll probably want to at least walk up to Songsyue Lodge, walk down the ski lodge’s access road to reach Hehuanshan Lookout or Shimenshan, or climb Hehuanshan East Mountain.
Just past the ski lodge, there’s a cool stone sign with the characters 奇萊山登山口, or “Mount Qilai hiking entrance”. This is the trailhead for the 2-day hike to Mount Qilai, the towering mountain visible east of Songsyue Lodge. The hike requires a permit.
Both buildings of Songsyue Lodge are on the northern slope of Hehuanshan East Peak. The slopes above the hotel were the original Hehuanshan ski resort.
I highly recommend walking at least halfway up this peak to see the remains of the old ski lift. But even if you don’t, you can see one of the small towers of the old ski lift in the forest just behind the main lodge.
Sunset, Sunrise, and Hikes I did around the Lodge
While driving from Cingjing Farm to Songsyue Lodge, I stopped at Yuanfang Lookout (famous stargazing spot at night but also nice view in daytime), Kunyang Parking Lot (access to Hehuanshan South Peak, which is a good sunset viewing spot), and Wuling Pass.
At Wuling Pass, I did the two hour-return hike to Hehuanshan Main Peak, which was well worth it. After that, I drove another few minutes and checked into Songsyue Lodge.
After checking in, I relaxed for a bit, but more eager visitors could consider hiking up Hehuanshan East Peak, which is right behind the lodge, for sunset.
Other options could include driving to and hiking Hehuanshan Main Peak or South Peak for sunset. Depending on the time of year, you should be able to get back down before dinnertime ends at 7:30 PM – but plan carefully so you don’t miss it.
I tried to catch a view of sunset from the parking lot in front of the lodge, but unfortunately you can’t see the sunset directly from Songsyue Lodge. It will be behind you, with a mountain and some trees in the way.
However, I was still lucky enough to see a gorgeous sea of clouds in the valley looking out from Songsyue Lodge (the same direction I’d be watching the sunrise the next day).
For sunrise, I debated between hiking up Hehuanshan East Peak (steep 1 hour climb to summit) or Shimenshan (an easy 20-minute trail). In the end I went for Shimenshan for several reasons.
First, the hotel recommended it. Second, it’s only a 20-minute, much easier walk instead of 1 hour. And third, Shimenshan actually has a more direct view of the sunrise.
Even though Hehuanshan East Peak is higher, when you view the sunrise from up there, a mountain will be partially blocking the way.
In other words, looking at the below photo (shot from Shimenshan), if you were on Hehuanshan East Peak, you’d be standing on a peak at the far right of the photo. So you wouldn’t be able to see all of that lovely valley filled with clouds in my picture. That mountain just under the sun in my picture will be blocking part of that valley.
If you’re booked on a trip with a sunrise at Hehuanshan East Peak included (I know some hiking-focused tour operators do that), don’t worry, you’ll still have the chance to see a fantastic sunrise! The extra elevation means you’ll have a better view looking in all directions.
Shimenshan is an easy climb. But if you can’t or don’t want to walk 20 minutes, you can literally watch the sunrise from the parking lot in front of Songsyue Hotel. Or you can walk 5 minutes to Hehuanshan Lookout next to the highway and bus stop, which is where most sunrise tours take their guests.
If you have the ability, though, I highly recommend Shimenshan, as it is less busy, more natural, and offers a slightly better vantage point than Hehuanshan Lookout.
After sunrise, I returned to the hotel for breakfast as soon as it started at 7 AM. Then I immediately climbed Hehuanshan East Peak to see the remains of the old ski lift. The remains are here about halfway up, so it only took me one hour return to see them. You can do the peak in two hours return.
After that, I was easily able to leave before check out time (10 AM), and proceeded to drive back to Taichung.
The Food
A buffet-style dinner and breakfast is included for all guests. There were no major surprises with the food.
My dinner included options like rice, noodles, Taiwanese/Japanese curry, steamed vegetables, tofu, and so on. There were at least a few vegetarian options.
Dinner is served from 5 to 7:30 PM, so keep that in mind if you’re planning to climb a nearby peak for sunset.
After dinner, the restaurant staff gave me a snack box. Even though I was alone, they insisted on giving me two boxes because I was staying in a room meant for two people.
The snack box included a tetra pack milk tea, a pineapple cake, a red bean pancake, and a sun cake. Honestly even one box was more than I needed.
But these came in very handy as a pre-breakfast snack for the next morning, as most guests wake up super early for sunrise, but breakfast is not served until 7-9:30 AM.
Breakfast was also local style, with congee (the standard traditional Taiwanese breakfast item in hotels across Taiwan), fried white radish cakes (these were a winner, as they were crispier than usual!), braised wintermelon, steamed cabbage, noodles, and tea/coffee.
