XiTou 溪頭森林遊樂區 and Shanlinxi杉林溪

This will probably be our last vacation in Taiwan this year so we wanted to go to a really nice place. The two places which we chose were XiTou and Shanlinxi. We took the train to Taizhong and then took the Taizhong bus to XiTou. While waiting for the bus, we had a walk around Taizhong city. It's a huge city with a lot of Philipinos, Vietnamese, Thai and Burmese. Some of these were probably married to Taiwanese men or immigrant workers. There were also many shoe shops, jewellery shops and bead shops. It's almost like Taipei!
The Taizhong bus left at 1 pm and drove through Nantou city, Luku and finally Shanlinxi. Nantou had some streets which were really old and the street signs were so faded. The houses were one storey with classic red gates. These same houses are usually abandoned in Taipei but in Nantou, they seemed to be occupied. As Nantou lies on the faultline, lots of earthquakes happen here. In Sep 21 1998, there was a 7.8 quake and 4 bridges collapsed, the hospital caved in and many buildings were damaged and couple of thousand people died. As we were staying in Xitou we got off the bus there and walked to our inn. The inn which we stayed in was 好聖地民宿 meaning good holy ground inn http://forest.mmmtravel.com.tw/?ptype=a1It's probably a deliberate change of chinese character to sound like the original tourist attraction 好勝地. The inn has two locations. One down the road built like a tudor house and one at the shopping street. We stayed at the shopping street as it's nearer to the entrance gate to Xitou.
The shopping street housed restaurants and shops, all selling the same things like tea, bamboo rice, trout, stream prawns, fermented bamboo, honey, carbon-coated peanuts, preserved plums etc.
As the altitude was around 1000 m, it was quite cool. It even rained shortly after we checked into our room. Thank goodness that each bed has a very thick and warm blanket. One thing I must say, Taiwanese inns have super hard beds, it was the same in Wulai and elsewhere. We used one of the blanket as mattress in order not to wake up with stiff shoulder and necks, even then it only barely helped matters.
The second day, we woke up to a hazy morning. As the inn doesn't serve breakfast, we went to this local breakfast place tugged in the village and had fried noodles, hot soy bean drink and carrot cake. Only the noodles and soy bean were good. We packed some glutinous rice from the stall as lunch. As it was Sunday, the whole place was swamped with cars and people. There weren't enough car parks and all the cars were parked on both sides of the road which was a slope. Nobody seemed to put any rock beneath their tyres. It would have been quite a disaster if some car's brakes failed. We were waiting at the bus stop for the bus that would bring us to Shanlinxi and in that half hour wait, we saw about 10 cars coming to park at this particular spot. After each car had parked properly, as the driver stepped out of his car, the parking attendant would yell at him and said parking was not permitted. So much petrol was wasted! A woman drove up in her SUV and asked everyone at the bus stop whether they want any lift to Taichung. I supposed she would charge a fee. No one said yes so she sat down and had her breakfast.
The bus came and we paid 60 NT each to get to Shanlinxi. It was a winding road. Each complete curvature was named after one of the twelve chinese zodiac character. I supposed it would help in case a car breakdown or in an emergency, the exact location could be given. We climbed above cloud level. Along the way, we saw tea plantations and some more inns. Some cars were also parked along the road side. There were also vegetable sellers selling fresh local produce. At the entrance, a staff boarded the bus and we paid him the entrance fee of 150 NT. Then he left and wished us a pleasant trip.
Shanlinxi is a temperate/alpine forest area. There are some broadleaved plants, conifers, and of course stream/river from the waterfall which gave it the name shanlinxi. 杉 is chinese fir. 林 is forest while 溪 is stream or river. I've always understood 溪 as a stream but in Taiwan, that can be a huge river!
A road connects the waterfall at the edge of the park to the entrance. Bus fare was 20 NT per person. We decided to walk along the road which was pleasant enough except when the bus passed by, we had to hold our breaths against the diesel fumes. The bus ran every few minutes so holding our breaths was a regular exercise. We passed by a green eutrophicated lake, which I suspect received its water from the toilet built next to it, an archery ground, experience earthquake fun house, karaoke shops and restaurants. There was a medicinal garden with lots of medicinal herbs and an eatery that sold some of the medicinal soups using the herbs found in the garden. A budhist bell was in a pagoda and kids and adults alike hit it. The sound travelled quite far and we thought initially that there was a monastery within.
The waterfall was not spectacular but the curved caves on either side was very interesting. There must have been more water before causing so much erosion.
As the bus to XiTou was departing at 250 or 430 pm we decided to take the earlier bus. We initially wanted to walk down to Xitou but the rising mist was getting too thick that we couldn't see ahead of us. The 40 min bus ride brought us back to where we started and the same lady with the SUV was still waiting there.
