Alishan Has More Than One Way Up. The Real Trick Is Always Having a Backup.
- braveontw
- Aug 19
- 8 min read
Mountain weather turns fast and there are more trails here than you'd guess. Don't overschedule, this guide has the transport, the backups, and the timing already worked out.
Almost every Alishan guide tells you the same thing: book the Alishan Forest Railway, stay inside the recreation area, wake up at 3am for the sunrise crowd.
But ask a local who actually plans these trips, and you'll hear something different. Alishan has plenty of ways to play it. Take the train or take the bus, it doesn't matter which, as long as you always have a backup. Whatever the weather does, whatever
happens with your ticket, you should never end up stuck without a way up or a way down.
This guide gives you both ways up, the backup for each, and the timing already worked out. The one thing worth remembering: mountain weather turns fast here, and there are more trails around than most people realize, so don't pack your days too tight. Slow down and you'll actually see the scenery change in front of you.
Two Ways Up, Both Worked Out
Alishan Forest Railway vs Bus, Which Way Up Should You Take?
Route 1: Train | Route 2: Sure Thing | |
How you get up | Alishan Forest Railway, Chiayi to Fenqihu | Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus, direct from Chiayi to Alishan |
What you get | The slow climb itself, a conductor narrating the scenery, a switchback section where the locomotive reverses to push instead of pull, small stations where locals wave as you pass, a night in Fenqihu after the town goes quiet | Straight to Alishan, the main sights done first, easier to plan your day around |
Book how far ahead | Tickets open 14 days out and usually sell out in hours, your better shot is the day before, or same day standby | Seats on the direct bus from Chiayi Train Station or HSR to Alishan can be reserved ahead of time, no last minute scramble |
Whichever way you go up, keep a backup ready.
Your Timing Failsafe for the Way Down
Last Bus and Train Times From Fenqihu and Shizhuo to Chiayi
Both routes converge on Day 2, and however you got up, the way down works the same. Miss these windows and you're stuck, screenshot this before you go.
Leg | Transport | Last Departure | Note |
Alishan Recreation Area to Shizhuo / Xiding | Bus | 17:10 | Catch the one before if you can |
Shizhuo / Xiding to Chiayi | Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus | 17:50 | The one the decision tree's "no ticket" fallback runs on |
Fenqihu to Alishan | Direct bus | 14:00 | Last connection of the day going up |
Fenqihu to Chiayi | Bus | 17:00 | Your widest safety margin |
Fenqihu to Chiayi | Forest Railway train | 13:29 or 14:31 | Coming from Yuyupas, 14:31 is the one this plan is timed around |
Booking tip: Forest Railway tickets open 14 days ahead and usually sell out within hours. Book at the official Alishan Forest Railway site. Your realistic shot is booking the day before your travel date, when a few seats often free up, or trying your luck as a same day standby at the counter. This applies going up too, not just coming down.
The Split Ending Decision Tree
What to Do If You Can't Get an Alishan Forest Railway Ticket
You don't have to decide this before your trip. You decide it at 13:45 on Day 2, standing at Yuyupas.
Got a train ticket, or a real shot at standby? Catch the 13:45 bus or shuttle from Shizhuo to Fenqihu. Drop your bag at the station locker if you're carrying one. Grab a railway bento and a cypress wood donut while you wait. Board the 14:31 train and ride back down through three vegetation zones to Chiayi.
No ticket, or you'd rather not risk it? Stay on the bus. Take the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle straight from Shizhuo back to Chiayi, last departure 17:50. No transfer, no station, no risk.
Luggage, Solved in One Decision
Where to Store Luggage Before Hiking Alishan
Skip the locker math entirely. Leave your big suitcase at Chiayi Train Station before you head up. The staffed luggage room is right by the front hall entrance, built for exactly this, travelers heading into the mountains for a night or two. Carry only a day pack for the whole trip.
Backup lockers exist along the way if you need them: Alishan bus terminal (1F, 09:00 to 17:00), Alishan Train Station (2F, open 24 hours), the National Forest Recreation Area visitor center (open shelving, unattended). But you shouldn't need them if your suitcase never left Chiayi.
Day 1, Route 1: The Train
Riding the Alishan Forest Railway From Chiayi to Fenqihu
Route: Chiayi → Fenqihu, by rail
Board the Alishan Forest Railway in Chiayi and let the mountain come to you slowly instead of the other way around. The line climbs from near sea level past 1,000 meters, and the view outside keeps shifting the whole way. Chiayi's city blocks fall away first, then give way to stretches of orchards, then the train is fully wrapped in forest, the subtropical green gradually thinning into cooler, sparser growth as the elevation climbs.
The conductor narrates the route over the intercom as you go, pointing out what's outside the window before you'd think to ask. Before the climb gets steeper, the train makes a brief stop, and that's when the locomotive switches from the front to the back. The rest of the climb happens with the engine pushing from behind instead of pulling from the front, a small piece of railway engineering that most riders never notice on any other train in their life.
At the small stations along the way, station staff and locals wave as the train passes, an unhurried kind of hello that doesn't happen on Taiwan's faster rail lines.
Fenqihu, afternoon into evening
Get off at Fenqihu and walk the old street and the surrounding trails at your own pace. There's no rush here, and that's the point. By around 5pm, the shops start closing and the town settles into a quiet that feels almost complete, a sharp contrast to the crowded platform you left behind at Chiayi that morning. Spend the night in Fenqihu.
