Revisiting Alishan

Alishan is hailed near and far for its five wonders: the sunrise, the sea of clouds, the sunset, the forests and the alpine train. Yet, "only the first three are natural scenes that have endured through the ages. Though the forests and the train are now part of Alishan's beauty, they have also created sorrow."

Author Chen Yuexia, born and raised in Alishan, sighs at the shifting fortunes of her native soil: "From lush primeval forests, to aggressively logged lands, to paradise decked in cherry blossoms, to an abandoned, decaying wasteland, and then to concrete tourist gaudiness: time has truly brought great changes."

The development of Alishan began with the logging industry, which prompted the construction of an alpine railway. As it picks people up and drops them off, the near century-old Alishan Forest Railway is the soul of Alishan, but like a belle raised sheltered in her bower, it has for many years not received the appreciation it deserves.

Our first step at taking a new look at Alishan begins by tracing the route of the old Alishan Forest Railway.

Cherry blossoms and trains are favorite Alishan images sought by photographers, and are unforgettable sights of this area.

Time slips by, a hundred years passing with the sound of the steam whistle. The little train, at one time carrying loads of thousand-year-old cypress timber down from Alishan, now brings groups of tourists from all corners of the world uphill. Like an old champion, though out of breath, it remains faithful to its duty. Alishan may no longer rely on the train for transport, but amid Alishan's luxuriant green woodlands, the train's classic red form is something that cannot be missed.

Of Taiwan's three major forestry centers-Taipingshan in the north, Baxianshan in the middle and Alishan in the south-Alishan is the largest and the earliest to be developed.

Alishan's cypress forests were "discovered" in 1896 by Japanese army lieutenant Yoshitora Nakano while climbing Yushan. Then after several expeditions sent by the Japanese into the area, Shinpei Goto, head of civilian affairs, drafted the Alishan Forest Development Plan, the first step of which was to build the forest railway.

The cypress wood, with its fine grain, superb quality, and a lingering, delicate fragrance, was highly prized. These favorable traits proved to be the trees' undoing, sealing their fate of being logged into oblivion during the mid-to-late periods of the Japanese occupation. In World Wars I and II in particular, Japan was in urgent need of material for laying tracks and building factories, thus engaging in wanton destruction of Taiwan's forests without remorse.

"If big trees have spirits, what can be said of the thousand-year-old giants?" asks Chen Yuexia. A ghost story circulated around Alishan during the logging: Chinese lumberjacks recruited by the Japanese were terrified by the red sawdust falling from their saws and the red rice that was cooked for them, believing them to be warnings from the tree spirits.

With frequent logging accidents and injuries, plus tales of tree spirits, rumors abounded of Alishan being haunted. So the Japanese in 1935 built a shrine to the trees, where each spring and fall they would chant sutras and prepare offerings of fruit and vegetables in commemoration of those who died while developing Alishan and in appreciation of the trees felled to make railroad ties for the forest railway, thereby consoling human hearts and placating the tree spirits.

Ironically, one source of Alishan's "spirits of the dead" was what the Japanese considered to be their greatest spoils: the colossal Formosan cypress (Chamaecyparis formosensis), the timber of which was sent to faraway Japan to build Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines to protect the Japanese. The Formosan cypress beams in the gates of the Golden Pavilion of Koyasan, Tokyo's Meiji and Yasukuni Shrines, Kyoto's Tofuku-ji Temple, and the Taihei-ji Temple can still be seen today.

After Taiwan's return to Chinese rule in 1945, the ROC expropriated the timber land, establishing the Forest Management Office to continue the logging operations. The logging didn't stop even for a short moment; in fact, it increased. Records show that between the years 1958 and 1976, Taiwan's annual logging yield grew by 34.5% from that of the Japanese period. "The Japanese re-planted as they logged, while the Forestry Bureau logged with no re-planting," sighs an Alishan resident.

It wasn't until 1963, when the concept of land and water conservation sprang up, that the government halted official logging and started developing the timber lands for tourism, founding the Alishan Forest Recreation Area. In 2001, the extent of the recreation area was expanded to include 15 mountains, including Datashan, Tashan, Shizitoushan, Zhushan and Dadongshan, for a total of 41,520 hectares, designated the Alishan National Scenic Area.

The Tataka Line, running from Alishan to Tatajia near Yushan, was once Asia's highest mountain railway. It was dismantled in 1979 to make way for the New Central Cross-Island Highway. Pictured here is a classic image of the train passing over the highest wooden bridge on the route.

