The uplands of Taiwan are astonishing yet vulnerable. At least once a decade, typhoons blowing in from the Pacific dump such huge amounts of water on the island’s rugged interior that landslides destroy roads and cut off remote communities.
One of the most serious typhoon disasters in the island’s history occurred in August 2009 when Typhoon Morakot crossed from east to west, causing record amounts of rainfall in several counties and municipalities, among them Pingtung and Kaohsiung. Certain locations recorded as much as 2,635 mm (103.7 inches) of precipitation in 48 hours.
Sections of highway were buried beneath rocks and mud or submerged by floodwater. Swollen rivers destroyed road and rail bridges. And almost every part of the historic narrow-gauge railway that connects the mountain resort of Alishan with the lowlands was battered. Landslides collapsed several of the 77 bridges while some of the 50 tunnels were filled with mud.
In the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot, some predicted that the world-famous Alishan Forest Railway would never resume full operations. It’s taken the authorities nearly 15 years and a lot of money to prove the defeatists wrong — but since earlier this month, trains are once again running all the way to Alishan.
A world-class locomotive experience
Alishan Forest Railway traces its history back to 1906, when the Japanese then ruling Taiwan issued the initial construction contract. The vertiginous terrain caused all kinds of problems, but by 1913 the 73 km-long (45 miles) main line to Alishan was ready. Tourists didn’t get a chance to ride the train until several years later, however, as the entire network, which includes some short branch lines, was built to facilitate industrial-scale logging. Trains heading uphill carried workers, machinery, and supplies; those returning to the plains were laden with valuable woods.
Hundreds of thousands of the area’s ancient trees were cut down to provide timber for construction and furniture-making. Several famous temples in Japan were renovated in the 1920s or 1930s using red or yellow cypress from Alishan. But by the early 1990s Taiwan’s government had realised that allowing deforestation was inviting environmental catastrophe. The logging of natural woodlands was outlawed and the island’s spectacular high-altitude forests began to recover.
Nature lovers and railfans have been flocking to the forest railway for decades. The road between the lowlands and Alishan is a scenic delight in its own right but from the train you’ll get very different views, including an up-close appreciation of how the trees and foliage change as you leave the tropical climate zone and enter the temperate zone. To evade topographical barriers, the train uses zigzags and switchbacks. To climb Dulishan (where the station is 743 m / 2,438 ft above sea level), the track forms a spiral that gradually gains altitude.
The railroad has been designated a Potential World Heritage Sites by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, which points out that it shares several characteristics with India’s UNESCO-recognised Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. A 22-minute video introduction to the railroad (with English-language commentary and subtitles) can be viewed online here.
Currently just one train per day travels all the way from Chiayi to Alishan. Express No. 5 leaves the city at 10:00 in the morning and arrives at 14:56. Express No. 1 sets out an hour earlier and makes multiple stops before terminating two stations before Alishan at Shizilu, which it reaches at precisely midday. If en route to Alishan you want to take a look at the delightful mini-town of Fenqihu (elevation: 1,405 m / 4,610 ft), consider taking No. 1, disembarking at Fenqihu and then resuming your uphill journey by boarding the No. 5 service at 13:21. All tickets must be booked in advance and we expect the resurrected railway to be extremely popular, so if this is something you want to do, don’t delay: Get in touch with us today and start the ball rolling for the Taiwan trip of a lifetime!