Taiwan Trip: Alishan - Getaway to Greenland

CHIA YI (嘉義)

This little town is 99km away from Taichung. The reason to transit at this part of the country is due to its proximity for our next pit stop: Alishan. Checking in at Ron Gong Hotel (1300 yuan for quad room), we had a quick bite at Wen Hua Night Market which is about 10 minutes walk from our place.

Google Maps calculated the distance from the city to Alishan is 60km. We thought, oh, we could reach the place in one hour. However, the friendly old lady at our hotel mentioned it would be a 2-hour car journey to get there due to hilly road. The thought of seeing sunrise was sort of aborted almost immediately as the sun rises at 5.30am, meaning we need to depart by 3.30am, that excludes the hike. Regardless, we were adamant to make the trip happened (we didn't plan for the sunrise in the first place).

Alishan (阿里山)

"阿里山的姑娘美如水呀

阿里山的少年壮如山"

"The lady of Alishan is as pretty as the water,

The guy of Alishan is as strong as the mountain"

My friend has been humming this song after knowing Alishan is included in our itinerary. Had dumplings for breakfast at opposite of our hotel, checking out and we started our journey uphill. No kidding, the road is pretty steep with sharp turns, one shall not speed here. The view is very scenic but I have to pay attention to the road most of the time (me and my friend took turn to drive and it happened to be my turn to driving on the day we are going up the mountain). Paying an entrance fee of 200 yuan each, we arrived at the destination after 2.5 hours of driving. The temperature drops to 16 degree Celcius there.

The place is well-equipped with amenities: Bus Station (you could actually use bus from Chia Yi to get up here. There were plenty of buses when we were on our way up), restaurants, souvenirs shops and 7-Eleven (Oh, 7-Eleven is almost everywhere in Taiwan. No matter how small or big the city is, you won't fail to find them around). Stocked up our bag with necessities such as snack and drinking water, we began our little hike. 

阿里山的少年

阿里山的姑娘

Friend's attempt to blend with the nature

Sun Moon Lake is not included in our overall Taiwan itinerary. However, we did come across a number of lakes in the park, well, not as enormous but it still does the job. We picked the route that led us to Cao Ping Garden which eventually brought us to this Sister's Lake.

The sisters

Walked further along the lake and up the hill would bring you to Cao Ping Train Station. The train provides shuttle service to and from Alishan Station (the place we parked our car). One can actually ride train from the city to Alishan too. From what I read, it cost 400 yuan per way.

This train is believed to be of the same specification as it was before World War 2.

We were informed that Zhusan is the popular spot for sunrise view, 40 minutes walk from the train station. However, since it was already 2pm and the mist was rather thick in which we believed we couldn't see anything anyway, we agreed to detour half way when we came across another view point.

Can't help but to take photo with the railway

Waiting for train that will never come..

Final pose at Chao Ping Garden before heading back

We didn't make it to the peak but we spend around 4 hours enjoying the greenery of Alishan. I may not know how to differentiate the types of forest but I still could feel the distinctiveness of Alishan compared to our tropical rainforest. Being an amateur hiker, I should come back next time to conquer the peak for its sunrise.

We rejuvenated ourselves by having cup noodles at 7-Eleven before getting to our next destination, which is 130km away.

Tainan (台南)

By the time we reached Tainan, it was already close to 8pm, just about right time for dinner, which is our initial intention anyway. We were guided by a local friend to try the food around the city. He claimed that most of the famous Taiwan food originated in Tainan, for it used to be the capital before being taken over by Taipei. We didn't go to night market but went to the specialised shops instead as recommended by him.

 

Wan Guo (Meat-filled rice pudding)

The sweet pudding blended with the meat, it is quite an appetizer

Guan Cai Ban (Toast served with seafood gravy)

A unique combination, I must say

Yu Geng (Fish served with gravy)

The gravy is viscous and tasted fishy. I guess I was a little full that day to enjoy this meal.

I found myself already felt full after having 3 courses of meal and concluded my dinner with a cup of Guan Yin Milk Tea. We called it a day when we checked in at Kaohsiung (40km away from Tainan).

Taichung → CHIA YI → Kaohsiung/Kenting → Hua Lien → Jiufen/Shifen/Yehliu→ Hsinchu → Taipei