The Magic Of Taiwan

Taiwan fits a surprising variety of experiences into its compact size

- Chris Schalkx

WITH A TOOT of its horn and a metallic screech, the Alishan Forest Railway rumbles out of Chiayi, a midsize city in southwestern Taiwan. The humid jumble of roaring motorcycles and bubble tea shops makes way for betel nut plantations and clothes lines in small-town backyards that straddle railroad tracks first built for loggers.

The train, a popular attraction that brings travellers up and down the mountains, sputters through rice paddies and citrus orchards so close I can almost reach out and nab the fruits from my window. Bamboo and sugar palms tickle the sides of the train. As we coil higher toward the peak, around Z-shaped bends and through mossy tunnels, the views fade behind a veil of cold fog held up by ancient red cypress trees whose cobra-size roots cover the ground like noodles in soup.

My journey to the mountain resort of Alishan is a two-hour slideshow of kaleidoscopic green that sums up the diversity of Taiwan. This is a land where a traveller can go from tropical coast, through soaring mountains, to dense woodlands in under two hours—part of the appeal of exploring this eggplant-shaped nation roughly half the size of Ireland.

Alishan is one of my favourite stops on a road trip through the country, beginning in the capital, Taipei, in the north; continuing through some of the nine national parks full of hot springs, waterfalls, gorges, and evergreen tropical rain forest; over cloud-shrouded mountaintops; and on to the crystalline beaches of the far south.