Return to Alishan Mountain

  

 7-23-16     

     We returned to Alishan National Park after a two-year absence. The package to Alishan included hotel, admission, and a round-trip bus ride up to the park, but not a bus reservation itself! For a few minutes, it was unclear if we would be able to get on the bus at the HSR station as dozens of travelers with reservations piled on. As it turned out, we just made it in; in fact, in my opinion, we got the best front seats on the right. Incredible as it is, considering how reckless some people in Taiwan are, no one else wanted to sit in those “dangerous” seats! We fastened our seat belts and headed up to the 2,500 foot high scenic spot on the two hour ride from the HSR station. Our bus driver was excellent and obeyed the law. (Note: Never go to sites on weekends.)

An Alishan Rail Station in July 2014

The park now

      

     Alishan National Park was much more comfortable than it had been the last time we went up two years ago; July 2014. Back then, we had to contend with thousands of Chinese visitors in unruly tour groups that clogged the arteries of paths in the park and the village. Because of the Xi Jun-Ping policy change on tourism outside China (some say to punish Tsai Ying-Wen’s DPP for winning the presidential election in Taiwan, but the policy also affected Macao, Hong Kong, and the rest of the world) the flood of tourists from the mainland dried up last year.

Entrance to the Sunrise Viewing Trail

Exhibits along the Sunrise Viewing Trail of first 

Japanese Alishan scout (top) and discovery of 

migratory salamanders (below).

     

     There were more tourists there than on trips previous to the deluge of tourists from China two years ago, even on a week day, but we were able to find a peaceful path towards the famous sunrise view our first afternoon there, though when we reached the lookout point closest to the trail's end, the mountains off the cliff were shrouded in fog, a fog that engulfed us, too. We were pre-warned a short time earlier along the path by a Belgium couple who said the blue sky had clouded over while they were there.

Despite the breathing room we had, thanks to the absence of most Chinese tour groups, Alishan Village hotels are still as ratty as ever. The choice of food in limited restaurants and the poor complimentary breakfast from the hotel was just as bad. The hotel room, in a different hotel on the strip was small and just as moldy as the last room we had booked, though the mattress, just replaced, was softer. The other guests were just as noisy and inconsiderate, too. The staff was still indifferent to us and pandering to rude tourists’ chaos. We got an unwanted ‘wake-up' call at 3:30 am! The bathroom floor was wet from a toilet leak. I won’t name the hotel because, aside from the hard-to-book Alishan Hotel mansion, they’re all the same.

     The damage done by overcrowding that caused paths to be constructed to protect the environment is still there and more paths are being constructed. The nicest part of the park, with the tallest cypress trees, looked like a construction zone with corrugated fencing blocking access and ruining scenery. Still, many Chinese (and some Taiwanese) tourists trampled unprotected ground, stepped on precious thousand-year-old root systems, and pulled bark off the red cypress trees despite pleas from their tour guides not to. We saw one Chinese tour group laugh and snicker when the guide explained the significance of the monument  the Japanese had constructed to appease the tree gods that were injured by being cut down and shipped to Japan to construct temples; the laugh was for those who believe in the gods, and the snicker for the Japanese.

     I snuck out of the hotel room early in the morning (too early to see the sunrise at the lookout point) see if I could find any starts in the sky. The fog that had shrouded the grounds and brought a bit of rain was gone but the full moon and lights from the village made the sky too bright. I grabbed a hot dog from 7-11 and returned followed by a few of the village stray dogs.