Gold Mountain Ranch and Resort (aka Jinshan Yijing in Chinese, or simply "Horse Camp") is a campground and horse ranch in Jinshan District of New Taipei. A stay here includes activities such as horseback riding, four-wheeling, archery and bb-gun practice, and also a filling BBQ dinner and western style breakfast. Staying here makes you feel like you are in the rural American West, which is a unique experience in Taiwan. With a shortage of ranches and horse riding opportunities in Taiwan, Gold Mountain is a special place that you should not miss on your trip along Taiwan's northern coast.
Background: From my conversation with the Laoban (Boss), Mr. Z, as well as info from their website, Mr. Z. started this ranch about three years ago as a pet project, due to his love of horses. Before that he was in the restaurant business. He said that he searched the entire island for a suitable place for a Horse Ranch, which was his dream, and happened to find this spot of land where the ranch currently operates. When he started the ranch, he would still drive back to Zhonghe every night to take care of his ailing cat. Now he spends all his time taking care of the horses, even sleeping next to them at night in case something goes wrong. Now him and four other employees help to run the campground and ranch. Currently the ranch has 6 horses, about five ATVs, and can accommodate 60 people. Soon they plan to open a restaurant and bar on the property, as well as a wilderness survival training camp. Hours: Check in: 1 PM Check out: 11 AM Price: 1600 NT - 2750 NT per night per person Additional horse rides charged per hour/lesson. Website: https://goldmrnr.com/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/goldmrandr/ (like and share button below)
How to get there:
By Car/Scooter: From Taipei, take National highway 3 north to Wanli, then take provincial highway 2 along the northern coast until you reach Jinshan. Then take provincial highway 2A east to county highway 25, and turn right at Sanhe elementary school. Turn left when you see the sign for "金山驛境." The ranch is at the end of the road. It takes about 50 minutes from Taipei by car. By Bus/taxi: There are buses that leave from Taipei City Hall station to Jinshan hourly. The ride takes about an hour. From central Jinshan you can take a taxi (about 200 NT) to the ranch. Map: Please see below: Our Journey: We have been to Gold Mountain Ranch once and it surpassed our expectations. We had a way fun time, the food was amazing, the atmosphere was great, and most of all the people there were really friendly. Let me add also that they do have a Singaporean employee that speaks perfect English, and the rest of the employees have okay English too.
See above for our drone footage of the ranch.
If you do not want to waste data on your phone, check out our 360 panorama near the ranch above.
We drove to Gold Mountain Ranch by car, which is the most convenient way to get there. There is not train yet on the northwest coast, but there are buses hourly that leave from Taipei and go straight to Jinshan.
Once you get to this sign, be sure to turn left. The Ranch is up this little road. 
View of the Ranch from above. There are about 13 tents, and the whole camp can hold about 60 people max. In the middle is the main horse range, as well as the horse stable. There is a restaurant on the top left where they serve breakfast, as well as a shower building.
Most of the tents here are Mongolian style Yurt. But all of them have beds and A/C.
You can check into your room at 3 PM (activities start at 1 PM). Checkout is at 11 AM. Be quiet after 10 PM.
If you get the meal/activity package, it comes with dinner (BBQ), breakfast, bow and arrow shooting/bb-gun shooting, ATV riding, and of course horse riding activities.
There are a total of six horses, and they put them on rotation I'm sure so the horses don't get too tired.
During the horse riding activity, you mount the horse from the rock wall on the side.
The horse instructor there taught me how to ride a horse in the "English style." I had only ever ridden horses in America before, so it took some getting used to. And it had been over 10 years since I had ridden a horse.
They also let us lead the horse around.
You can take horses and ATVs outside to ride, like to Jinshan Beach, but there is an additional fee. 
We also spent quite a bit of time riding ATVs. In the past they let visitors take the ATVs and horses outside, but because they are afraid of people getting injured they only let beginners practice inside the arena area.
It was pretty fun. The ATVs have good pickup and it is really easy to do doughnuts in the dirt.
We also got to tour the stable and see the baby foul that was just one month old!
He let us in to take a closer look.
And of course we got to feed to horses.
Getting close enough to feed the horse. All the horse feed for the horses is imported from overseas. The grass that the horses need doesn't grow well in Taiwan.
Feeding the horse straight from the hand. It tickled.
Feeding another one of the horses.
I haven't picked up a bow since a trip to Maolin years ago, so I was excited to do some archery practice again.
I did hit a few arrows in the yellow.
On the other side are BB-guns, and you can shoot targets that pop right back up again. It takes some practice but it's pretty fun.
The Ranch also offers horse lessons and ATV rentals charged per the hour.
