Ali Shan

Sunday morning I met Sophia at the Taipei train station. We bought our high speed rail tickets to Chiayi and soon were hurtling southwards. As we emerged from the tunnels outside of Taipei, the weather cleared. The weather reports broadcast on the LCD displays predicted warm days ahead.

The Chiayi HSR train station felt like an airport. The system had just been completed, and I was amazed at how clean and new everything looked. In the bathroom, the toilet paper ends had been folded into a triangle.

From the train station we had to take a bus for 45 minutes to reach the central train station. Sophia told me that the station locations were a result of various political battles and bribes, and were never convenient to the cities in which they lay. At the main station we asked about train tickets up the mountain, but they were sold out. We took the bus instead, which wound its way up past various sights and tea plantations to the village in which we were staying and I surprised myself by recognizing some of the landmarks on the way up from previous trips.

From the car park we descended to our hotel. The proprietor told us that the last train leaving for the Sacred Tree trails was leaving soon but if we hurried we could take it and spend the rest of the afternoon walking around the park. We climbed back up to the station and bought tickets.

The train cars were beautifully crafted out of wood, and the cabins smelled amazing. The air was fresh and cool, and a fog had descended around us. At the station, we asked a conductor the best paths to walk and he recommended on that lead up from the head of the train. The forest closed in around us, the trees a ghostly presence in the fog. Atop the mountain, a bell rang out and a temple soon appeared before us.

We walked past root systems that had been given names like the Elephant Head and soon arrived another temple said to be the highest in Taiwan. Groups of people were burning incense and paying their respects and we watched as the sun set and the skies grew dark. Sophia bought some beef with rice from a stall that was just about to close and we sat before the temple as people left eating our small repast.

Back at the hotel we checked into our room and took a quick nap. For dinner we ate at one of the nearby restaurants, a meal of mushrooms and bamboo shoots, a meat like venison and a chicken soup cooked with wine. We washed it all down with rice wine. In our room, we turned on the electric blanket and watched some TV before snuggling ourselves under the warm sheets. We'd be up at five to watch the sun rise.

The phone rang at five. I had been up earlier and was ready; Sophia climbed out of bed to wash up. On the street we bought man toh for breakfast. At five thirty a van pulled up and we piled in. It was to take us to a pass near Yushan, the tallest mountain in northeast Asia, to watch the sun rise. Along the way it stopped at various points of interest including one to see the sea of clouds. It looked a little more like a haze.

At the pass, people crowded along the side of the road. Vans and buses parked in a long line behind them. The drivers collected in various vans to talk amongst themselves, barely looking towards the horizon. A tour guide gave statistics and information through a bullhorn. He offered advice on how to shoot the sunrise, including F-stops for various stages. He then suggested ways of composing the shot. He pointed out the peak of Yushan and told us that a weather bureau had an office on a nearby peak to its left. He said that the staff worked on half month rotations, and lamented that the three of them were short one to be able to play mahjong.

At first we were disappointed, thinking the sun was to rise to our left, but as the dawn approached, we could see that the sun would rise right before us, just off the main peak. Our driver had given us thick tinted glass windows with which to look through at the sun, and I realized that if you put two together you could actually see the shape of the ridge cut out from the sun's yellow disk.

With the sun came warmth and Sophia and I basked in the glow as the rest of the people made their way back to their vans and left. She took photos of our shadows and when we were the last people on the pass, we made our way to the van and began our descent. We stopped at one more sacred tree, and climbed down a narrow set of stairs to a viewing platform where a woman pointed to the sun rising just above another ridge and remarked that we got to enjoy two sun rises in the same day.

Back at Alishan park, the van dropped us at the start of another trail head and we walked through tall groves of trees and to the Sister ponds, where we paused to take in the sun. A couple arrived and took photos of themselves in front of the trees using a tripod. We followed them down the path watching as they paused before each shaped tree system with names like "Auspicious Pig" and "Everlasting Heart." We continued down the mountain through the magnolia forest and to the Alishan House where we breakfasted on their terrace.

At the train station we bought tickets for the trip back down the mountain and went to the hotel to shower. We were ushered out of our rooms and with time to spare wandered back towards the car park to the various stores there. We sat in front of tea counter and sampled tea from the area and then walked to the visitor's center to look at the displays. We watched the 20 minute tourist video which showed how the train used a unique system of switchbacks which reversed the train's direction to climb up the mountain. It also showed a section of track which curved around 2 and a half times to navigate a certain area.

Unfortunately the top portion of the track which used the switchbacks was under construction and so we had to take a bus down to the first station to meet the train. The train was narrow and we crowded into our seats. The whistle sounded and with a lurch we were off. The landscape was beautiful. I lamented the fact that we didn't get to ride the train down from the top, in order to see the zoological changes as we descended through different temperate zones. All of a sudden there were groves of bamboo.

At Fenqihu, the train made a stop. We took photos of the old trains and bought boxed lunches. I had read about the train cakes that were famous in the area and went off down the old street looking for them. I assumed the train would sound a warning whistle before leaving, and I heard it just as I bought the cakes. I raced back towards the platform in time to see the train gaining momentum as it left the station. I gave chase for a while but gave up. Sophia called me to ask where I was. She had barely made the train, having to run and jump on the last car in order to embark. I told her what had happened and said I would try to meet her at the next station.

The stationmaster said that there was a bus leaving in 3 hours from the intersection just above the station. I walked up to a car park to see if anyone was heading down the mountain but it was deserted. I asked again at a tea shop by the intersection and was told the same thing about the bus coming at five and invited me to sit and have some tea while I waited. I walked to the intersection to decide what to do. A van pulled up and the driver asked if I were going to Chiayi. I said yes and he told me to get in the van.

He and his friend were going back home before embarking the next day for Beitou. They were temple craftsmen and had just finished a job on Alishan. They had also done work in Singapore, where he said they were treated very well. They both lived in Chiayi and were going to spend the night there. He offered me beetle nut. I politely declined and sat back as we raced down the mountain.

At the station, he refused my money, even after I asked him to donate it to the temple. They both laughed and the driver gave me his name card and told me to call him up next time I was in Chiayi. He would show me around. I called Sophia and told her I'd meet her on the platform.

When she arrived I asked her about the section of track that wound around two and a half times. She said she had fallen asleep for almost the entire duration of the trip. We took a taxi to the HSR station, and it sped along at twice the 70 kmh speed limit towards our destination. To our left, the sun was a giant orange ball sinking slowly from the sky.
Posted by eku at November 20, 2007 7:50 PM