The Alishan Forest Railway opened in 1912. At first it transported timber, but in 1920 in response to the needs of those living along the line, a mixed freight and passenger train began plying the route. In the 1960s, when Alishan was a budding tourist destination, the Alishan Forest Railway became a tourist railway.

The heyday of Alishan's little train was around 1976. At the time it was the only mode of transportation linking Alishan with the outside world, taking six or seven hours to make the 71.9 km journey uphill. It departed Chiayi at 9 a.m., not arriving at the terminus, Zhaoping Station, until 3 or 4 p.m., traveling so slowly that at Zhuqi Station (the point where the train left the flatlands and started its climb) it was possible to jump off the train to pick longans or buy a popsicle to dispel the heat.

An unforgettable memory of passengers traveling to Alishan in those early days was when the train went into a tunnel. "The moment they heard the toot of the whistle, everyone would get up to shut the windows; otherwise smoke from the steam engine's coal fires would blacken their faces in the unventilated tunnel!" says Chen Yuexia.

"Regrettably, there was a lack of cultural resources and no concept of preserving the railroad at that time, and a golden opportunity was missed. The subsequent opening of the highway and degradation of land weakened the competitiveness of this leisurely mountain railway, planting the seeds of today's intractable crisis," laments Railway Cultural Society director Su Chao-hsu.

The glory of the old tourist railroad began to fade in 1982 with the opening of the Alishan Highway. The following year, the old Guangfu train was taken out of service and replaced with the air-conditioned Alishan in 1984, in an effort to reverse the decline. An unintentional consequence of closing the windows on the forest train was that it lost something that made it special.

"After the switch to air-conditioned cars, the forest train lost meaning," says Chen. Before, as the train wended its way from sea level to high altitudes, you could smell the forest air, hear chirping birds and buzzing insects, and feel the changes in temperature and humidity. But passengers on the air-con train are completely unaware of the passage from subtropical to temperate zones.

Dulishan Spiral Route

To the average person, the Alishan Forest Railway appears unassuming, but to railway enthusiasts, it is remarkable in many ways, including its construction and altitude gain.

"The Alishan Forest Railway has yet to be given the international status and value it deserves," notes Su Chao-hsu. At one international conference, an Australian scholar told him that the Alishan Forest Railway ranks third in the world in terms of altitude gain.

This statement was an awakening for Su: the Alishan Forest Railway gains 2,421 m in elevation between its starting point in Chiayi (30 m) and its highest point at Zhushan (2,451 m), an altitude gain even greater that that of the world's highest railroad, China's Qing-Zang Railway (2,828-5,072 m).

"The Alishan Forest Railway is Asia's highest and longest narrow-gauge (76.2 cm) mountain railway, surpassing India's Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, which in 1999 became one of three railways named World Heritage Sites," says Su, regretting the lack of recognition.

The most advanced railway construction methods of a century ago were used in building the Alishan Forest Railway. Besides employing slip-proof cog rails to prevent the train from rolling downhill at high speeds, the Alishan Forest Railway boasts four carefully designed technologies to minimize the gradient: namely, a mountain route with S- and U-curves, a back-and-forth zigzag route built due to lack of suitable land, a spiral route in higher elevations (see map at left), and specially designed upright cylinders in the engine.

The Alishan Forest Railway was originally built to transport timber. It only became a tourist train after logging was abolished.

Erwanping, at 2,000 m elevation, was the last stop of the Alishan Forest Railway when it opened in 1912. Today it's a celebrated spot for viewing the sunset and the sea of clouds. The Yoshino cherry trees in front of the station are a must-see during cherry blossom season.

During Japanese rule, the Japanese planted cherry trees at Alishan to stave off feelings of homesickness. Varieties planted included Oshima, Azuma-nishiki, Ukon and Fugenzo cherries, but the most numerous was the simple-petaled Yoshino cherry.

Unlike the native cherry trees with their red, drooping flowers, the Japanese Yoshino cherry boasts snow-white, erect blossoms, whose petals fall to the ground like snow come wind and rain, symbolically coinciding with the poignant, sacred "Yamato spirit" of the Japanese soldiers as they sacrificed themselves on the battlefield for their country. But after they were transplanted here, their blossoms became less impressive with each passing year because they weren't acclimatized for the region. Indeed, the local cherry trees, which had been removed from the area, came back with a vengeance, blooming like wildfire. "These are the real cherry blossoms of Alishan," says Chen.

The Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) is another imported temperate plant ill-suited for Alishan.

After the Japanese harvested the local cedars, they reforested the area by importing and planting the straight-growing Japanese cedar as a sustainable source of building material. Who knew that the Japanese cedar would grow too fast in Taiwan's heat and humidity, producing soft wood that was only suitable for telephone poles?

Today, decades later, the Japanese cedar reforestation has become a forest management nightmare.

The Chiayi Forest District Office (CFDO, a branch of the Forestry Bureau) has recently begun taking bold and resolute action to improve Alishan's landscape. The first step is thinning of the Japanese cedar forests planted by the Japanese.

CFDO chief Yang Hung-chih informs us that Alishan's Japanese cedar have become so dense that they restrict each other's growth and prevent any increase in wood volume, and as a result transpiration and respiration effects are approaching zero. This hinders the absorption of greenhouse gases. On top of this, the imported Japanese cedar is unable to reproduce, meaning that the forest as a whole is gradually and unavoidably withering. And forests with only one species of tree lack diversity: even birds can't be found anywhere in the forest.

Alishan Area

Another highlight of the old train trip was the so-called Sacred Tree of Alishan.

Many Taiwanese between 40 and 60 years of age have the image from a photo of 20-plus children linking hands around this gargantuan tree deeply implanted in their minds. But sadly, in late June of 1998, the tree had to be cut into a pile of dead wood. After that, the train no longer stopped there.

The Sacred Tree, which once dominated Alishan, was a 53-meter-tall, 6.3-meter-diameter, 3,000-year-old Formosan cypress discovered by the technician Tomijiro Ogasawara during the Japanese occupation. Despite subsequently being struck by lightning and scorched by fire, and its core rotted hollow by fungus, it stood erect at its 2,182 m elevation Alishan site.

In 1953, in the midst of Taiwan's period of authoritarian rule, sycophantic sentiments were rife. Officials of the CFDO placed a sign beside the tree, in which a poem titled "In Praise of the Sacred Tree" was carved as a birthday blessing to then-67-year-old Chiang Kai-shek, wishing him the longevity of this millennia-old tree. But by strange coincidence the tree was struck by lightning not long thereafter, setting it ablaze. The tree then slowly withered, the green-leaved treetops dying.

In 1961, the CFDO took some steps to rejuvenate the tree, but on the morning of July 1, 1997, the day Hong Kong was handed over to China, this tree which had stood tall throughout history finally succumbed to the ravages of time, toppling with a loud crash amidst a torrential downpour. A year later, the Forestry Bureau decided for safety considerations to take down what remained of its trunk. The great tree could finally rest in peace.

After a ride of about four hours, the train at last halts at the final stop on the main line of the forest railway: Alishan Station. As passengers alight and enter the Alishan Forest Recreation Area, they're greeted by singing and dancing Tsou men and women, who legend has it are "strong as the mountains and beautiful as the waters."

Though the Tsou don't actually live within the Alishan Forest Recreation Area, the CFDO had little choice but to build a cultural scene for Alishan on the basis of the old song Gao Shan Qing to satisfy visitors' imagined expectations of Alishan. The Tsou folk singing and dancing had stopped during the recent tourism downturn, but the Alishan National Scenic Area Administration held tryouts in 2008, for which the winning troupe won the opportunity to perform at the Alishan Forest Recreation Area entrance.

"Tall green mountains, deep blue waters; the girls of Alishan are lovely as the waters; the men of Alishan are strong as the mountains...": Gao Shan Qing has pretty much become the anthem of Alishan.

Gao Shan Qing was the theme song for the 1950 film Happenings in Ali Shan, the first Mandarin-language film to be produced in Taiwan. Some say the melody was adapted from a Tsou folk song, while others say it was penned by renowned composers Teng Yu-ping and Chow Laam Ping. The original singer of the song was Cheung Sai Sai, who played the heroine of the film, but it was later popularized by Teresa Teng, transforming it into a beloved classic. Many mainland Chinese people know about Alishan and Taiwan because of this song. But locals tell us that, due to the poor lighting conditions in Alishan's deep, dense forests, the film was shot in the mountain districts of Hualien and many of the actors were Amis.

Alishan Area

Taking the Zhaoping branch line of the forest railway to Zhushan to watch the sunrise is one of the highlights of a visit to Alishan. But whether you can see the sunrise depends on luck. This is not merely a concern of visitors; it also looms important for operators of local hotels and B&Bs.

