Mountain A-Li (阿里山)

I bet all the chinese had heard this song before, “阿里山的姑娘美如水啊，阿里山的少年壮如山”, and could you believe it, I really went to the Mountain A-Li(阿里山) , wohoo!!!

All I can say that Mountain A-Li is a beautiful place, the scenery there are simply breathtaking, it's definitely a great place and must be visited when you were in Taiwan.

We went to A-li mountain after we visited the Sun Moon Lake. We decided to go to A-li mountain by using the charter service offered by the Xin Shun Li Homestay (新顺利民宿), the place we gonna stay in Mountain A-Li, a room for 4 is TWD1800, quite reasonable. The charter service costs us TWD 3500, it is the lowest rate I can find. Taking public transport, by train or by bus will be cheaper but it is too time consuming.

If you were going to Mountain A-Li by taxi or charter service, ask the driver to use the Road No.21 (21号公路), as the scenery along the way is simply beautiful. On our way there, the driver stopped us at the Mei-Zi Winery(梅子酒庄).

On the way to a-li mountain

look at the scenry, breathtaking :)

It's called the Tree of Husband & Wife (夫妻树)

After 3.5 hours ride, finally, we reach Mountain A-Li. Once we reach, the driver brought us to purchase our ticket to A-li Shan National Sceneric Area (阿里山森林游乐区), it costs TWD150 per person. After that, he lead us to the place we stay, after we put down all the luggages, we depart to the sceneric area. The owner of the homestay recommend us to take the train to Zhao-Ping Station and start our tour in the national sceneric are from there.

here comes the train, wohoo~~

Finally reach the national scenic area.

started our tour from here :)

in front of the Lake of Sisters (姐妹潭), my favourite spot inside the scenic area

look at the shape of the tee trunk, it looks just like elephant nose (象鼻木)

see the shape of it, it's a love!! they called it forever one heart (永结同心)

there's a temple inside of the scenic area.

in front of the thousands years old sacred tree, the size of it is enormous

evening view on a-li shan

The highlights of visiting Mountain A-Li is to see the sunrise. There are 2 main spots to see the sunrise, 1 is from Mountain Zhu, another is from Mountain Yu. There are 4 of us, and we have divided into 2 groups. Me and Bong visited the Mountain Yu, we took a package in which there will be a tour guide bringing us to other several scenic spot in Mountain A-Li (玉山导览服务). The package costs TWD 300 per person.

these are no doubt the most beautiful scenery i've ever seen

The sun rises~ It wasn't that good, the sunlight is too bright, according to our tour guide, the most beautiful view of sun rise is during Spring.

There are 5 Wonders in Mountain A-Li. The sun rise(日出), clouds(云海), railway(铁路), sunset glow(晚霞), and the forest in national sceneric area(森林). Out of 5, we experienced 4 of them (didn't really get to see the sunset glow),but still, it's quite a nice journey rite?