Breathtaking View

In the few days before typhoon Morakot hit, we enjoyed the scenery in Alishan. We started our trek by riding the Alishan Forest Railway. This old, historic (operations began in 1912) train takes almost four hours to make a journey of just over 53 miles. The train climbs from 98 feet to 7,460 feet, while passing through over 40 tunnels and bridges, and moving through three distinct climatic zones. Hopefully, you can get a feel of how rickety (and loud) the narrow, old train was by watching this video. The shaking is not the cameraman's doing.



The best part was when I couldn't "hold it" any more and I had to use the TINY bathroom (at least it wasn't a squatter). Let's just say it was disgusting and difficult (as the train was rocking so much and conveniently went through several DARK tunnels while I was in there). NEVER do I want to do that again (the day we rode back I didn't drink anything all morning so I wouldn't have to).

The next best part was when the train stopped and we had to take a small hike to the next train, because apparently it can't make it through that one spot.

The whole reason we made the trek up to Alishan was to watch the sunrise over the mountains and "sea of clouds." We woke around 3:45 a.m. to catch the train to the scenic overlook. Pictures on the left, top to bottom: our tired little family waiting for the train; the mass of people passing the "5:36 a.m. sunrise" sign to stake out a viewing spot; watching the sun come up; "sea of clouds." Pictures on the right, top to bottom: the sunrise over the mountain and "sea of clouds"; "sea of clouds" and all the spectators; family pic with the risen sun; one more pic before we hike back down to the hotel and our hard Chinese beds.

After a long nap, we did some more hiking to view the thousand to two thousand year-old trees and other amazing landscape (see pics here). Then it was one more night on the hardest bed ever (we're pretty certain we were actually sleeping on a box spring, not a mattress), and then we headed back down the mountain on the train.

We had to take a couple more pictures to document our little "in between trains" hike and our arrival back at the train station.


Come to find out, we were incredibly blessed once again. My father-in-law found this article about the damage Alishan sustained from the typhoon. If we would have been a few days later, we could have been stuck up there for awhile, or would not have been able to see the breathtaking sunrise at all. You can read it here: http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=1032640&lang=eng_news&cate_img=49.jpg&cate_rss=news_Society.