There was nothing to do when we got back to Xitou except wander outside the park entrance, around car park, looking at people plucking some cucumber-like plants.
The first night we had grilled trout, trout soup with fermented bamboo shoots, stir fried mushrooms and raw egg with young fern fronds. It was all pretty good. The second night we went to another stall and had bamboo rice, oil-dipped chicken, stir-fried dragon's bristles and lily bulb soup. It was not so good. I asked the owner what's the difference between the bamboo rice sold at Xitou vs Wulai and he said they're the same as the bamboo came from the same area.
As we wanted to see more of the south rather than just Xitou and Shanlinxi, we asked the inn keeper and his wife whether they knew anyone who would drive us around. They found a friend of theirs who would charge us 3000 NT for a trip to Sun moon lake. After further discussion, the wife of the innkeeper decided that they would drive us themselves. So the third day, we walked around Xitou instead. The inn keeper drove us passed the entrance so we didn't have to pay the entrance fees. We had breakfast at the Leader hotel within the park. For 500 NT for the two of us, it was really expensive and service was non existent. We had to clear the table and get the spoons and chopsticks ourselves so that we could eat. The CDs that the restaurant was playing kept jamming so it was quite an endurance test.
Anyway, it was good to get out of there and walked around the park. Xitou is one of the experimental station runned by National Taiwan University's Forestry Department. There are Taiwan fir, gingko trees, bamboos etc. There were lots of birds too. We walked along the road and then took the bird watching trail to the peak where the observatory was. It was a long walk, to and fro, about 10 km uphill and downhill. Then we went to see the University Pool. It was one the best scenic locations. All in all, we walked about 20 km.
To celebrate our second year wedding anniversary, we had dinner at another hotel, Mingshan hotel. See http://www.mingshan.com.tw/di-2.htm Surprise, surprise, we had the same kind of food offered at the shopping street: bamboo rice, stir fried dragon bristles, trout soup, steam trout, stir fried watercress. We just can't escape local specialities!
The next morning, just as we were leaving the inn, there was power failure. It was very good timing, the inn keeper and his wife drove us to Luku to eat rice cupcake and wanton noodles. Both were excellent albeit too oily. Then we head to sun moon lake. Along the way, the inn keeper's wife was telling us lots of interesting titbits aboud places and people. The bananas, rice, tomatoes were excellent in the Mingjian 名間 area. The 集集 Jiji mini train station where people go and see the train station and bicycle around. 綠色隧道, green tunnel, a nice road with camphor trees planted on both sides. We went to see a collapsed temple that was still standing because the contractor did a shody job. It was quite amazing, the ground floor and upper floors were all collapsed and sunk underground. We saw only the outer facade of the temple and the intact roof. She also mentioned that the Shuilisheyao 水里蛇窯, a pottery kiln that also sold pottery was nothing great and also very expensive. Finally we reached Sun Moon Lake日月潭. It turned out to be just another lake, not fantastic. I wonder what all the huha was about. It was a major tourist trap. Everything was expensive.涵碧樓大飯店 The Lalu Sun Moon Lake must be the top of the top in terms of price range. The brochure indicated that the hotel charged 17840 NT (S$900) for a single room. We wanted to use the washroom and it was not permitted. We were not even permitted to visit the place. I guess each flush of the toilet would cost 1000 NT. In the end, we used the toilet from the teacher's hostel next door.
After sun moon lake, we went to Puli 埔里. Now this is an interesting place. Here is a geographic marker which marks where the centre of Taiwan is and also a wine factory. The wine factory makes the famous Shaoxing wine 紹興 that is used by every household that cooks chinese dishes. This wine is sold all over S.E. Asia too. The factory is not so much a factory but more like a display shop with museum upstairs. The shop sells Shaoxing rice crisps, Shaoxing ice cream, cakes and several different types of wines. The museum upstairs was showing the earthquake scenes and the extent of damages in different districts within the Nantou county. Previously, the inn keeper's wife told us that the earthquake happened at night, when they got up in the morning, the whole mountain moved and all the soil piled out just outside their door! The huge boulder, five times a man's height and with width doubling that, inside Xitou, was actually further up the mountain but was loosen after the quake. During the typhoon, it was swept to its present location. Since nobody could move it, it became a tourist attraction.
For lunch, we had some fatty pork, also called kongbak, in Taiwanese, with rice. It was really tender and smooth. Then it was time to bid farewell to our inn keeper and his wife. We took the Puli bus back to Taizhong (150 NT each) and then it was back to Taipei. All in all, it was a very enjoyable and educational trip.

