Anyone have a lead on good mushroom hunting spots?

I'm not looking to compete with professional mushroom hunters.

I'm only looking for a spot to go once or twice in the summer where it's nice to hike. Maybe a spot where I can fill up a bag with a few different kinds of mushrooms to add to my spore print collection, and turn into a little feast if I'm lucky.

I've heard Xishan isn't the best place, and the Qiongzhu Temple might be a little better for mushrooms.

Any other suggestions?

I think you'd have much more success making an August trip out to Shaxi. In addition to all sorts of other mushrooms, it's one of Yunnan's main sources for songrong, "matustake." Check out www.teahorse.net.

If anyone is interested in a mushroom-hunting trip (culinary only, no hallucinogenics), then I would consider going and pitching in for cost.

Tommann, unless you've been hunting mushrooms in the woods here for so long that you know exactly where your favorite rock, tree and bush are, you often won't know what you're picking.

Of course I'd be happy to fill up a bag full of Porcinis and Tea Tree mushrooms for dinner, but what I really want to do is grab a few of every variety I stumble upon to take home for spore printing and identification.

Colinflahive, do they have many other types of mushrooms? From what I've read and heard Matsutake patches are closely guarded for weeks by the more seasoned mushroom hunters. It seems a mushroom tourist would have more chance of finding Shangri-la than an unclaimed patch of Matsutakes.

that's true, but many of shaxi's mushroom hunters happily take newbies... for a little fee of course. and yes, there are all sorts of other wild mushrooms. contact yunxin through the website i mentioned. there are some interesting higher altitude mushrooms if you do the mapingguan trek...

One friendly reminder: don't eat the mushrooms you got back if you don't recognize them well and know for sure they are safe to eat...being a local I grew up hearing news of poisonous mushrooms kill people after mushroom hunting trips all the time.

True story (can't make this stuff up) - I was recently asked if it's possible to train porcupines to sniff out truffles. Any guesses on the feasibility of that?