October 24,

I woke up at 0130 and could not go back to sleep until after 0430. Unfortunately, I had to wake Jeff for a text issue on an upcoming venture, and I don’t think he got back to sleep. Jeff then woke me at 0514 (turn about and fair play). We readied and left out the door by 0535. We walked ten minutes to the train station, but stopped at the bus stop out front. We could not get train tickets going up, but Jeff worked it out to get the bus up and the train down. The bus arrived at 0610- five minutes late. We boarded and had to make people move out of our seats. The bus has reserved seats versus normal fare to ride – not assured a seat. We had reserved seats that cost us 488 TWD ($15.83). Anyway, we were underway… to spend the morning at the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area.

It is supposed to be a spectacular, scenic train ride up into and down out of the mountains – same, same, but different. Along the way, dawn gave way to daylight as we left Chiayi. Our bus driver seems grumpy and not fully awake, but he drives fine, so not complaining too much. It was around 0700, that the bus was out of town and started ascending into the mountains that we hadn’t even seen until this point, due to the clouds being low and blocking the scenery, then the clouds teased us as they would open to valley vistas and mountain views – only to go back into another layering shroud. Sometimes the clouds seemed to be creeping up mountains… that was kind of cool. We passed through small villages and slopes of tea plantations.

Anyway by 0815, we were at 1,500m (4,921 ft) elevation. And at 0839, we arrived at our destination – The Alishan bus stop – right near the train station. It’s 2,216m (7,270 ft) elevation here, and a cool 16°C or 61°F. We walked quickly over to the Alishan Train Station. We bought 100 TWD ($3.24) tickets quickly for a 0900 side tour up to Zhaoping, a six minute excursion; and also picked up our reserved train tickets for the down trip back to Chiayi. With all the tickets in hand by 0855, we boarded the train for Zhaoping. At 0907, we arrived. The little train climbed more to this station, so we were at 2,274m (7,461 ft).

Jeff had bought us tickets for Zhaoping Park. We entered and walked around. It was beautiful with many huge cypress trees. Our first stop was at Sisters’ Ponds… two ponds next to each other in a serene, peaceful setting. No one else was there right at the moment when we arrived. There was a sign posted at the ponds, ‘no swimming; no fishing; and no frolicking in the water’. 🤣😂

We walked on seeing a group of four trees, called The Four Sisters. These four trees grew from seeds that had fallen into cracks of a cut down cypress tree stump, according to a placard. A few feet away were The Three Brothers – same story. Fascinating! Then another placard named a stump The Pig-shaped Old Stump. Along the boardwalk, more placards explained different trees and stumps. There were also some stumps turned into art. It was just nice to explore and enjoy nature in a cool temperature without rain. Then we circled around to an over-the-top temple, called Shouzhen Temple. There were more tourists here, because there was a food court. It was 0945 and we hadn’t eaten, so we took advantage of a stall that translated: Secret Grilled Sausage Shop. We shared a grilled pork belly, sausage, and peanut “sticky rice” sausage dish. What a good breakfast – it cost 250 TWD or $8.11. When we finished we went inside the temple. It had many great 3-D wooden scenes.

We continued our loop walk back going by the Zhaoping Station and through more giant trees some were numbered and placards listed their stats: species, heights, and estimated ages. The tallest I saw was 48 m (157 ft); and the ages were from 200 yrs old to almost 1,500 yrs, which would be around 500 AD!! 🤯 This is just after the Roman Empire fell and the start of the Middle ages! That was crazy!

We arrived back at Alishan Train Station by 1115 a little early. But we were entertained seeing monkeys clamoring on an old engine and car. At 1146, there was a whistle for an all aboard on the train with on time departure at 1150. The train started out – going backwards! At 1156 we pulled into a switchback and then continued going forward now. The train did this twice more- so three switchbacks total. We had all the elevation to lose that we had gone up on the bus! The train went through tunnels- Tunnel #1 at 1214. Tunnels number 1,2,3, and 4- being very long, then 5,6,7…to 50 total! And there were more bridges (some cool trestled and truss ones) than tunnels. A lady gave us running commentary, but most of the stuff we could not hear. We just took in the scenery when it availed itself. The skies were a lot more socked-in with clouds, and it sprinkled most of our way back. We saw the tea plantations; the big bamboo groves- many that seemed to be dying(??); and so many more trees as the forest transitioned through different elevations. There were some pink and white blossoming trees, but I didn’t catch what the lady narrator called them. As we came and went through the various train stations, people young and old were standing, waving, and taking photos as we passed. What fun! 

Anyway, I could go on, we enjoyed the ride as we love trains!  We arrived back in Chiayi at 1545, and back at 30 m (98 ft) elevation. We walked back to our place and unwound. For supper we went to a close by local place called – 929 Noodle House, Beef and Lamb. We had Braised Lamb Noodle Soup and a Lamb Rice dish. Both dishes were excellent! We were given free drinks. The bill came to 250 TWD, but we paid 300 TWD ($9.75). After we finished we went back to our place for the rest of the day! Great adventure day!!