I have got to admit that I have been extremely preoccupied with the upcoming plans that I foresee for myself. Writing my resume, searching for a suitable internship and last but not least, preparing for my 21st birthday have all been taking up a huge chunk of my time over the week. Probably that is why procrastinating is a thing during my free time and my deepest apologies for not updating my blog as regularly as I would have liked. The free time has also made me reminisce over my time in Taiwan just 2 weeks ago and it's the truth that I have not shared a couple of things from my time there be it my time in Alishan or Shifen
Our whole travel itinery there in Taiwan was simple - first night in Taipei due to our late arrival, the subsequent 3 days would be spent in hualien and another 3 days in the Alishan area before heading back to taipei for the remaining days of our 10 day trip. So it was day 4 of our trip in Taiwan and we had to endure a long train ride from Hualien to Chiayi so that we could take a bus up from there to the higher altitudes of Alishan.
During the whole planning and travelling process, it was absolutely torrid due to 2 main reasons. I did have some problems while I was trying to travel there and thus, came up with solutions so do read on to see the tips that I am going to put in bold and italics.
Problems and a horrible fast-and-furious like bus ride up to the mountainous areas
#Problem 1 There were no friggin clear and precise indication/information on how to travel up to Fenqihu/Alishan anywhere online.
I still remember it was such a horrible feeling not knowing what to expect as we travelled to Fenqihu from hualien.(Fenqihu was the place we resided during our time in the Alishan mountainous areas) There were no information of the bus services, no information on the bus timings and best of all, even though there are plenty of blog entries by bloggers on how they actually spent their time there, it was really insufficient for me to have a good idea on how I should go about planning the trip.
When we arrived at Chiayi so that we can take the bus up to the mountains, we realised we were too late and there were no more direct buses up to Fenqihu. Thankfully, they had a very late bus that transported commuters to shizhuo(石桌) and most importantly, the hotels there cater shuttle services to transport passengers up to the hotels.
So all you have to do is to give your hotel place a call so that they can transport you from shizhuo at a price. Therefore, it is of paramount importance for you to buy a SIM card so that you can contact people in cases of emergency such as the one I stated.
#Problem 2: Transport cost was a problem throughout our time there
In fact, the main bulk of our expenditure was on transport and solely transport alone. It was the same in hualien and more or less the same story in Fenqihu/Alishan. Transport from hualien to taipei and from Taipei to Chiayi. Bam.! Bus transport up from Chiayi to Fenqihu. Bam.! Cab transport from Fenqihu to Alishan. Bam.! Triple blows and probably around NT2000 spent solely on that.
For train rides, the only way to save up is to buy round trip tickets as you would be able to save up part of the costs if you bought the tickets individually. However, Do that only if you know your timing schedules really well because if you don't the tickets would not be replaceable at all and all your money spent would be wasted if you missed your train.
There is also one other cheeky solution which is to cheat the fare by buying a ticket which stops at an earlier stop. But honestly, do that at your own risk. You can try but just don't get caught lor! If you're caught red-handed you would have to pay an additional 50% to what you are already paying for the train tickets to your destination.
Amidst all the problems I encountered, I have decided to make this guide so that your time in Fenqihu/Alishan would be made so much easier just by looking at my post. Apart from those minor solutions I suggested earlier, here's me presenting to you more important details on my time there.
First and foremost, to travel to Fenqihu/Alishan, you must travel to Chiayi TSHR station. In order to get there from Taipei, you would have to take the HSR train service. The HSR would take about 4 hours just to arrive in Chiayi station.
Once you are there, locate this bus terminal and proceed to take the bus up to your destination. So if you happen to miss your bus, just call the hotel you have booked to send a shuttle service down just so you can be transported there albeit at a cost which I have mentioned earlier in this post.
To have a clearer picture of how the whole area there is like, here's a picture of the route map of the bus transport there and also a convenient picture of the bus timings that were available.
Amidst all the problems I encountered, I have decided to make this guide so that your time in Fenqihu/Alishan would be made so much easier just by looking at my post. Apart from those minor solutions I suggested earlier, here's me presenting to you more important details on my time there.
View of Chiayi Station
First and foremost, to travel to Fenqihu/Alishan, you must travel to Chiayi TSHR station. In order to get there from Taipei, you would have to take the HSR train service. The HSR would take about 4 hours just to arrive in Chiayi station.
Bus Terminal
Once you are there, locate this bus terminal and proceed to take the bus up to your destination. So if you happen to miss your bus, just call the hotel you have booked to send a shuttle service down just so you can be transported there albeit at a cost which I have mentioned earlier in this post.
To have a clearer picture of how the whole area there is like, here's a picture of the route map of the bus transport there and also a convenient picture of the bus timings that were available.
Click on the picture to have a better view of the map which is on the left hand side
Bus timings of the specific buses at Chiayi Bus Terminal
Fenqihu
Fenqihu is a small town and actually has some walking trails for you to admire the natural environment. You would be able to see plenty of Shen mu trees old temple locations etc.