For me, the food provided by the hotel was more than enough. I didn’t need to being any additional food or snacks for my stay. But if you plan to do some hiking before checking in, make sure you bring enough drinking water and food for lunch.
The Hehuanshan Visitor Center sells a few snacks like tea eggs, rice dumplings (粽子 or zongzi), and coffee. iI is just across thehighway from Songsyue Lodge and Hehuanshan Lookout.
A Note about Altitude Sickness
Hehuanshan and Songsyue Lodge are high enough to experience symptoms of altitude sickness (AMS or Acute Mountain Sickness), especially if you’re coming directly from sea level, like Taipei or Taichung city.
Earlier this year, I flew into and slept in a city in Peru that is just under 3000 meters, or lower than Songsyue Lodge. Even though I got a Diamox prescription from my doctor (Diamox helps to prevent or relieve symptoms of altitude sickness), I still felt like crap for my first two days there.
I expected to experience the same thing at Songsyue Lodge, but somehow I didn’t. I honestly think that staying at Cingjing Farm (1748 m) for one night help my body to acclimatize to lower oxygen the day before and that made a big difference!
Even though I didn’t love Cingjing Farm (here are my reasons why and here’s my general guide to Cingjing Farm), I still think it’s a good idea to stay there for one night first for acclimatizing to the altitude.
Even if you don’t experience altitude sickness, you will notice that hiking is more difficult at Hehuanshan’s elevation. Even though several of the hikes around Songsyue Lodge are relatively easy, you might feel more tired than you’d expect, or that it’s noticeably harder to breather, due to the altitude.
In case of emergency, there is oxygen available for guests at Songsyue Lodge.
Hi, I tried to sign up but I got the Wrong ID number error and could not proceed. I tried inputting my passport number over there just under my real name.
Thank you for a very comprehensive guide which is most useful. I wanted to see if you were able to get the deposit refunded to a non-Taiwanese bank account? I want to cancel my booking as I don’t think the current snowy conditions (https://tw.live/hhs/) would be great for the drive up and the hikes there. I would have thought the refund would be made via the same payment method (in this case, overseas credit card) but the form needs me to key in TW bank account details. Thanks very much.
Please make sure you are clicking the little box below the words “Passport Number (Foreigner)” before entering your passport number. Does that work?
I’m sorry, I’m afraid I don’t remember how I got the refund when I refunded one of my rooms. I do have a Taiwanese bank account, so that’s possible I took it there. I don’t see it in my credit card account. If you’re supposed to go soon, note that they will only refund a small percentage of the deposit, depending how many days in advance you cancel.
Thanks very much for responding on the refund question!
Hey Nick,
first of all thank you for your great page(s). Your information helped us a lot in planning our trip. There is a new booking system for Songsyue Lodge for bookings from October 2024. It seems a little more complicated than the old one, but the rooms are no longer fully booked within 5 minutes. Many greetings from Germany.
https://booking.taiwantravelmap.com/user/booking.aspx?m=1156&lg=en
Thank you for letting me know! I will need to update the article soon.
Thanks, Nick and Johnny Banana. I managed to get a dorm bed. I find this page helpful, and the new reservation site easy and direct for booking.
Thanks.
thank you for the helpful article. would like to know if it’s possible to stay in cingjing area and head to hehuanshan for the sunrise if the lodge is fully booked? also, are the road conditions ok for a drive from sun moon lake to hehuanshan at the moment?
Yes, you can take one of the sunrise tours from any guesthouse in Cinging to Hehuanshan. See my Hehuanshan article for the link or search it on Klook. And the drive is fine from SML to Hehuanshan!
Hi Nick,
Your page is very clear and informative. I think I’ll try booking this hotel.
Just one question, I’m travelling with my wife and 7-year-old kid, I find it the only room available for 2 adult and 1 child is the quadruple room. I’m wondering if it’s okay to book for 2 adult and 0 child so I can book the double room because it’s a lot cheaper. Also, I don’t mind paying the extra price for 1 child breakfast.
Thanks!
Hi, I’m not sure if the hotel will allow this. You will need to ask them directly. +886 4 9280 2980 or 04 9280 2980 from inside Taiwan.
Also note, I’ve just updated this article with screenshots of the new booking site.
Hey there, thank you so much for this guide, amazingly detailed ! Do you perhaps know if the lodge remains open during the chinese new year ?
Yes, it should be open every day of the year. However, it could be incredibly hard to get a spot during the lunar new year holiday. If you want to try, choose Jan 29, 30, or 31, when most locals will be at home visiting the family members. For the days after that, it could be very difficult to get a spot.