Tuesday 11 May 2021
With a toot of its horn and a metallic screech, the Alishan Forest Railway rumbles out of Chiayi, a midsize city in southern Taiwan. As the humid jumble of roaring motorcycles and bubble-tea shops vanishes behind me, knotted electrical wires make way for betelnut plantations and small-town back gardens that straddle railroad tracks first built for loggers. The train, a popular attraction that brings people up and down the mountains, sputters past 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 carriage. As the ride coils higher towards the peak, around zig-zag bends, the views fade behind a veil of fog held up by ancient red cypress trees whose cobra-size roots cover the ground like noodles.