[2025 Chiayi County Attraction] Travel Guide for Alishan Forest Railway (Updated Jan)

Alishan Forest Railway is a forest railway that still exists in Chiayi City, Chiayi County, and Nantou County, Taiwan. It is also used as a means of transportation for tourists visiting Alishan and Yushan. It is also known as the Alishan Mountain Railway. The entire route is designated as a cultural landscape. The Alishan Forest Railway climbs from an elevation of 30 meters above sea level to over 2000 meters. The railway passes through tropical forests up to an elevation of 800 meters, warm temperate forests up to around 1800 meters, and temperate forests up to 3000 meters. The diverse plant distribution, including tropical banyan trees and bamboo, warm temperate camphor and cedar trees, and temperate cypress trees, is one of its features. The beauty of the steep valleys and mountain ranges also adds to the scenic views from the train windows.

Ticket: $100 (from Shenmu Station to Alishan Station) The Alishan Forest Railway is a high mountain forest railway system located in southern Taiwan and is Taiwan's first significant cultural landscape. Most of its routes are within Chiayi City and Chiayi County, but parts of the Zhushan Line are in Xinyi Township, Nantou County. The railway was originally constructed during the Japanese colonial period to transport timber from the Alishan forest. After the logging operations ended, passenger transport and tourism became the railway's primary functions. The entire system mainly consists of a main line starting from Chiayi Station in Chiayi City and ending at Alishan Station in Alishan Township, Chiayi County, along with numerous branch lines spread throughout the Alishan mountain area. Currently, the sections open for passenger transport include the main line and parts of the Shenmu Line, Zhaoping Line, and the Zhushan Line, which was built for sunrise viewing. I only took the forest railway from Shenmu Station to Alishan Station, a journey of about 7 minutes, to experience the feel of the small train and take some photos as a memento. **You can join a one-day tour on Trip.com and pay with Trip coins.**

#TaiwanTravel If you come to visit Alishan, I recommend a delicious restaurant. There are 2 floors of seating. The restaurant offers a set of Shabu hot pot + 5 dishes. I don't remember the price very well, but it's around 1200-1500 NTD. There were 4 of us. All the dishes were delicious. As for the rice, you can refill it as much as you want. You can help yourself. This is a restaurant that really impresses with the taste of the food here. The restaurant is also decorated warmly, small, and cute.