Day 13 - Alishan National Forest
Alishan National Forest 阿里山國家森林遊樂區
MingFang Tea Plantation 明芳茶園
Cloud Waterfall
Sunset at Eryanping Viewing Platform 隙頂二延平步道觀雲平台
We made it to Alishan National Forest! The National Forest is well known and the beauty lives up to the hype! Once you get to the top, follow the trails on the map. The trails are clearly marked and well maintained. There are breathtaking views everywhere! There is also a nice plaza with plenty of food shops for a nice lunch stop. Allow for 3-4 hours to fully explore the park, it’s beautiful here!
There are several worthwhile places to visit outside of the national forest, so plan your day accordingly! Alishan is known for its mountain tea, and we wanted to find a tea place that doesn’t just sell tea but provides the whole tea experience, and we were lucky to find MingFang Tea Plantation. The owners were super nice and we really enjoyed our experience, read below for more details. We even caught the cloud waterfall outside the tea shop, it was such a pleasant surprise!
Eryanping Viewing Platform is arguably the best place to view sunset (and sunrise around the corner), and we got really lucky with the ideal sea cloud conditions on this day! By far the most breathtaking sunset we have ever seen in our lives!!
Voyagers tips: Remember to get to Alishan early (before 9am) to park onsite!
Alishan National Forest 阿里山國家森林遊樂區
Alishan is a must-visit in Taiwan, and the views live up to its reputation! The scenery is beautiful around every corner! Take your time exploring the trails, they are all clearly marked on the map. We enjoyed exploring every path on the map! There is also a nice food court area next to the trails that serve up some delicious food and snacks, it’s a good spot for lunch. Just don’t expect a lot of seating areas with dining tables. It took us about four hours to explore the area and enjoy lunch up there, and we enjoyed every minute of it!
Voyagers tip: (1) Get to Alishan National Park before 9am if you want to park in its inside parking lot. We got there at around 8:50am in January and the spots were almost gone. (2) Buy a map or take a picture of the map poster at the visitor center. You’ll want it handy as you explore the trails. (3) Once you park, take the train or shuttle bus to the top where the walking trails begin. Shuttle buses come frequently, whereas the train is every 30 minutes or so. We took the shuttle up and train back and that work out well. It takes about three hours to explore the national park by foot, and there is a gap in the train schedule during lunch time, so plan your day accordingly if you want to take the train back. The train is nice in concept but the ride itself wasn’t all that special. The natural beauty at the top are the highlights.
MingFang Tea Plantation 明芳茶園
This was an unexpected nice find! There are tea shops everywhere in Alishan area, but we didn’t just want to buy tea, we wanted the whole tea plantation and tea tasting experience. We looked up a tea shop next to MingFang on google maps and bumped into the MingFang owners by accident. It was fate! The owners were nice and friendly, encouraged us to roam around their the plantation, even helped us take pictures and gave us straw hats to pose. Afterwards, they invited us in to the shop and patiently gave us a free tea tasting while explaining everything there worth noting about the different teas. The whole tea tasting was conducted in Chinese, so if you don’t speak any English, you may want to bring a translator along. They have a tea that won first place in a recent tea contest, and they are very proud of it! There were no charges for roaming around the plantation and for the tea tasting just for our group. Half way through our tasting, they noticed the cloud waterfall forming across the street and encouraged us to take a break and go check it out. It was amazing! We loved the whole experience and happily bought some premium-priced tea from them to compensate them for the fun experience. The entire experience was awesome!
Cloud Waterfall
This is one of those 可遇不可求 experiences that you just can’t plan for, we were lucky enough to experience it. The heavy fog/cloud falls over the top of the hill like a waterfall. It took place right across the street from MingFang Tea Shop. We have never seen anything like it!
Sunset at Eryanping Viewing Platform 隙頂二延平步道觀雲平台
If you’re lucky, you’ll catch the sunset experience of a lifetime! We went back to this platform the second day in hope of catching the perfect sunset, and boy did we get lucky! The sunset was breathtaking! This is a well-known spot for the famous sunset so get here early to find parking and pick out a spot. We got here a bit late but was lucky enough to squeeze in a parking spot and find a nice spot for viewing. The road up there is narrow so drive carefully. The views are just surreal! Do expect a crowd, as this amazing viewing spot is popular. At least the tour bus people can’t get up the small street so that helps keep the crowd size from getting too crazy.
Voyagers tips: Bring a few tripods! And use the time-lapse mode on your phone camera for best results.