One thing to plan around: the train experience and a proper walk through the ancient cypress groves don't fit into one single day. If you want both, check the extension options near the end of this guide for a way to fit the trees in on Day 2, or add a third day.
Day 1, Route 2: The Sure Thing
Visiting the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area by Bus
Route: Chiayi → Alishan National Forest Recreation Area → Shizhuo / Xiding
Take the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle direct from Chiayi to the Alishan bus terminal, book seats online here. Buses run more frequently than the train and this is your most reliable way up the mountain, full stop.
One booking limitation worth knowing: this online system only covers the direct route
between Alishan and Chiayi Train Station or HSR. It doesn't cover boarding or getting off partway, like the Shizhuo, Xiding, or Fenqihu legs used elsewhere in this route. Those segments still run, you just can't reserve them online, pay by tapping your EasyCard when you board instead.
Drop your bag at the terminal locker and walk in light. Spend the late morning and early afternoon among the ancient cypress groves, Sister Ponds, and the Giant Tree Trail. Without a suitcase, this is a completely different experience from the travelers you'll see hauling roller bags over tree roots.
By mid afternoon, head back to the terminal, collect your bag, and catch the bus down to Shizhuo or Xiding. Skip the recreation area's overpriced, aging hotels. Tonight you're staying in tea country instead, at a family run guesthouse surrounded by high mountain tea gardens.
Day 2: Sunrise or a Morning Bus, Then Yuyupas, Then Your Decision
Alishan Sunrise Spots and the Yuyupas Tsou Culture Village
If you took Route 2 (Shizhuo / Xiding): you don't need a 3am wake up call for sunrise. From Shizhuo's Tea Path viewing deck, or the Erliping Trail in Xiding, a relaxed 6am walk puts you above layers of tea gardens and cloud sea in time for sunrise. Picture this: mist pooling in the valley below, the first light catching rows of tea bushes, and maybe three other people around instead of three hundred.
If you took Route 1 (Fenqihu): take the morning bus from Fenqihu toward Shizhuo, and let the quiet walk you had the evening before stand in for the sunrise most guides insist you fight a crowd for.
Late morning: Yuyupas, and two histories on one mountain
Both routes meet at Yuyupas in Leye village. Here's the part most Alishan itineraries miss entirely, too busy chasing a train schedule to notice. Alishan is more than its
scenery, this mountain also carries the weight of Taiwan's colonial history. The forest railway you just rode was left behind by the Japanese era, built to haul out cypress timber. But the people who actually belong to this mountain are the Tsou, whose presence here predates that railway by generations. How many visitors ever stop to remember that? Leye, just down the road, is where that question finally gets an answer.
Ask almost any Taiwanese person and they can hum a few bars of Gao Shan Qing, one of the most well known songs in Taiwan, describing an idealized Tsou couple, the girl
as beautiful as water, the boy as strong as mountains. It's a shared childhood memory across the island, even though it wasn't written by the Tsou themselves. Most foreign visitors have never heard it, and have no way of knowing how far that imagined image sits from the real thing.
At Yuyupas, English language guided tours walk you through Tsou architecture, traditional dress, and daily life, a full four hour tour runs about US$30. Watch the performance hall's dancers move through traditional songs while tea garden mist drifts past outside, and it's hard not to feel time bending backward for a moment. While you're tasting the mountain grown coffee and Alishan tea, ask your guide about how they got here, it's a better story in person than in any article. This is a place built specifically to hold this history rather than rush past it.
13:45: your decision point
This is where the split ending kicks in. Check the timing failsafe table above, make your call, and go.
Want More Time? Two Extensions
A 3 Day Alishan Itinerary With Both the Train and the Ancient Trees
Took Route 1 but still want the ancient trees?
Skip Yuyupas this time. On Day 2, catch the 11:30 bus from Fenqihu straight to the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area, spend the day among the cypress groves, then catch the last bus back to Chiayi at 17:10. You'll get both the train and the trees, but you'll miss Yuyupas on this trip.
Have three days and don't want to choose at all?
Skip the fork entirely. Day 1: 9am bus from Chiayi to Shizhuo, continue up to Alishan for the ancient tree groves, then bus back down to Shizhuo for the night. Day 2: sunrise walk, then Yuyupas. Day 3: bus down to Chiayi. Three days gets you everything on this route except the train ride itself, this version runs entirely by bus.
Alishan isn't just a train and a sunrise. It's a colonial era railway that still climbs the
same grades it did a century ago, a village that goes quiet by 5pm, and a Tsou heartland a few kilometers away that most visitors never learn is even there.
Every part of this route exists because someone who actually lives here has watched travelers get stuck at Fenqihu with no ticket and no plan B, or leave Alishan without ever knowing Yuyupas existed. That's the difference between a route built from a timetable and one built from someone else's mistakes.
Before you lock anything in, run your itinerary through BraveOn's free Itinerary Health Check tool, it flags exactly the kind of timing and connection issues this guide just walked you through.
If you want it rebuilt properly around your actual dates, your actual flight times, and real time ticket checking instead of a generic template, that's what an Itinerary Review from BraveOn does next. Send us your rough plan and we'll tell you where it breaks before Taiwan does.
link to related BraveOn mountain series articles here, e.g. other 100 Peaks or Taiwan hiking permit guides, once published
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