Chiayi Things to Do

An enduring symbol of the eternal friendship between the Taiwanese and the French, the imposing Chiayi Eiffel tower sits at town centre quite close to that sitting guy, which we have already covered....

At nearly two stories tall, this monument is the most recognizable feature of the nearly world famous Chiayi city skyline...

A symbol of freedom and liberty for the denizons of Chiayi, the Liberty Bell is an exact duplica of its more famous cousin in the city of Brotherly Love...

Well, almost exact, except it ain't cracked and it has Chinese writing all over it...

But I'm sure it still sends the same symbolic message to all that partake in its view...

The Nearly World Famous Chiayi Dinosaur has been standing tall and stalking town for as long as I can remember....

Makes a great landmark for giving directions: Left at the Statue of Liberty, Take a right at the dinosaur, then park in front of the 7-11...

Chiayi's Lady Liberty, strides high atop a traffic circle on the entrance into town from Highway 1. It is like a shining beacon for the weary expat here on business... " Give me your tired, your poor, your hungry, your oppressed huddled masses of expat labour...."

I am told that there is a replica somewhere in New York....

The subject of a well-known song, Alishan is one of Taiwan's top tourist resorts and well worth a visit. There are five things at Alishan that the tourist cannot miss: the railway, the beautiful cypress forests, the "sea of clouds," the sunrise, and the sunset.

Website (chinese only):
http://recreate.forest.gov.tw/forest.php?init=05&char=big5&forest=3

Lungtou Farm is in Fanlu township. There are two travel routes in it. The main landscape area is in the Lungtouping Mountain. One route is for the sights of virgin forest and Mengdzung bamboo dense forest, the other for the Tea Park and Mengdzung bamboo forest. There are many strange stones and trees on the way, such as the dragon tree, the magic tree and the three-generation stone. The convenient facilities of amusement are picnic area, camp area, mini log cabins and green shower area.

Fengshan is the only plain village in Alishan Township. The shape looks like a stone plate, so gets the name "She-Gu-Pan" (Stone Drum Plate). The famous scenic spots are waterfalls, clouds and fog, suspension bridge, strange stones and trees. The waterfalls are the dragon waterfall, the big raindrop waterfall, the green granite waterfall and the stone-plate-drum waterfall. Besides, the natural scenes like the stone-dream valley, thousand-people cave, snake-tree-laying-egg and the bamboo-fairy-wall are all in. Strolling in the mountain with clouds and fog around you seem to be in a natural scenery painting.

One of the best ways to reach Alishan is by the area's famous narrow-gauge railway, which was built by the Japanese mainly to take advantage of Alishan's wealth of timber resources. The track has been in use since around 1912.

The railroad certainly rates as one of the world's most scenic. The famous red engine pushes and pulls its carriages from an elevation of 30 meters to Alishan at 2,216 meters above sea level. The train passes through a total of 50 tunnels and crosses 77 bridges.