內雙溪聖人瀑布 Nei Shuangxi Shengren waterfall

While I was surfing through the web looking at ManYueYuan, I found this weblink to the Shengren waterfall (meaning Saint's waterfall). http://www.pse100i.idv.tw/n/neasn/neasn001.htm
If you go to the link, don't you think the photographer's work is really beautiful? So being attracted to this kind of scenery, we decided to go this afternoon. It was real easy to get to. Unlike the bus that leaves every top of the hour to Manyueyuan, the 小18, runs every half hour from Jiantan MRT see bus link http://www.capital-bus.com.tw/busline/index.htm
The ride was very scenic. It reminded me of Manyueyuan and Wulai. I supposed because these are all catchment areas. There were green hills all around. The air was fresh and there was a nice cool breeze. After we alight from the bus at the last stop, we took a long route to the right and walked along the waterways (probably constructed since the Japanese occupation to channel water to rice farms). Then as the path disappeared along the waterway, we walked on the road. There were some cars parked on the roadside and children with nets catching butterflies or fish. After passing by a huge brown house, which sure looked out of place there, we took the road on the right and walked back to the main road. This road was parallel to the waterfall but we couldn't see it but we could hear it. There was a brand new education centre beside this road just after the falls.
When we got back onto the main road, we walked to the shengren chiao, saint's bridge and walked through the river, 內雙溪, to get to see the watefall. We didn't get ourselves wet because the waterlevel was low and there were huge flat boulders which we could step easily to cross the river.
When we did see the waterfall, it didn't look as nice as those in the photos. There was also a wooden barrier with green wires to prevent people from going right to the falls. Of course, people climbed right over the barrier and sat beside the waterfall. This was also BBQ season so there were crowds barbequeing on any and every exposed boulders. The people tend to leave the charcoal, BBQ pits or food behind so it won't be doing a lot of good to our drinking water in the long run.

Man Yue Yuan National Forest Recreation Area 滿月圓國家森林遊樂區

I was looking for places to go on weekends and I found this Sanxia 三峽 and Man Yue Yuan National Forest Recreation Area 滿月圓國家森林遊樂區 whilst browsing through books at the Chang An library (a branch of Taipei public library).
http://www.tpml.edu.tw

