Alishan

On Wednesday we did a day trip to Alishan, where the train used to end its journey. The priest gave us a ride as far as Shizhuo, the next village 15 minutes away down the mountain, on his way to Chaiyi. After a half hour wait the bus to Alishan arrived and we were on our way. As we started up the road we saw some of the tea plantations Shizhou is known for. The bus made its way up the mountain on a very windy road. The views came and went as the cloud lifted and lowered.

Alishan is much more of a tourist destination than Fenchihu. There were tour coaches all over the place, two 7-11s and tourists, mostly Chinese, everywhere. We paid our entrance fee and walked up the road into the Alishan National Scenic Area, past the much-bigger-than-you-would-think-was-necessary Alishan train station (2,216 m).The station was busy with tourists getting on and off the train. There are still trains running at Alishan, but since most of the line between Fenchihu and Alishan is closed, the longest ride on offer was only 7 minutes. They also run an early morning service for people wanting to see the sunrise, but in the weather we were having that would have been a waste of time. We hadn’t seen the sun since Kenting National Park.

The forest is lush and consists mostly of cypress trees, some of them over 2,000 years old. We also saw cherry trees, introduced by the Japanese for their annual display of blossoms, though the trees suffer in the humid environment. In addition we saw temples, birds, and waterfalls. Wandering around in the on-again off-again rain on various trails, some of which we had to ourselves, was three hours well spent.

Then it was time to get one of only two buses a day that go from Alishan direct to Fenchihu. The driver did a good job in limited visibility on a road with tight enough curves that he often had to use the air horn to warn oncoming traffic that we were heading towards them in their lane.

We enjoyed our few hours in Alishan, but were glad we had opted to stay in Fenchihu. It is quieter, far cheaper, has comparable forest walks, albeit cedar not cypress trees, and the bamboo forest. Incidentally, Alishan is not very far from the western side of Yushan National Park, just 7½ kilometres as the crow flies, or about 19 k’s by road. We visited the eastern side from Yuli.