There's an appendix listing some recommended hot springs in the Taipei area (to list them all would, Saunders rightly says, be impossible). There is also a summary grading walks according to difficulty, giving their length, and advising on suitability for children and dogs.
It can't be overemphasized that the details provided in the book are exceptionally precise. Cross the road from the MRT station, he'll instruct, turn left, walk until you get to a pink building, then ascend the steps you find one minute's walk further to your right. After 10 minutes' climb, avoid an asphalt track to the left and continue up the paved route to the ridge. I've invented this, but it represents just the level of detail this book quite routinely includes.
All in all, this is a superb guidebook. There are 13 color photos (the rather murky black-and-white ones of the first volume have wisely been dispensed with). Yet, despite all the detail, Saunders still manages to make the tone of the text notably user-friendly. He hasn't only done a great deal of walking -- he also knows how to convey both his knowledge and his enthusiasm.
The happy result is that you can both enjoy this book when planning trips in advance and also rely on it to set your footsteps in the right direction on the trails themselves.
Few cities can claim such comprehensive, convenient and reliable handbooks to the hiking trails on their periphery. But then not many cities have wild countryside close at hand to the extent that Taipei has.
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