(2017) 4 Days in Taiwan: Chiayi/Allishan/Taipei 嘉義/阿里山/台北. Overview.

While not really a seasoned traveler, I have a fair amount of experience in planning our overseas holidays, some of which are described in this blog. More often than not, our holidays are decided rather last-minutely, with regard to both the destination and the duration of each trip. Such quick planning has been made possible by the helpful information provided by travel books and tips from numerous travel blogs on the web. So when we decided to pair up with another couple to go on a short four-day trip to Taiwan in December 2017, with Alishan (or Mount Ali) 阿里山 being the main focus, we did not suspect the planning would be difficult at all. It turned out that we spent a rather disproportionately large amount of time in working out the itinerary and trying to book the transportation during the four days.

One difficulty we had was in booking the famous Alishan Forest Railway. In 2017 at least, it was very difficult for overseas visitors to make such bookings, as online booking wasn't available and bookings must be made by phone within fourteen days in advance. It also turned out that one section of the Railway was closed, necessitating a combination of the Forest Railway and bus to go between Chiayi and Alishan. In the end, we decided that taking a cab was in fact the only feasible (and much simpler) option for us to go both from Chiayi up Alishan and back. However, we were fortunate in that our visit to Alishan coincided with an Alishan Forest Railway themed tour, called "阿里山森鐵碰壁", which translates as "Alishan Forest Railway Wall-touching", referring to the train having to stop right up to a mountain wall at one of the stations and reverse back out. We managed to book tickets for this one-day tour, which gave us an excellent experience of the famed scenic railway.

Alishan Forest Railway 阿里山森林鐵路

Overall we felt there was much room for improvement in tourism transportation in Taiwan. One thing we learnt was that in many cases, where public transport failed, it was actually much easier to travel by cab (taxi). For a group of three or four traveling together,  it can save a lot of time sharing a cab, at a reasonable cost, rather than figuring out how to take buses. There are companies that offer half-day, whole-day, or even multi-days cab services for tourists at fixed prices.

Anyway, in the end we had a very fully packed and very enjoyable four-day holiday, with the beautiful scenery of Alishan --- the mountain, trees and the spectacular afterglow at dusk, being the highlight. This made all the time and effort spent on planning the trip worthwhile. 

Here is an outline of our final itinerary:

Day 1. Chiayi 嘉義:  Arrive in Taoyuan International Airport 桃園國際機場, Taipei; Take high-speed rail to Chiayi 嘉義

Musical Fountain at Lantan, Chiayi 蘭潭音樂噴泉

Day 2. Alishan. Take a "chartered cab" to Alishan 阿里山; stopping at the Tsou community, Veoveoana (or Zhu-lu, meaning Deer Hunting) 鄒族逐鹿部落 and Fenqihu (or Fen Chi Hu) 奮起湖. Forest trail in Alishan.

One of the "Five Wonders of Alishan" --- afterglow at dusk. 阿里山五奇之晩霞

Day 3. Alishan 阿里山: Watch sunrise at Chu Shan 祝山; Take the Alishan Forest Railway "阿里山森鐵碰壁" special tour; Take cab to Chiayi High-speed Rail station; Take high-speed rail to Taipei 台北.

One of the "Five Wonders of Alishan" --- Forest. 阿里山五奇之巨木

Day 4. Taipei 台北: Yangmingshan Garden 陽明山公園; Juming Museum朱銘美術館

Juming Museum, Taipei 朱銘美術館