Taiwan - AliShan Forest Recreation Area (阿里山国家森林游乐区)

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AliShan (阿里山) situated in the Mount Jade (玉山) range with elevation 2170m above sea level. It is well-known with its forest, railway, sea of clouds, sunrise and sunset. AliShan railway is one of the only three mountain railways in the world! We felt so excited to be able to hop onto it!

AT the main entrance of AliShan Forest Recreation Area (阿里山国家森林游乐区), temperature during that morning was only 9°C! We kept walking and jumping around to keep our body warm since we were underdressed!

Forest railway – AliShan station (森林铁路 - 阿里山车站)

The railway station is so beautiful! Even the ceiling is made of woods! The best thing was… we felt warmer here!

There are 4 stations here, which are AliShan station (阿里山站), ChaoPing station (沼平站), Sacred Tree station (神木站) and JhuShan station (祝山站).

JhuShan station is opened for sunrise viewing where there is a sunrise view point closed to the station. Advanced ticket (for the next day) is available from 1pm to 4.30pm.  We didn’t go for sunrise due to laziness…the estimated sunrise time is 6.45am and the train would depart at 5.40am!

We chose the recommended route:

From AliShan station to ChaoPing station – around 6minutes by railway

From ChaoPing station, walk around the recreation area until Sacred Tree station – around 1hour by foot (we spent more than that since we were not in rush and chose to enjoy the nature in slower pace).

From Sacred Tree station to AliShan station – around 7minutes by railway

** Tips: Both-way ticket is cheaper :)

The earliest railway departed from AliShan station to ChaoPing station is 10am and we got the earliest tickets! Flip hair~

Captured while waiting for our railway to depart :)

Our tickets! Going to depart soon!

There was announcement in the railway when it was going to make a turn, so that you can capture the railway head from the window!

Here is it!! From a forest railway with more than hundred years history!

Arrived at ChaoPing station. The red railway is so charming!

Welcomed by cherry blossoms!'

Lovely blue sky and cherry blossoms!

Not fully bloomed yet..if not the view would be amazing!

A romantic sakura path.

We followed the path surrounded with sakura and entered the jungle area.

Sister Pond with love story as background welcomed us.

In the jungle area, there are scared trees which grown naturally into shapes that people found incredibly amazing. Power of nature!

Love forever. Can you see a heart shape?

The Three-Generation Trees.

Some description for the trees: The first generation tree which laid on the ground aged around 1500years. Another seed fall on the dead first generation tree after around 250years and grown up by absorbing its nutrient. After another 300years, the third generation tree start growing up and still growing until today.

The oldest tress in the jungle! This tree laid next to Sacred Tree station, aged more than thousand years.

We took the forest railway from Sacred Tree station back to AliShan station and walked to the post office located nearby. You can buy postcards here and send back to Malaysia.

AliShan Post Office! Looked like a Chinese temple.

Had our lunch here.

Steamboat lunch! Not too over since the weather was so cold! We chose package for two, there were lots of veges and some meat. Love veges here so much! So fresh! The mushroom, tomato and our favourite was yam! The yam was so sweet and soft! Craving for it now…

After our steamboat lunch, we hopped onto a bus and headed back to our guest house at ShiZuo (石槕).

View from our guest house :) We stayed in a tea farm!

End this post with super view from AliShan :) AliShan is really a place worth visit to. It was totally worth the time spent travelling here all the way from TaiPei! Beauty of nature, we salute you! :P

How to go:

From ChiaYi (嘉义) bus station, take a bus to AliShan Forest Recreation Area (阿里山国家森林游乐区)

The timetable.