As we made our way into central Taiwan, we ventured into Alishan National Park. This area is know for its mountainous wilderness, small tribal villages, waterfalls, high altitude tea plantations, and the Alishan Forest Railway. This famous area has become one of the major landmarks associated with Taiwan.
The entire region is famous for its production of high mountain tea, Buddhist temples, and picture perfect sunrises. To begin our journey to reach the summit of the mountain, we began on the north side, took a bus about a fourth of the way up, and hiked our way to the halfway mark. We waited there until nearly 3am when we boarded the locomotive coal train that slowly brought us up to the peak.
Once we reached the peak, we discovered why countless photographers chose this spot to take pictures of the sunrise. The views were breathtaking! We witnessed the sun rise over a sea of clouds in the area between Alishan and the great Yushan Mountain, one of the best known scenic spots in Asia.
Afterwards, we began our descent down the mountain. We stopped at various Buddhist villages, temples, pagodas, and high mountain tea gardens as we made our trek back down. The feeling was surreal as we walked through the clouds.
Finally, we made it to the south side of the mountain. We came across a small village where we stopped at a restaurant run by a 105-year-old man with whom we shared some beers. In broken english, he told us several stories about how he grew up in the Taiwanese mountains and had been running his restaurant while growing tea in the village for over 40 years. What an inspiration!
It had been quite a day. We jumped back on a local bus and made our way towards a ferry headed to Green Island, a small slice of paradise located off the eastern coast of Taiwan.
To be continued…