There is also a traditional railway station which is really beautiful and also a bian dang（便当） shop that is worth a try. The bian dang is NT120 and has a host of ingredients that made me raise the white flag. There were so many ingredients and it was so filling that I simply could not finish the meal. Within the bian dang, there was pork, bamboo, eggs, chicken leg and vegetables like 麻油菜，高利菜. The ingredients were given to me in unsimplified chinese so I might have gotten some of the simplified chinese wrong. The stall even promotes recycling by having this setup within the shop which can be seen in the pictures below. The operating hours are from 7am to 8pm.
As I have mentioned before, I resided in Fenqihu and not Alishan. To make things easier for explanation sake, here's a picture of the map again.
As you can see, they are actually some distance apart. So how do you actually travel there? The tips from here onwards are for those who are thinking of going to sightsee at Alishan but are residing in Fenqihu instead.
Before I even got a rough idea of how I would travel to Alishan from Fenqihu, I was honestly really clueless and lost. Thankfully, the hotel assistant at my place aided us by explaining to us the main attractions to pay a visit to.
As you can see, they are actually some distance apart. So how do you actually travel there? The tips from here onwards are for those who are thinking of going to sightsee at Alishan but are residing in Fenqihu instead.
Before I even got a rough idea of how I would travel to Alishan from Fenqihu, I was honestly really clueless and lost. Thankfully, the hotel assistant at my place aided us by explaining to us the main attractions to pay a visit to.
Even better still was the fact that there was a German backpacker named Kayk, who was willing to chauffeur us there for free on the second day. The only drawback was the fact that we had to wake up at 345 the next day so that we could set off on our approx one hour ride to Alishan at 415. All these had to be in place so that the sunrise could be caught.
But...but....guess who switched off the alarm by accident the next day and did not snooze it.... We ultimately missed the free ride there and a chance to make a new friend proper because we overslept... So this was the note that we were left and end of story for this unfortunate subplot. We had to settle upon taking a cab on the next day.
Alishan
Upon arrival, The things to do in Alishan was simple.
#1: At 530 a train up to Zhushan would have to be caught so that you can see the sunrise. To travel there from Fenqihu, a cab would have to be arranged a day before with the hotel staff. So preferably 430am would be the time to set off to Alishan
#2: At Zhushan, instead of clotting up and gathering at a shelter right in front of where the train stops, take that bit of effort to travel to Xiao Li bie Xiang. The view there for the sunrise is all round 360 degrees. Unfortunately for us, the conditions on the day did not entail us to catch the sunset.
#3: After that, take the train down one stop to Chao Ping Station and walk a near 2 hour trail so that you can view the Shen mu（神木）, skybridge, sister pond in the same area.
#4 Once you have completed the trail, just simply make your way back to the first original station at Alishan either by taking the traditional railway or walking back.
#5: There would be a shuttle bus at the 7 eleven outlet further down the train station for you to return to Fenqihu via ShiZhuo（石桌）
#6: For the both of us, we were going to make our way back to Chiayi to take the HSR back to Taipei. So instead of lugging our luggages all around in Alishan, we simply registered it at the counter on the second storey of the train station at before we carried on with our activities.
More or less by doing this, you would have covered most of the main attractions in this area.
Here are some other pictures that I have taken during my time there.
Alishan
Upon arrival, The things to do in Alishan was simple.
#1: At 530 a train up to Zhushan would have to be caught so that you can see the sunrise. To travel there from Fenqihu, a cab would have to be arranged a day before with the hotel staff. So preferably 430am would be the time to set off to Alishan
#2: At Zhushan, instead of clotting up and gathering at a shelter right in front of where the train stops, take that bit of effort to travel to Xiao Li bie Xiang. The view there for the sunrise is all round 360 degrees. Unfortunately for us, the conditions on the day did not entail us to catch the sunset.
#3: After that, take the train down one stop to Chao Ping Station and walk a near 2 hour trail so that you can view the Shen mu（神木）, skybridge, sister pond in the same area.
#4 Once you have completed the trail, just simply make your way back to the first original station at Alishan either by taking the traditional railway or walking back.
#5: There would be a shuttle bus at the 7 eleven outlet further down the train station for you to return to Fenqihu via ShiZhuo（石桌）
#6: For the both of us, we were going to make our way back to Chiayi to take the HSR back to Taipei. So instead of lugging our luggages all around in Alishan, we simply registered it at the counter on the second storey of the train station at before we carried on with our activities.
More or less by doing this, you would have covered most of the main attractions in this area.
Here are some other pictures that I have taken during my time there.
Unfortunate foggy view at Zhushan
Train service at Alishan
Subsequent beautiful scenery at Alishan
Sister pond at Alishan
So there you have it. My time in Alishan all made easy for you. So if anyone of you are thinking of going there, just take a look at my mini guide and I sincerely hope this helps.
So with that, Peanut has left a marker on a travel destination.
Stay tuned for more adventures!
Signing off,
KY
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