There are many ways to go to Sanxia but I think the fastest way is to take the MRT to YongNing 永寧, take exit 4 and hop on any bus that brings you to Sanxia 三峽. From the bus terminus, we took the mini bus that goes to xiongkong 熊空. This bus only leaves at the top of every hour in the morning http://yoyonet.biz/egoing/bus/beichi/long/peik/06-t.htm
and only one bus returns from 熊空 in the afternoon at 345 pm to Sanxia. The last bus is 610 pm. This didn't leave us with a lot of time to explore the park because we just missed the 10 am bus.
Anyway, since there was nothing nearby in terms of shops or scenery which appealed to us so we waited at the bus stop which offered a little shelter from the sun and caught the 11 am bus.
The bus was very crowded, many old folks got up later from the wet market. The old folks live in the mountain areas, they are probably farmers of tea or vegetables. They sure look fit as a fiddle.

The bus passed by 大板根森林溫泉度假村 Dabangen forest spa village http://www.xn--54q421cqj0anqf.tw/ViewPage.asp?TravelID=1270.
I was thinking of visiting but after 滿月圓, I don't think I want to pay 250 NT just for a visit.

It was a good thing there was a family going to 滿月圓 as well as there was no sign telling us where to alight. It was basically at a junction which had a yellow sign with red lettering selling honey 蜂蜜. A few meters after the bus stop, there was an area with landslide so we could see the roadside concrete barrier completely battered from the falling rocks and boulders. We hurriedly walked past this area. It took us about 30 minutes to walk to the ticketing entrance. There were some carparks but cars were parked all along the roadside. It was a very nice day and lots of people had the same idea of visiting the park. We were thinking if the bus runs more frequently, people wouldn't have to drive.

People living in Taipei county get to have 50% discount on entrance fees so we only paid 50NT for the two of us. The walking paths were covered with gravel and the sides with two rock slabs. We preferred to walk on the rock slabs as it was less tiring. However, other people had the same idea too so it was rather crowded.

The forest is beautiful. There are two waterfalls, virgin and ManYueyuan falls. The one on the right is ManYueyuan fall.
At the beginning of the trail, we saw at least four partriges which quickly disappeared into the undergrowths http://www.birdingintaiwan.com/taiwanpartridge.htm
There were lots of butterflies, some birds with very nice calls but we didn't get to see how they looked like and mosquitoes that bit through my socks. There was a boy who caught a stag beetle probably a Neolucanus swinhoei http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1803/species.htm

We saw other trails that were not packed with people but the signs were very helpful saying that they take 4-5 hours to complete. There was also a big sign listing the potential animals that you can see such as Formosan clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa brachyurus), Formosan black bear (Selenarctos thibetanus formosanus), Formosan sika deer (Cervus nippon taiouanus) etc. Much as we would like to see the wildlife we don't fancy being mauled by the predators. We also had to catch that 345 pm bus so we gave those trails a miss.

Other websites on ManYueYuan: http://www.pse100i.idv.tw/t/mnyuun/mnyuun007.htm http://taipei.mmmtravel.com.tw/index_m.php?ptype=map_main&id=570

Wulai 烏來 and Neidong 內洞

We wanted to kill two birds with one stone by staying overnight at Wulai one weekend. Not only did we experience hotspring bath at Wulai but we also managed to see the beautiful waterfalls at Neidong.
Wulai was hot in August and humid since it was a catchment made up of pristine forests and waterfalls. We took the xindian bus near Taipei main station and rode it all the way to Wulai which cost 70 NT per person. Most people would take the MRT to Xindian and board the bus from there but it would be very crowded. One would have to stand all the way as the bus sped through hill roads and one's balancing skill and jostling for hand holds would be severely tested.
Wulai in the Daya aboriginal language means hotspring. Legend recorded that two hundred years ago, a Daya hunter whilst hunting saw a stream with steam emitting out from it. When he went nearer, he realised it was hot and he yelled wulai! wulai! and that was how the name came about.