In the early days, before automated wake-up calls, lodging operators had to knock on doors at two or three in the morning, waking guests up so they could go up the mountain to see the sunrise. On the night of my visit, a hotel manager, responding to my inquiries, promised me, "If the cicadas are especially loud, there's a 90% chance of seeing the sunrise the next morning!" Another operator nodded, saying, "If you can't see the stars the night before, there's an 80% chance of not seeing the sunrise." Everyone has their tricks for forecasting the viewing conditions, but no one is willing to make a 100% commitment, because even old-timers of Alishan can't be 100% confident of seeing the sunrise the next day.

The sunrise and the sea of clouds are two of Alishan's great vistas, but it's hard to see both on the same day.

Su Chao-hsu says that from more than 20 years of visiting Alishan more times than he can remember, only twice did he have the good fortune to see both the sunrise and the sea of clouds on the same day. "It's the feelings of disappointment that keep visitors coming back to Alishan again and again!" says Su.

"Sometimes it's blood-red, sometimes it's golden, sometimes it's azure blue," says Yang Hung-chih, who has accompanied different government officials on over a hundred sunrise viewings. The experience differs according to season, weather and even companions.

Despite being felled in 1998, the 3,000-year-old Alishan Sacred Tree still stands firm in the memories of many Taiwanese.

Following the departure of Japanese loggers in the 1940s, management of the timber lands was handled by the CFDO for over 20 years. Thereafter, Alishan's romantic atmosphere drew innumerable sightseers, with plenty of people choosing to come here for honeymoons.

However, after overseas travel restrictions on Taiwan's citizens were relaxed in 1979, people found flying to Japan to be even faster than taking the Alishan Forest Railway. Moreover, domestic tourism expanded after martial law was lifted in 1987 and restricted mountain and coastal areas were opened up, and local governments strove to draw tourists, refurbishing local communities, promoting cultural and historical sites, and developing leisure activities. Alishan gradually quieted down, becoming a distant, blurry memory of middle-aged folk. But hustle and bustle has returned to these mountains once more since mainland Chinese tourists started visiting Taiwan in July 2008.

Thanks to the influx of mainland tourists, the number of visitors to Alishan so far this year has topped all previous records since the park opened over 60 years ago. And on Sunday, March 22, the start of cherry-blossom season, more than 27,000 people poured into the Alishan Forest Recreation Area.

The Alishan National Scenic Area is over 40,000 hectares in area, about one and a half times the size of Taipei City, and spans the townships of Meishan, Zhuqi, Fanlu and Alishan. But in the minds and mouths of the general public, "Alishan" refers to the final stop on the Alishan Forest Railway: the 2,200 to 2,450-meter-high, 1,400-hectare Alishan Forest Recreation Area.

"The Alishan Forest Recreation Area is best suited for 4,000 visitors a day." Yang Hung-chih points out that, according to the CFDO, around 3,000 mainland tourists and close to 900 local visitors have been entering the Alishan Forest Recreation Area on average each weekday since the March cherry-blossom season began. But on weekends, the figure jumps beyond 6,000.

Visits to Alishan tend to be concentrated between 9:30 a.m. arrivals and departures some time after 2 p.m. As a result, there have been shortages of transportation, parking, guides, meals, lodging and even toilets.

Regarding meals, the existing restaurants there, large and small, together provide 160 tables at most, the result of a long-time ban on construction. Assuming three sittings per table, there's only enough room at Alishan for 3,000 visitors to eat. The rest must fend for themselves.

High numbers of visitors bring business opportunities, but also lead to a decline in quality.

Chen Rongjin, chief executive of the Taiwan Rail Tourism Federation and a senior tour guide, leads an average of two mainland Chinese tour groups to Alishan each month. He notes that Alishan is second only to the National Palace Museum as a must-see attraction for mainland tourists in Taiwan. However, there are currently no restrictions on the number of visitors to Alishan, so on weekends, no matter where you go, it's jam-packed and noisy, devoid of any quality of experience.

Another problem at Alishan is the trouble in finding a room to stay in. Chen Rongjin goes on to say that there are only three hotels in all of Alishan, and with the addition of some B&Bs scattered about, there are only some 800 rooms available in the greater Alishan region, making it nearly impossible to book lodging. Most visitors have to go back down to Chiayi.

