Alishan 阿里山

6/4/12 This morning we depart from 台中火车站 Taichung Train Station 环島之星 for Chiayi Railway Station 嘉义. And from Chiayi we will travel on the mountain route up to Alishan Mountains by van. I organised this round Taiwan Island tour with EZ Travel when we were in Taipei.

I have been envisaging this epic journey all these months and so I am like .... "my dream comes through". Ya!

 台中火车站

 二号A月台

  Before boarding our 环島之星 train

Snacks for morning cuppa

We depart at 0832 and arrive Chiayi Railway Station at 0948 over a distance of about 140km; stopping at Changhua 彰化 and Douliu 斗六. We are then picked up by e-go Van and travel up Alishan Mountains. And Alishan is another 95km up around mountain routes which takes 2 hours。

I include here a rail map for Taiwan

Rest stop - I am a Rat

Lunch st this restaurant opposite the Alishan Post Office of 火锅 of chicken soup and 5 dishes; which we share with a Taipei couple. This couple is a typical 空巢中年人 very much like us and so we have quite a bit to relate to each other

We check into 神木宾館 . The Hotel has no lift and so I dread the thought of carrying our luggage down 5 floors when we check out of the hotel tomorrow. We then join a hotel-organized tour of the Alishan area 阿里山园区which is at 2216 meters AMSL。

It turns out Alisha is a very historic area. The Japs when they occupied Taiwan realized the value of the old trees in Alisha and engaged workers to fell them and transported them back to japan for their use - mainly as building material for temples.

Our tour guide 小胖

Unfortunately for all of us the weather has taken a turn for the worse and fogs set in at the Alishan with light showers. There are fogs and there are more fogs. As a result we could not see many 景点 including the beautiful forests, the sun set, the railway station.Temperature is around 8 C.

樱花王 This is the king of 樱花 in Alishan. But there is no more 樱花. They start to bloom around 15 March in Alishan and by now there are no more flowers.

Anyhow we press on and take a tour through the forest. One of the highlights is seeing this 2300 years+ Taiwan Red Cypress 红桧树。 In Taiwan it's called the 神木. It is a privilege for us to see this tree in person and experience its awesomeness. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan many thousands of red cypress trees had been fell and there are only about 200 tress older than 500years remaining in the Alishan area.

 

At the Alishan Train Station. It's not because there is a fault with my camera. It's the fog.
  

Dinner is 打边爐 at  山宾餐厅. Food is so so; clean but nothing to shout about.

We are supposed to rise early to catch a steam train from Alishan to Zhushan 祝山 at 2451 meters AMSL in order to view the sun rise ..... But what can we see in this foggy weather?

And there is no night entertainment up in the mountains and so it is back to our hotel and get all cooped up.This is part and parcel of life I suppose. Some experiences are good and some are not so.