Alishan

Been to Taiwan twice, now it's the third time, in conjunction with a learning workshop in National Chung Cheng University. Took the chance to go to Alishan with a friend (Dr Mike) during the weekend). At first, we settled the lodging through online booking. However, we were quite surprised that the forest train to Alishan has been sold out two weeks in advance. We only managed to buy the returning ticket instead. So we took the public transport from Chiayi Train Station, cost about NT$215 (discount when used reload card for payment).

After 2.5 hours of journey, we reached the national park transport hub. Proceeded to the entrance and paid admission fee of NT$150 (discounted rate when you used public transport). We checked in at the hotel, then proceeded with lunch at the nearby restaurant, which has been rated favourably in Google review. The afternoon session was spent by hiking through the main trail of the national park. The cypress forest is amazing, some of the trees are more than 1500 years old. The trip to Alishan is not complete if sunrise view at Zhushan is not included. If you are lucky, you may be able to witness the magnificent sea of clouds, which we didn't.

On the following day, we made our way to Fenqihu, a small town situated midway to Alishan. The town is famous for it's lunch box (which I think it's quite common set around Taiwan), and the overrated donut. Anyway, the old street area was the highlight. The atmosphere is same as the old street in Jiufen. And finally, we took the forest train back to Chiayi city.