Taiwan.. ~ Day 7

阿里山的姑娘美如水啊.. Early morning we went to take 高铁to Chiayi county to continue our sightseeing exploration. This time to Alishan. from the train station we took the old forest railway up to the mountains of Alishan. Old choo-choo train was 1 of 2 mountain railways left in the world, and one of the highlights of the place.

For part of the train journey, the railway track was destroyed, thus we had to trek for some 300 metres to reach the undamaged part of the track to continue the train ride. The long walk thru the jungle was like some Lord of the Rings mission.. ups and downs.. Haa

we got the famous fencihu lunchbox sold by hawkers who came on board to sell when the train passed by Fencihu station on the way up, which is really delicious with lots of dishes at about SGD$5.

There are a few star attractions when visiting Alishan, notably the sea of clouds, the sunrise and sunset views, the old railway, and the lush forest full of ancient trees.
Among the ancient trees are the elephant trunk tree, 3-generation tree, giant cypress trees, and the fallen god tree

Doesn’t this looks like a very sad elephant?

This is named as the 3-generation tree, as a new tree grows atop of the previous one which died until now the third generation from the original tree is present.

During the Japanese occupation, the Japanese cut down a lot of red cypress trees in the mountain forest, as the wood of the cypress are deemed very valuable to the Japanese. To appease the spirits of the trees and to sooth their guilt over the massive deforestation, the japs built this tree spirit tomb

This is thought to be the oldest and most gigantic tree until it was struck by lightning and fell.. the people here named it as god tree.. 神木

Saw lots of monstrous at-least-2000-yrs-old trees, but too bad we didn't plan to stay a night here. Missed the sunset/sunrise views peeking thru the seas of cloud. weather up in the mountains was cooling at a 17^C, but after trekking thru the forest, we had to take off our jackets. you dun need a jacket at all! realli sweat all out. To think that we still prepared thick jackets and heat packs in anticipation of the cold up in the mountains.