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I'll be arriving from Taipei to Chiayi on a Sunday morning by THSR (I'm flexible with times). I will also need to leave a bag in a hotel near the TRA Chiayi Station. I want to go to Alishan (without an overnight stay) with a stop in Fenqihu.

As far as I understand, it's quite hard to get tickets for the Alishan Forest Railway to Fenqihu (departing at 9 am and 10 am). The official website won't open, and I've read on the internet that if purchasing tickets at the counter, one must do it at least one day before the trip. So there are 2 other options: taking B line bus from TRA Chiayi station to Fenqihu (which only departs at 9:35 am and 12:05 pm) and then taking some bus from Fenqihu to Alishan. I assume taking the 12:05 bus is unreasonable because it will only arrive to Fenqihu at 2:00 pm (so I won't get to Alishan until 4 pm if I spend some time in Fenqihu), and the last bus from Alishan to Chiayi departs at 5:10 pm.

So my questions are:

  • Am I missing any options?
  • Should I not account for the the Alishan Forest Railway and should I just plan to take the 9:35 am bus?
  • If I take the 9:35 am B-line bus to Fenqihu (which will supposedly arrive at 11:35), are there other options to get to Alishan before the other B-line bus arrives to Fenqihu at 2 pm?
user557
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1 Answers1

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Travelling from Taipei to Chiayi, and then directly to Alishan National Park is already a very long journey, the 7329 bus journey from Chiayi HSR to Alishan is over 2 hours in itself. Adding Fenqihu into the trip will definitely be stretching your time significantly - you will be spending more time travelling than standing still, although the Forest Railway museum at Fenqihu is a good little place to visit.

Two decomissioned Forest Railway locomotives

Incidentally, there is also a park dedicated to Forest Railway locomotives in Chiayi, slightly south west of North Gate Station - Alishan Forest Railway Garage Park.

As for the Forest Railway itself, you can buy tickets on the day (Source, in Chinese but this information translated by my wife) but you may well be disappointed as this service is very popular, especially at weekends. That said, according to this website (English at the bottom of the page) you can order tickets online up to 15 days in advance on the Alishan Railway & Cultural Heritage website, however it appears to be mostly in Chinese so you may require some help. I'd definitely try and make the extra effort to make the trip on the train though, it's a lovely route with gorgeous scenery.

View of foliage and mountain from train window

Forest train at Fenqihu Station

Going back to the buses: Looking at the timetable you posted in the comments and assuming you take the free shuttle service from the HSR to the TRA station, your first opportunity to get from Chiayi TRA to Fenqihu is the 0935 service on line B (7322), which will take just under 2 hours assuming it sticks to timetable. Then there is a 1250 service from Fenqihu to Alishan (7322a) which should take about an hour and a quarter. This'll give you a couple of hours at Alishan National Park (as well as the highest Post Office and 7Eleven in the country) before catching the 1710 service back to Chiayi.

(All photos taken by myself in October 2014)

Michael Dodd
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