Wanderings: Alishan Forest Railway

January 13, 2025

The express train (1) from Kaohsiung to Chiayi follows the coastal plane of western Taiwan (2). During Japanese rule of Taiwan (1895 to 1945), the colonizers wanted to access the valuable cypress and cedar forests in the mountains of central Taiwan. Transport was a problem, so they began construction of the narrow guage (3) Alishan Forest Railway in 1911 from Chiayi east into the mountains

At Chiayi station, I popped into a mini mart for breakfast. Examing the hot items on offer to avoid anything with seafood, a woman approached and told me to try the special Taiwan eggs, hard boiled in strong tea. Hearing I was visiting Taiwan, she reached into her purse and pulled out a small block of wood. Mimicking sanding the wood, she put it to her nose, handed the block to me and said "to remember Taiwan," (4) she said. A quick smell told me it was cedar.

A through train to Alishan had not been bookable online, but I had a ticket to Penqihu, about halfway up. The helpful ticket seller arranged for a ticket on a different train from there to Alishan. The train starts in the coastal plane at 30 meters elevation, then begins a steep climb. At Dulishan, the train goes through 1260° to gain elevation, looping over myself 3.5 times.

At Penqihu, numerous restaurants serve bento box lunches; I opted for the pork chop. Soft-serve wasabi ice cream is sold here, an unexpected combination of cold and spicy, but quite good.

The train up to Alishan featured a guide pointing put the history and engineering accomplishment of the line, this portion of which had been closed for a number of years until mid 2024 due to a tunnel collapse. Entering tunnel 42, she asked with a playful smile "guess which tunnel" number is next. She was pleased and surprised with my reply (in Mandarin) of 44. The new tunnel bypasses old # 43.

Lacking room for loops as it nears Alishan, the line follows a series of three switchbacks: the train pulls into a dead-end, then reverses out to climb the steep terrain (5), arriving at Alishan National Forest at 2,216 meters elevation after 71.4 track kms from Chiayi (6).

Alishan us known throughout Taiwan for sunsets of sea of clouds. Asking two people the best spot to watch the sunset, yielded three opinions. I opted for a large platform just north of the village. The view is unobstructed due west, but a bit obscured by trees to the southwest, where the sun was setting on this winter's day. The show was still grand, with the oranges and purples playing on the cloud tops and mountains (7).

Walking back to town, Venus appearsd , and the light of full moon behind the mountains dances on the clouds floating by. The chicken at dinner was so spicy, I could hardly see to reach the napkins to wipe them.

(1) Not to be confused with a high speed train, which runs on separate standard-guage tracks from different stations.

(2) The normal guage on Taiwan is 3.5 feet, as are the railroads on the Russian far east Salkalin Island, also formerly part of Japan.

(3) The forest railway is 2.5 for guage.

(4) Or maybe she just thought my clothes smelled bad.

(5) The Ecuador railways uses the same approach, called "El zig zag" to climb the Andes.

(6) Although only 23 miles as the crow flies due to the loops &c.

(7) A good friend from China sent me a link to a pop song about Alishan that is popular in Taiwan and on the mainland. She tells the song's story as follows "This song tells the story of a Tsou tribal girl who fell in love with a young man. However, due to conflicts between their tribes, their love was tragically cut short. They escaped into Alishan Mountain and transformed into the green mountains and clear waters." (a)

(a) Better outcome than the lovers in Bulgaria who offfended the gods. They were turned into two mountain ranges: the Balkan and Rhodope; forever to see each other, never again to touch.