Although we were there on a weekend, it wasn't particularly crowded. We managed to book a room really last minute, like two days before. The inn that we stayed in was called 碧山閣飯店 http://www.greenhillspa.com.tw/. It was so so, no breakfast, staff were friendly and helpful. The room has a small hotspring pool that can squeeze in two people. The hot water came from the hotspring while the cold water was from the river. The hotspring in Wulai is unusual in that it's not smelly, basically odourless and clear. Because of this property, some hotspring inns used heated normal tap water instead of hotspring water. I don't quite see the point though. The hotspring would be hot and no heating required whereas heating up tap water would cost more I would have thought. Anyway, Wulai is not short of hotspring spa, every inch of buildable land is a hotspring inn or spa place. Some looked really grand and expensive.

We walked from the old street of Wulai down to the river for a picnic. There were lots of young people having a barbecue. This seems to be a favourite national past time. Where there's a river, you will find people having BBQ. The water was actually rather cool. Then we walked back to the road to the mini railway station and beyond to get a better view of the waterfall. It was hot and humid in early Sep. By the time we got to the one and only coffee shop opposite Naruwan hotel, we felt like we're suffering from sunstroke. It wasn't as if we didn't carry any water with us, the two of us finished 2 L of water just for that 2 h walk. Then we took a taxi to Neidong 內洞.

Most people may have heard of Wulai 烏來 http://visitnative.nat.gov.tw/aborigine/wulai/index.html but not Neidong 內洞 which loosely mean inner cave. It was also called wawagu 娃娃谷 previously. At Wulai you see waterfalls far away but at neidong, some are so close, you can feel the water spray.




To get there, we could either walk or take a taxi which costs 300 NT one way. The taxi driver told us that people will walk to Neidong at the crack of dawn to enjoy the fresh air and coolness.

We had walked from Wulai to Qingwagu Neidong 青蛙谷 and had we walked further and paid the entrance fees, we would have visited Neidong in the spring of 2002 when it was cooler.

There were many people in the park. We could see the first of four waterfalls across the river. The river water has a jade green colour. According to the taxi driver, he said the water is very pure and comes from Fushan mountains 福山.

There was one toilet beside the river. From the abundance of butterflies hovering near an outlet pipe, I gather the sewage, maybe not the solids, goes right into the river.

Other than butteflies, we saw some Formosan monkeys. While we were walking on the trail, the rain came. It was a torrential downpour that stopped after 20 minutes. While it was raining, the frogs came out, daddy long legs etc. I would say the forest came alive!

The trail that went up the side of the biggest waterfall was quite poorly managed. The path was narrow and certain parts had no barrier at all. It was on this path that one of us fell and it was a good thing he didn't go all the way down the mountain. I found it strange that for such a popular park, the path was not in better maintenance.

Other links on neidong: http://www.dan-studio.com/leisure/taibei/ix-wawa.htm

Taipei World Trade Centre

One of the things we like to do on weekends is to visit the Taipei world trade centre to see the trade shows. Today, two exhibits interest us. One was the kitchenware, renovation, furniture expo at hall 1 and the other the pets and aquarium show in hall 3.

Before we even went into hall 3, we were seeing all dogs of different breeds with their owners walking along the side of the Songzhi Road. I was wondering why were the dogs going to a pet show. Later then I figured out why.

Hall 1 exhibits appeared to be a miscellaneous, left over from previous furniture design exhibition last month. There were jewelleries, organic waste processor, leak-proof window manufacturer, earthquake proof home, floor polish, curtains, vacuum bags, one kitchenware and kitchen designer, water purifier, the machine that sucks and cleans humidity in the air and convert to drinking water etc, etc.

Both of us were most impressed with the organic waste processor. It looked just like a rubbish bin but it had to be connected to electricity at all times. Inside I guessed was a mixture of bacteria or fungus and basically it broke down whatever kitchen waste that was poured into the bin. It could treat fish, chicken, pork bones, vegetables, milk, etc. It could process rice within 4 hours and bones in just a few hours more. It also consumed very little electricity (used to run a slow moving rotor to turn the food waste and mix with the fungus), maximum cost per month on continuous run on the rotor was 130 NT but usually it would be less than that because the rotor need not run all the time in normal household use. When the food is processed, the rotor stopped turning. The processed waste, looking like wood chips, could be taken out and used as compost. The smell was like dried wood chips. Not at all unpleasant.