During the hot summer, another fun activity is soaking in the river. This activity is free.
View of Jinshan from the riverside. Upstream there are a few pools.
For our stay, we stayed in the "Adam" cabin. It's the only place here with wooden walls a roof.
View of inside the cabin. The inside of the cabin had western themed decorations, such as boots, cowboy hats, and toy guns.
There was A/C, a large fridge, and a fan. We were very comfortable staying here.
Wooden ornament outside made especially for Instagrammers.
Another view of the camp at sunset.
View of downtown Jinshan, with Yehliu and Keelung Island in the background. From here, the Yehliu peninsula looks like a lady laying down (head to the left).
Further down the camp, there is a "Love" and swing. Actually there are a few swings all around the camp.
This is the shower building, which provides hot showers and good water pressure. Also there are free hair dryers.
If you need water, there is a shed to the left of camp which has a filtered water cooler that you can fill up at for free.
Playground above the horse arena.
Swinging doors in front of the restaurant.
In the future, this building will become a bar and they plan to have live music as well.
View of the camp looking north. There is one teepee and one spot where you can bring your own tent.
There are three or four barbecuing areas in the camp. They will come and make a charcoal fire for you, and provide food for your to grill.
They gave us tons of food, enough for four people. Because we were only two adults, we did not finish it all in one night.
Grilling sausage and wings. We also had green onions, mushrooms, pork patty's, and fish patties (tianbulu 甜不辣).
Another view of the grill. They gave us tons of meat.
Grilling green onions, mushrooms, wings, and sausage.
We also brought our own s'more ingredients.
View of the camp at night. From about April to June you can see tons of fireflies here at night.
View of Jinshan at night with a starry sky above.
For breakfast, we all had an amazing Taiwan style beef and cheese burrito, which was amazing.
They also gave us a plate of nuggets and fries.
Originally they gave us two huge pitchers of tea, but because we don't drink tea they were kind enough to immediately change out the drinks.
They instead gave us some amazing cold hot cocoa and soymilk.
For dessert: a banana brown sugar pudding.
Another view of the pudding.
The restaurant itself is unique, I have never seen anyone install western swinging doors in Taiwan.
There is also a bunch of other cowboy stuff around. The theme of the restaurant is "route 66."
You can try on any of the hats on the wall too.
Starting this ranch hasn't been easy. Mr. Z sleeps next to his horses every night, because he says if something goes wrong the horse could die in a matter of hours. Also all his horses were imported from the states. They shipped them over in a giant crate, and had to undergo a quarantine period at customs for a few days, during which Mr. Z had to go there and take care of them. The shipping for the horses cost more than the horses themselves. Caring for horses requires constant care, and running the camp has only been a secondary objective until recently.
View of the sunset over Jinshan from Golden Mountain Ranch and Resort.
From the ranch you can also see Xiaoguanyin Mountian in Yangmingshan National Park. The ranch is a just a few minutes drive away from the park.
Also while you are in Jinshan, you should check out Zhongjiao Bay (aka Zhongjiaowan 中角灣, or Zhongjiao Shazhu Wan 中角沙珠灣), a long sandy beach in Jinshan District of New Taipei, known as the most popular surfing location in Northern Taiwan. It is popular for surfing and swimming, and nearby there are also hikes, interesting rock formations, and the nearby Jinshan Old Street and Jinshan Hot Springs. It is definitely a relaxing place to spend an afternoon. Nearby you can also find other sandy beaches such as Jinshan Beach and Xialiao Beach 下寮灣 (Jinshan Ocean Waterpark). For our full blog of Zhongjiao Bay, click here.
Another place you should check out is Jinshan Old Street (aka Jinbaoli Old Street 金包里老街 Jīnbāolǐ lǎojiē), a popular historical street in Jinshan District of New Taipei. The most famous delicacy here is duck, but you can also find other traditional Taiwanese snacks among the numerous shops and restaurants here. It is definitely worth a stop on your trip to Taiwan's Northern Coast. For our full blog of Jinshan Old Street, click here.
After you come to Gold Mountain Ranch and Resort, there are lots of other fun things to do in the area. Jinshan is one of the most unique and beautiful places in Taiwan. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more of our blogs about northern Taiwan to come!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Author 作家We are US Expats that have extensive experience living, working, and travelling in Taiwan. In our day, we had to learn many things about Taiwan the hard way. But we have come to learn that Taiwan is one of the best places in the world for Foreigners to live. Our blog does not represent the opinions of every foreigner in Taiwan. We are just trying to help others learn more about this beautiful country. Archives 檔案
October 2020
Categories
|
RSS Feed
