2 December 2006: Alishan

Francoise, Jasmine, Markus and I traveled to the famous Alishan（阿里山）. We grabbed a bus to Chiayi（嘉义）in Friday evening and stayed at a hotel for the night. At daybreak, we took a 3-hr train ride to Alishan and the view along the way was awesome. Clouds and haze had made a fuzzy patch of our view though, and that of nearby Yushan（玉山）was obscure too. We were told later that if we had arrived in March instead, the scenery would have been better.


We left our stuff at the hotel before embarking on a hike up the mountain trail. Trees as old as a thousand years of age could be found, and many temperate plants native to Taiwan were seen. It is now winter, and crispy branches fill the landscape. We heard that in spring, plum flowers flourish in full bloom and lush greenery is everywhere. It's a pity that we had visited Alishan in the wrong season so to speak, but that seriously can't be helped.


There are many ponds on Alishan, and gigantic trees stand as natural vegetation near the ponds. Fanciful names were given to oddly-shaped stumps or trees in the vicinity, and it often took me some imagination to fathom how they actually fit into the descriptions.

There are schools and temples on Alishan, but we could not find aborigines anywhere. We did not see any wild animals too, so it was just trees and more trees. One needs to venture deep into the forests to see tribes and wildlife, and this has been disallowed by the park authorities. Nevertheless, we had enjoyed ourselves. At nightfall, we descended from Alishan via a downhill express.

Happy Birthday, Raymond!!