Within the same hall was the chinese food festival. As one of us was still fasting, we skipped that part all together.

After we were done with hall 1, we went over to hall 3. It was packed! With humans, dogs, a few cats, a few ferrets and a few sugar glider (short-headed possum) that the shop owner was trying to sell. Sugar glider see:
http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/animals1/kangaroo/sugarglider.html
We saw the golden retriever was shaved almost all throughout except the back leaving some slightly longer hair the shape of a heart. This only happens in Taiwan, I mused.

The pet owners were bringing their pets for free grooming sessions, training sessions, clothes and accessories fitting, pet food tasting etc. One dachshound's nails were being trimmed and either it moved or the groomer cut too deep, there was blood spewing out from its paw and it jerked hard and wanted to run away! It was a good thing that the mistress held on tight. Anyway, mistress and dog soon left after the groomer put some kind of absorbent granules on the bleeding toe to stop the bleeding. I so pity the poor animal.

We saw two St Bernards. The two owners were obviously pleased to know of each other's existence I supposed as they were eagerly chatting with each other while people formed a ring aroudn them and fire away with their cameras. Taiwanese seemed to love Labrador retriever, golden retriever, chiwawa, dachshound, Ainu, collie, huskies etc.

We had more fun outside the pet show exhibition than inside. We were like bird watchers, or rather dog watchers sitting by the wayside admiring or commenting the dog breeds and owners. Dogs would be dogs! We observed this wee little pomeranian which was so ambitious about marking territories. It lifted its back leg and wanted to pee on every available tree, bush, left over dog pee but it was dryer than the sahara. It just raised its leg and never gave up!

Some dog owners cleaned up after their pets but others didn't do a thorough job. We observed the size of the poop decreased with each passing wave of humanity. We pity the cleaner after this show with all the bags of or tissue covered poop. The smell would challenge the patience of the stoic nose.

Beitou 竹內溫泉餐廳

We went to look for the spa 竹內溫泉餐廳 that was mentioned in the Taipei guide book available in the stores now. It's all in mandarin, with no directions on how to get there other than an address. It mentioned that this spa place is also some kind of farm and if you take the hotspring dip in the evening, you can see the sunset. All sounds very nice so I guess my imagination got the better of me.

See views of the place: http://www.twem.idv.tw/3/9/1/a95.htm

We took the bus 260 to the terminus and walked along Shamaoshan Road to the address mentioned. Along the way, we passed by the Shamao trail that leads to the top of the hill. We saw a crushed giant earthworm, about 1 foot long and a family of Formosan macaques. We heard them first then we saw them. They were making warning noises and we peeped through the foliage and saw them in the undergrowth.

The view was very nice; with the evening sun, coating the trees to a shade of golden brown. Those trees in the shadow of the hills remained green and fresh. The sky was cloudless and blue.

We walked and walked, always had to be wary of approaching traffic as there was no pedestrian walkways. In certain section the road for the two way traffic was so narrow, we had to run past that stretch when there was a lull in the traffic.

Finally, we reached the 竹內溫泉餐廳. It was such a let down. I was thinking of seeing animals, nice looking spa but you can see for yourself the pictures of the place in the link. I supposed my expectations were too high.

However, if you should like to go see for yourself, you can take the 230 bus from Beitou which sort of stops directly opposite the spa.

Now, the bus ride on 230 is something else altogether. As mentioned earlier, the roads have no pedestrian walkways, some stretches are so narrow, there is only room for a bus stop on one side of the road, after that is either the hill or the sheer drop into the valley. If you want to take the bus on the opposite side of the road, you'll just have to stand on the other side of the road to the bus stop and signal to the bus driver to stop. If a car drives a bit slower, then the traffic gets bunched up behind this car. When there's no traffic, some drivers tend to speed and have their engines roaring away. You can hear them coming miles away, that's the time to flatten ourselves against the hill or squeeze ourselves to the side of the edge leading down to the valley.

