Volcano
Yangmingshan: 6 Live Cameras — Taipei's volcanic park
Six cameras on the volcano above Taipei. Fumaroles, a grassland grazed by water buffalo, a 360-degree panorama, and the city basin from above.
What you can see
All six sit on one volcanic massif on the northern edge of Taipei.
Xiaoyoukeng is a fumarole field. Sulphurous steam comes out of the ground and the rock around the vents is stained yellow. This is the camera that shows most plainly that Yangmingshan is still an active volcano.
Qixingshan is the highest peak of the group and the highest point in Taipei.
Qingtiangang is a grassland on a lava terrace, and there are two cameras on it: one ordinary view and one 360-degree panorama. Water buffalo are pastured here, so this is a grassland camera where something may actually walk into frame. In winter the whole slope turns to silver pampas grass.
Datun Nature Park has a pond with water lilies in early summer. Yangmingshuwu looks the other way, down onto the Taipei basin, so it is the one camera of the six that shows the city rather than the mountain.
Cameras you can watch now: 6
All 6 are live video. Tap one to open it in the camera list.
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Live video
Mount Qixing
Yangmingshan, Taipei · Volcano · Nature
At 1,120 m the highest point in Taipei, and a dormant volcano. Steam still rises from vents on its flanks, and in winter silver grass covers the slopes.
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Live video
Taipei Basin from Yangming Villa
Yangmingshan, Taipei · City · Nature
From a terrace halfway up the mountain, the whole Taipei Basin at once. After dark the city's lights spread across the floor of the basin.
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Live video
Qingtiangang grassland
Yangmingshan, Taipei · Nature · Wildlife
Grassland on top of a lava plateau. It is what is left of a ranch from the Japanese colonial period, and half-wild water buffalo still graze there.
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Live video
Qingtiangang, 360-degree panorama
Yangmingshan, Taipei · Nature
The same grassland in a 4K panorama. You can watch fog climb out of the valley and swallow the whole meadow.
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Live video
Datun Nature Park
Yangmingshan, Taipei · Nature
A park built around a pond at the foot of Mount Datun. Water lilies open in early summer, and it is known for its butterflies.
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Live video
Xiaoyoukeng fumaroles
Yangmingshan, Taipei · Volcano
White steam roars out of cracks in the rock. Sulphur crystallises yellow around the vents, and the trail up Mount Qixing starts here.
When to watch
The operator does not publish a viewing season, and we do not invent one here. The camera descriptions do say that Qingtiangang turns to pampas grass in winter and that the Datun pond has water lilies in early summer. Which week is best in any given year is not something this page decides.
Taiwan is only one hour behind Japan, and there is no daylight saving. 06:00 in Taiwan is 07:00 in Japan; noon in Taiwan is 13:00 in Japan.
For readers in East Asia that makes Taiwan the easiest foreign country to watch: when it is daytime where you are, it is daytime here too. Yangmingshan catches cloud easily, so if one camera is white, open another - the city view from Yangmingshuwu is often clear when the summit is not.
If it isn't showing
All six are also listed on the Taiwan page. The steam vents are filed under Volcano, the grassland under Nature and Wildlife.
For a Japanese fumarole field of the same kind, see Owakudani, Hakone. Another Taiwanese grassland is on Alishan Tea Terraces.
What a volcano camera is actually showing you is explained in What volcano cameras are looking at.
Where to find Yangmingshan
Agencies publishing the cameras on this page
- Yangmingshan National Park (Taiwan open government data) — Official site
The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.