Most mainland Chinese first heard of Alishan's vistas from Gao Shan Qing, but when they actually arrive at Alishan, they catch only a fleeting glimpse of beauty amid the hubbub, making it hard to truly appreciate Alishan's majesty.

Due to time (four hours by train versus two by road) and expense (a one-way rail fare is NT$399), mainland Chinese tourists rarely take the Alishan Forest Railway up, missing out on the chance to experience the splendor of the alpine railway. Arriving in double-decker air-con tour buses and only getting a rushed look around before leaving, their most common reactions are to remark that Alishan doesn't have much worth looking at especially when compared to Huangshan in Anhui Province. It used to be said that if you don't visit Alishan, you will regret it all your life; how ironic it is that mainland tourists now say that if you do visit, you'll regret it just as much!

The invasion of Alishan by mainland tourists has done nothing to boost the popularity of the Alishan Forest Railway.

In June 2008, management of the Alishan Forest Railway was transferred to the Hungtu Alishan company through a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) program. Company vice president Teng Xinfu states that when company representatives visited Shanghai in March and April to promote tourism in Alishan, they found that most mainland Chinese had long known of Alishan, but few knew about the railway.

To boost the railway's standing, Hungtu Alishan has forged plans to ally with Oigawa Tetsudo of Japan and Brienz Rothorn Bahn of Switzerland, forming the "three sisters of the Forest Railway." In the run-up to 2011, the hundredth anniversary of the Alishan Forest Railway, Hungtu Alishan will lobby the Council for Cultural Affairs to apply for the Alishan Forest Railway to become a World Heritage Site.

Rolling in with full force, the billowing, surging sea of clouds is a celebrated autumn vista at Alishan.

To better accommodate mainland Chinese tourists, repair work has begun on the railway's Zhangnaoliao section, which collapsed last October due to a typhoon. The project is due to be completed by October 2009, putting an end to the current absurdity of passengers having to lug their bags for 500 meters along the tracks. The CFDO has also begun clearing away obstructive vegetation "for better views," says Yang Hung-chih.

To build Alishan into a world-class tourist destination, there are numerous areas that need improvement, but Yang believes there's no harm in looking at the problem from a different angle. "The reason people come to Alishan is to get away from it all and enjoy nature, not to stay in luxury hotels, dine on gourmet food or take convenient transportation," he says. "What's important is not the amenities, but the mind of the visitor." Perhaps the Shangri-la that the tourists are looking for but can't seem to find has been right there in Alishan all along.

Is Alishan a Shangri-la? The answer depends on the person. But no matter what the case, fulfilling the expectations of the green mountains and blue waters that have been celebrated for so many years in song requires the input and efforts of many people.

"Woo woo!" Like the subject of a tragic epic, the Alishan Forest Railway was loved and cherished during the first three decades after Japanese rule, then gradually forsaken in the following 30 years, only to gain respect once again today. In the still forests, the sound of the train whistle is like an elegy, reminding us that, like sad, beautiful Alishan, its existence should not be overlooked.

"The setting sun is infinitely good; alas, it comes before the fall of night." The lookout points at Erwanping and Zhushan are superb spots for observing the sunset.

Dulishan Spiral Route

Plants for making wasabi, brought in by the Japanese, are well suited to Alishan's cool, humid environment. Today it remains an important commercial crop.

Plying the route for almost 100 years, the Alishan Forest Railway has witnessed Japanese rule and ROC administration, public and private operation. What does the future hold?

An investment by a mainland Chinese tea company has increased the availability of the rare and pricy Alishan tea. Although this is a success story in high mountain agriculture, it has also created a crisis in land and water conservation crisis.

The cherry trees and Japanese cedar left in Alishan by the Japanese may be gorgeous, but now many of the Yoshino cherry trees are affected by heart rot, and the Japanese cedars need to be thinned.

The cherry trees and Japanese cedar left in Alishan by the Japanese may be gorgeous, but now many of the Yoshino cherry trees are affected by heart rot, and the Japanese cedars need to be thinned.

To live up to mainland Chinese tourists' expectation of Alishan's girls being lovely as the waters, long-absent Tsou tribal song and dance have returned to the forest railway's Alishan Station. The troupe hired by the Alishan National Scenic Area Administration to welcome visitors was the winner of this year's competition.

The sunrise over the sea of clouds: two of Alishan's five wonders appear at the same time, a serendipitous occurrence.