The bus had to make many hair pin turns going downhill. As we were standing we could see the bottom of the valley where the hotsprings originate. It looked almost like a mine, there was no vegetation, just white rocks, sands, water vapour and the milky white pools of hotsprings. The rotten egg smell was unmistakable, due to H2S, hydrogen sulphide. Lots of pipes were seen piping the hotspring water to the various spas in the area. They looked like thick black wire cables. I wondered how the spa owner know how to repair the pipes if it should leak along the miles of piping going along the sides of the mountain, forest etc. Some cars were parked right beside the hotsprings and I supposed these dare devils braved the smell and the heat to take their dips.

Hotspring therapies are very popular here in Taiwan. The various springs come in different temperatures, from mid thirties Celsius, about 40s to a high of 50. There are individual jacuzzies type in private rooms, or communal pools for men or women, outdoors. Some dip in the hotspring stark naked while others wear swimming costumes.

cool escape

Nowadays, Taipei is blessed with clear blue sky and amazing winds. Unfortunately it's still like an oven in my apartment and in the street where my apartment is.

I escaped to Yang Ming shan yesterday as it's much cooler there. 26 degrees or so. It was windy too. I took the feeder bus, got off at the second last bus stop thinking that it's nearer to the waterfall as it appeared so in the map. However, there was no path leading there. I had to walk to the next stop and continued to the waterfall. Along the way I saw some really huge stink bugs with thick hind legs. They were really abundant on the trees.

It seemed stinkbugs are quite seasonal. I saw a different one earlier in May, smaller, with bright red bodies on the Machilus trees in Taipei city. They had a habit on landing on the ground and some got stepped on. When one was dead on the ground, the others woulld congregate around it, touching the dead companion. I really didn't know what they were doing but it sure looked mournful!

I walked along the trail with a waterway constructed beside it. It was constructed during the Japanese occupation. Apparently after the waterway was created, it changed the whole landscape, rice cultivation became possible. There was a very common herb along the way, Begonia formosana, 水鴨腳秋海棠, http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/plant93/plant93_c3-106.htm

It seemed it's also mating season too. There were lots of dragonflies mating and depositing eggs in the water. And of course, there were lots of butterflies.
http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d4-121.htm, http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d4-127.htm, http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d4-152.htm

I didn't have to try very hard to look out for birds, they were very comfortable around me. There were a number of white eyes (popular songbirds) darting among the foliage. http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d3-2139.htm. There was a pair of Bambusicola thoracica, 竹雞, crossing the path http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d3-2123.htm
and a pair of Lesser Scimitar Babbler http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/web/webpage.aspx?f=data_file/animal93/animal93_d3-212b.htm

There was even an earthworm which jumped about 8 cm high when I tried to move it away from the walking path! I didn't know they have this ability!

Alishan 阿里山風景區

Alishan mountain range is in the west of Yushan 玉山range. Separated by Nansingxian stream, it faces Yushan. In the north is Nantou, the southern tip reaches Kaoshiong Jiguanshan. The whole range is North, northeast – south south west, 250 km long. On average 2200 m, the highest peak is Datashan大塔山.

