Geocaching in Taiwan

• By dokuya
• 8 April, 2014
• No Comments

Geocaching is a popular hobby. There are more than 2 million geocaches hidden and more than 6 million people looking for them worldwide. It is a fun game that is family oriented, ecologically friendly, a little techy and can be very creative. Briefly someone hides something (a geocache) records the GPS location and posts it online with a brief description about the geocache and a clue. Others look online and use the GPS location to search for it. The goal is for those who are searching for it to find it but no one else.

I have been geocaching for 4 years now. I have found 49 geocaches, average of 1 a month. This is not many and I don’t do it often but it is a lot of fun when I do. The number of geocaches hid continues to increase. In Taiwan there are now 837 of which I have found 2.

Geocaching is a stand alone game but I often combine it with something else. For example if I am traveling somewhere I may check to see if there is a geocache hidden in that area. It makes something fun even more fun. Good geocaches often take you to a place that you have never visited and are a learning experience.

Some geocaches are big and contains items that you can trade for. Many geocaches are very small and only contain a log sheet that you sign. The fun is the satisfaction of finding it.

I made a little slide show to show you how to get started. Go to Geocaching.com. When the screen comes up click on the learn button. Then watch the short video. After that click on play. Under find a Geocache choose Taiwan. Then click go. The next page will show you all of the geocaches hidden in Taiwan. Click on one and you will get information about the geocache such as the GPS location, difficulty, a map of where it is located, a description, a clue, notes from logged visits.

There are a number of ways to hunt for a geocache. Originally everyone used a hand held GPS. Now there are apps for smart phones. If you are very familiar with the area and have a good clue you can sometimes find it with that alone. A few times I have put the GPS location in Google Earth then went to street view, saw what the clue referred to and was successful in finding it. Don’t get frustrated if you can’t find one, I am often unsuccessful.

My feature photo is of the last geocache that I found here in Taiwan. It is very simple, just a plastic bag with a log sheet and a magnet that allowed it to be attached in a discrete place.