ALISHAN (阿里山), TAIWAN

2019-04-03, 14:12, JASON

STAY: Some Hotel

I am with Panu, Molly, and Julie, three classmates from the Education University of Hong Kong. We get in to Taipei late, and will be taking the first high speed rail to Chiayi. From there, we take the traditional train through the mountains. The train ride putts along the mountain and occasionally stops at small Japanese-style train stations serving both as a train stop and tourist spot. There is one conductor there who supervises the platform, explaining the history of the station. When we reach the closest station to Alishan, there is a rest station, a few trails into the forest, and then connecting buses to Alishan.

Alishan is well known for two scenic items. One is 雲海, cloud sea, whereby dusk or dawn casts a light over the clouds such that from our vantage point (above the clouds), the cumulus resemble waves. The other is the forest, resemblant of a Hayao Miyazaki film with small bridges across streams, and a thin layer of moss on everything. We arrived in late February, a little just before the cherry blossoms came into bloom, so we were also fortunate to catch a small exhibit of them.

If there's anything Chinese people like, it's wood. Really old wood, generations of wood, or wood shaped like animals (in general, animal-shaped nature)

Managed to get a glimpse of the sakuras coming into bloom. Such a beauty

And, of course, after we've spent a day hiking through the woods and mountains, there's nothing quite like nature providing closure for you vis-a-vis the cloud sea.

I now know why this place exists in the Taiwanese consciousness through its tea, its songs, and its history of Japanese colonial industry. It leaves a deep impression