The upside down U shaped range, funnel in the west southerly trade wind during the summer. On average the summer temperature is 18.8 degree Celsius. In May, June, it’s the rainy season, Jul, Aug, typhoon season, so the rainfall in these months is 70% of the annual rainfall. Rainfall days are 209 days. During autumn, winter, northeasterly trade wind brings more rain but also brings a lot of cloud, giving the cloud seascape.
From Chiayi city, at an elevation of 30 m above sea level, climb up to 2600 m, the forest range from subtropical, temperate to alpine zones. Subtropical zone consisted of figs, bethel nuts, bamboos and longans. At zhaoping, chiyunshi, are broad-leaved, pine needles and dominated by artificially planted Cryptomeria forests. Further up to zhushan, are Cryptomerias 柳杉, hemlock spruces 鐵杉, pine, mixed needle-leaved forests.
Alishan can be reached by car in two hours. There are also public buses at Chiayi which leaves at 630 am or 2 pm for Alishan. The most memorable one of course is the Alishan rail. It is one of three mountain railway in the world, the other two being found in India (Darjeeling-Himalaya Railway) and Peru (Andean Central Railway). It ascends up the mountain in its unique switch back method. The Alishan railroad was built by the Japanese from 1906-1913. The reason was timber. Three-thousand year-old cypress trees with girths of ? The trees were cut and transported by rail down to Chiayi and later shipped to Japan. Most of the old trees are no longer seen but a few are left and they can be seen along the giant tree trail boardwalk. At the shenmu station before Alishan station, there is an old tree trunk lying by the side of the railway track. It was called the sacred tree. It was upright till Jul 1 1997. Many of the old postcards or pictures will show this tree trunk leaning towards the railway track when it was still standing. The trees that visitors see are from reforestation work done by the Taiwanese after the Japanese occupation.

Initially the train was powered by steam, later diesel. Along the way, one can see lots of Bethel nut palm trees all over the mountainside. The whole length of the railroad is 71.35 km. Starting from 30 m above sea level at Chiayi to 2216 m. It has to pass through 50 tunnels and 80 bridges. Some of the stops along the way are worth stopping and visiting, such as Jiaoliping, Fenchihu. Zuqi station is built completely of the timber of Alishan. Zhangnaoliao station onwards was the most difficult stretch of rail to build. The story was that the Japanese engineer in charge of the project was stuck in how to build the rail along that steep part. One day, as he took a rest and ate his lunch, he saw a snail crawling by him. He got his inspiration from the snail shell’s spiral whorls. So if you look at the back of your train ticket, you can see how the rail spirals before straightening and then it went zigzag. The zigzag part was when the train switch rail to go up another stretch of the hill. As the train first left Chiayi, the train engine was pushing from the back of the train. At the zigzag part, the train is being pulled when it switched track. So first you go forward, then backward and then forward again until Alishan station where the train terminates.

One of Alishan’s famous produces is wasabe, the Japanese mustard. It was introduced from Japan to Alishan. The wasabe is a perennial herb, belonging to the Brassicaceae family. It prefers to grow in high altitude areas, cool wet and shady places. As the plant grows slowly, the price of wasabe is high. Those found in the market in the less expensive restaurants are artificial, or are made of horse radish.

For the naturalist, bird watching, flowers, giant trees, insects are a great draw. A few of the trees like Elephant nose tree, three-generation tree were thousand year old. The museum was closed when we went, it supposedly have collections of plant and animal specimens, mountain models, and cultural items. There’s also a Botanic pathway, very much derelict, with small signs giving the identity of the trees. Everywhere one goes, one cannot miss the Digitalis herb, downward pointing bell-shaped flowers in chains rising up from the ground with the leaves converging at the base. The flowers are colourful, pink, purple, white or yellow. They produce copious amounts of nectar thus they compete with local plants for pollinators. Although the plants are beautiful, introduced by the Japanese from Europe, they are extremely poisonous so nothing can eat them. They are flourishing all over Alishan, posing an ecological hazard.

One of the nicest views of Alishan is the sisters’ lake. The lake waters are very clear. A shady hut is right in the middle of the lake. The view of the hut over the lake changes with the seasons. The nicest one was a picture I saw in a restaurant when the whole place was covered with snow.

Zhaoping station was where the old station used to be. Now, it carries passengers up to the Zhushan to view the sunrise. Tourists staying in Alishan Gou hotel are within walking distance to the station. The disadvantages of staying so near the railway station are the noise from the crowds waiting to board the train and the whistles from the train. One can also easily walk up to see the sunrise although a torch may be needed. However, the best way to savour the giant tree forest is the walk down after seeing the sunrise.