Transport to the Clouds: The Alishan Mountain Railway

"The Alishan Mountain Railway is not just a means of transportation," argues Su Chao-hsu, author of The Mt. Ali Railway. "The railway is a 'living antique' that has great historical value in and of itself. It provides us with an incomparable feast of nature and a rich historical and cultural journey."

The old wooden Peimen Railway Station, which has been designated a Grade 3 historic site, is the departure point for the line. Combined with the sheds for visiting trains, the maintenance facilities, and the now abandoned train yards nearby, the station has long served as the base camp for trains ascending Mt. Ali. Rising from an altitude of 30 meters at the Peimen Station to 2,216 meters up on Mt. Ali, the railway stretches for 71.34 kilometers and passes through 50 tunnels and over 77 bridges. Along the way, it ascends slopes with gradients as high as 6.25%, and it makes one nearly 180 degree turn in only 40 meters. From the plains to the high mountains, a train on this railway takes its riders through botanical zones typical of tropical, warm and temperate climatic regions.

Railroad culture

When a Japanese technician discovered groves of towering ancient trees on Mt. Ali at the end of the 19th century, the Japanese colonial administration hired a forester to survey the mountain's timber. He found excellent stands of timber-red cypress, yellow cypress and Taiwan yew trees that were upwards of a thousand years old and that required as many as ten men to encircle. To get these giant trees to market, the Japanese began to construct the Alishan Mountain Railway in 1906.

The beautiful old trees of Mt. Ali were used to construct Japanese Shinto shrines, and in particular to build the torii gates at the front of the shrine complexes, which serve the same function as honorific arches or portals in Chinese temples. Torii gates require massive pillars and beams that are long and straight. The two largest wooden torii gates in Japan are at the Meiji Shinto Shrine in Tokyo. Seventeen meters tall with pillars that are 175 centimeters in diameter, they were made from red cypress trees that had once stood on Mt. Ali.

Technology vs. the mountain

Apart from spanning bridges across rugged gorges and threading through tunnels, the Alishan Mountain Railway is known around the world for Tulishan's spiraling track and for four double switchbacks, which display early 20th century design at its most innovative.

After the Japanese designers of the railroad reached Muchiliao, they discovered extremely steep slopes that posed a tremendous challenge to construction. The engineers came up with the idea of taking a spiral-shaped path with three full turns around the mountain. After this spiral section, the track makes a figure eight to leave Tulishan. As a train winds its way upwards, it passes through 11 tunnels, suddenly plunging into darkness and then coming out once again into light. The face of the mountain is sometimes on the left and sometimes on the right of the train. As you spiral up the mountain, you can see Changnaoliao Station across the canyon at three different points. Before you know it, you've climbed more than 300 meters, moving from the tropics to the warm belt. Tropical fruits such as longan and betel nut have been replaced with bamboo, mountain tea, makino and other temperate zone plants. As the train climbs, your cares vanish, and your spirits rise.

A major stop in the temperate zone is at Fenchi Lake, where travelers can buy meals with rice in wooden boxes. Local delicacies such as taro cake and herb cake also make for excellent snacks. The railway's other great engineering innovation awaits travelers beyond Fenchi Lake, between the Pingchena and Mt. Ali stations. Steep Mt. Ta offers no chance for a track to spiral up. Instead, the track zigzags across the face of the mountain via a series of switchbacks. At each sharp turn there is a short spur of dead-end track extending off to the side. At the first turn, an ascending engine pulls onto the spur and waits for the engineers to throw the switch behind it. It then backs the train uphill, past the next turn and out onto the next spur. After the engineers throw this switch, the train continues its ascent by once again pulling at the front of the train. The engine thus alternates pulling and pushing until this series of switchbacks has been completed.

The uninitiated are always surprised when they find themselves at a dead end of track up on the mountain. The experience is known as "hitting the wall." The passengers occasionally give the engineers a round of applause when they jump off the train to throw a switch.

A collective memory

Before the train reaches the top of the mountain, the tall cypresses between the Shenmu and Mt. Ali stations seem to give the mountain air an especially refreshing quality. These cypresses are living proof of the towering trees that once covered the mountain. Regrettably, Mt. Ali's greatest "sacred tree," one that served as the setting for many a group photo, toppled in 1998 after being hammered by lightning storms and heavy rain. The sight of the red train stopped by this towering 3,000-year-old tree will be captured no more.

"The legendary sacred tree of Mt. Ali, the source of so many memories, is a feature of the Alishan Mountain Railway that cannot be overlooked," says Chiu Ru-hwa, chairman of the Yaoshan Cultural Foundation, who has solicited designs for a memorial to be built at the site. "Perhaps, a work of art can be placed where the massive tree once grew to keep the memory of the sacred tree alive."

After three and a half hours, the rocking of the train ceases as this journey of surprises comes to an end. With a veil of white mist covering the mountain, one feels as if one has arrived at the end of the clouds. The hubbub and hassles of the world have seemingly dissolved into thin air.

Near the Japanese-built Tsuyun Temple at the top of Mt. Ali are some moss-covered relics of the Japanese era, including a memorial to those who died building the railway, and the Shuling Pagoda. Combined with such natural wonders as Sisters Lake, the Three-Generations Tree, and the tree stumps left behind by the old giant trees, these speak to the legendary old forests of Mt. Ali.

The Alishan Mountain Railway also has spurs to Mienyueh and Chushan. The train for Chushan leaves at 6:00 a.m., taking people up to see the sunrise. The Mien-yueh line once passed by a very lifelike stone monkey that was unfortunately smashed by a large boulder during the earthquake of September 21, 1999. The line is still being repaired for damage caused by the quake.

Nearly 100 years ago, a Japanese visitor, Dr. Kawa, was camping in the forest and observed the thousand-year-old trees as the moon slowly climbed in the sky. He gave the place the poetic name Mienyueh, which means "sleeping moon." Years later, when the place had already fallen under the grip of the loggers, he returned. What he saw inspired him to write these lines: "The axes have entered the green forest, felling millennia of trees. The forest's rock pillows and carpet of moss have disappeared. The spring's gurgle has become a music of the past."

The era of logging on Mt. Ali is over, and now the railway has become a tourist attraction, hauling people up the mountain to the shaking rhythm of a train to experience the legends of Mt. Ali.

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(below, right) Founded in 1909, the Alishan Railway has been in existence for almost a century. (courtesy of the Chiayi Forest District Office)

Passing through three different botanical zones, the Alishan Mountain Railway offers a movable feast of scenic splendor. (photo by Diago Chiu)

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The towering trees of Mt. Ali as they once stood. (courtesy of the Chiayi Forest District Office)