Taiwan-Alishan and Sun Moon Lake
- Gordon
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| Day 0 fly from San Francisco to Taipei |
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Day 1 trip in Taiwan
Taipei airport , Chiayi railway station, Alishan, Sun Moon Lake,
Taichung high speed railway station, Taipei Shi-men Ting
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| Dawn view at Chiayi Station, the hometown to Ali Shan |
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| San Francisco airport |
Our fantastic summer adventure starts at Taiwan. Alishan and Sun Moon lake are the most famous scenic parks of Taiwan so we chose to visit there first. After 13 hours on an airplane, we finally landed at Taipei. It was 10:30 pm. A train led us to Chiayi station. A taxi drove us across Alishan, and dropped us off at Alishan Visitor Center. It was a long trip.
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| cloud sea |
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| sunrise |
At the visitor center, there was a picture of the cloud sea and the Alishan sunrise. Sadly, we did not see either of them. When we arrived at Alishan station, it was already 7 am in the morning. Too bad, next time...
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| Alishan Express train |
A bus took us to Alishan forest. Hiking was good exercise. Luckily, we were just in time to take a picture with Alishan express train.
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| Magnolia flowers |
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| magnolia flowers |
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| Magnolia flowers |
We continued hiking along. Magnolia flowers popped into the magnificent view. They are very beautiful.
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| Magnolia flower garden |
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| sister ponds |
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| younger sister pond (small) |
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| elder sister pond (big) |
The sister ponds was amazing. There was a story about it. Long ago, there lived 2 sisters, a little sister and an elder sister. Both sisters fell in love with a man. But the man would not go with them. They were so sad that both sisters dove into separate ponds to end their life. Later, the people named it sister ponds to remember them. Can you imagine that in 2002 the bottoms of both ponds were seen for the first time? There was a drought. In 2014, There was even a mountain fire that happened in Alishan. The water was deep green which means there was no pollution.
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| Long ago, sisters lived in the twin hut |
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| heart trees |
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| two trees trunks combine like a heart |
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| Alishan sacred tree |
The Alishan sacred trees are all very amazing. Most trees are in the 800-900 years. Still you can find over 100 trees that are over 1000 years! There were two trees that looked like a heart. The trunks were combined into a heart shape. That was very impressive, especially since it was natural. There was even a 3000 year old tree, but it got knocked down because of the tough climates on Alishan.
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| Alishan sacred tree, shaped like an elephant |
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| Alishan sacred tree |
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| longyin temple |
A temple sat in the middle of the trail. The temple was called Longyin Temple. Inside, there was a place were you could taste the Alishan oolong tea.
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| Sun Moon Lake |
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| Sun Moon Lake |
With sparkling water, the 760 meters long Sun Moon Lake is a very good place to see. The west side is shaped like the moon. The east side is shaped like the sun. There is a tradition, during the Mid Autumn Festival, people dive into the lake and swim for 3 km. I had a lot of fun at Alishan and Sun Moon lake.
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| Sun Moon Lake |
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