so today we went to Alishan (Ali mountain). I already wrote about the difficulties on getting the tickets for the forest railway up the mountain, and for this journey we didn't get any tickets. Instead we went by train to Chiayi and from there we took the bus to Alishan. All in all the journey lasted about five hours from Tainan.
Since I get sick easily on buses and I saw on google maps that the route up the mountain would be very curvy, JJ went to buy some motion sickness pills.
Until now google translate has been a great help everywhere we went, but this time it failed a little. On the way to the pharmacy JJ looked up the Chinese translation for "pill for motion sickness" and just showed that to the cashier. But she only shook her head and said no. So he went outside again and on the way back he double-checked and translated the Chinese back to English... It said "birth control pill". After translating only "motion sickness" while going back to the pharmacy he showed that translation to the cashier and successfully bought some motion sickness pills for me. :) Which also worked pretty well. I slept most of the bus ride and didn't get sick at all. But it is a lesson not to blindly trust google translate.
Around 13:30 h we got to Alishan. Since it is a closed park you have to pay an entrance fee of 150 NTD per person if you got there by bus. It's important to keep your bus ticket and show it to them. If you get there by car or motorcycle they charge you 300 NTD. If you stay inside the park for several days, like we do, you only have to pay the fee once. But if you, for instance, get a hotel that is outside of the park, you would have to pay the fee each time you go into the park (the 300 NTD then, since you didn't get there the same day by bus).
The park is separated into roughly three areas, the hotel area where all the hotels are located, the shopping/restaurant area which is right beside the hotel area and the biggest area: the park itself with the forest railway and all the trails for walking and hiking. In the park you can do all by foot (like us) or go to the different stations of the forest railway by train (however some stations are not really frequently driven to by the train and there are only three stations in total now) or take one of the several tourist buses that have various stops inside the park.
So after arriving we left our luggage at the hotel and went straight to the Alishan train station to get tickets for the famous sunrise train to Zushan (or Chusan) station since we already had heard that the train can be sold out rather quickly on busy days. We wanted to go on our second day here since it is a Friday and we thought then there maybe would be fewer tourists than on a Saturday. The train tickets are sold at Alishan station the day before between 13 and 16 pm or something like that and then the remaining tickets are also sold the morning of the departure. The schedule of the train changes according to when the sunrise is going to be. For us the train will leave at 5 am.
After buying the tickets (150 NTD for one way) we went to the local 7/11 convenience store (of course there is one here) to buy some snacks for tomorrow morning and then went into the park area to explore some of it.
As expected there were quite some tourists and tourist groups (mainly from China, Taiwan and Japan we think). However, since it was a Thursday I guess it wasn't as crowded. And it was getting later in the day (around 15 pm) so there were already many people heading back to the restaurant/hotel areas.
Despite the crowds, the park really is worth the visit! Especially in spring time, since there are many cherry blossom trees here. We seem to have arrived just a bit too early for the full bloom, but nonetheless it is beautiful.
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| a little snack, some kind of chewy dessert, a little like dango |
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| the entrance of the park area |
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| elephant tree trunk |
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| three generations tree, where each tree grew out of the remains of the previous, dead tree |
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| Tree spirit pagoda |
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| sacred tree no. 2 (apparently the first one died and they elected another one to be sacred) |
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| sacred tree station |
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| at Ciyun Temple |
After exploring the north-west side of the park for a bit we decided to watch the sunset at Ciyun temple. We expected to also be in a crowd for the sunset view, just like we expect the sunrise to be, however there were only two other couples there with us (one from USA and one from Taiwan).
But it was totally worth the wait!
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| the sea of clouds, which Alishan is famous for |
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| the dog came to us while we waited for the sunset. he seemed to belong to the temple |
The main walking trails (e.g. the trail from Ciyun temple back to the hotel area) are lit by lanterns, so you can find your way back after sunset without a problem.
For dinner we just bought some fried chicken (again, I know... it is just that good) and fried green beans and mochi and went to the hotel. We need to get up at 4 am in order to catch the train.
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| fried green beans |
Pia
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