Oct 28 - Alisan National Forest Recreation Area

Alishan (阿里山) is one of the places Fei has not visited in Taiwan, therefore we made an effort to visit it during this trip.  It was high speed bullet train then local bus type of day trip again.  The ride of the local bus was 2 and 1/2 hours each way.  However, the scenery at Alishan is worth the effort.  

We chose Alishan National Forest Recreation Area (阿里山森林遊樂區) as our day trip destination. It is famous for its giant cypress trees (檜木).  The most famous one was named “Sacred Tree (神木)” .  Unfortunately it was destroyed by lighting and fire many years ago.  Now it is just a tree trunk lay down nearby the Sacred Tree Train Station.  However there are still a lot of old and giant cypress tress along the “Giant Trees Trail" (巨木群棧道 near Sacred Tree train station) with identified number IDs to track their growth by the National Forest Services.  There are well maintained interested parks (such as Zhaoping Park - 沼平公園), trails (such as Giant Trees Trail - 巨木群棧道) and lakes (such as Two Sisters Pond - 姊妹潭) in the park.  They even have a cherry tree park along with cherry blossom observation trail.  It must be great place to enjoy their cherry blossom during the season.  

The other famous attractions in Alison are the sunrise, sunset and "sea of clouds".  Since we only stayed few hours during the daytime there, we did not have any chance of seeing the sunrise or the sunset.  However, we were luckily to see the "sea of clouds" on our way back.  The bus driver were nice enough to stop for a couple minutes for us to take some photos.  We ran into some other tourists there and learned that the Alishan House (阿里山賓館) on top of the mountain is pretty nice.  We believe if we ever have another chance to visit here, we will stay over night and try to enjoy either the sunrise or the sunset.  

Alisan is also famous with their High Mountain Oolong (高山烏龍).  Prior to boarding the local bus back to city, we did have some time to visit and purchase some nice local produced High Mountain Oolong.