Craig February 14th, 2008
Alishan (阿里山) in the mountains east of Jiayi (嘉義) is one of Taiwan’s top tourist destinations. High mountain tea, panoramic vistas and 1000 year old forests are all must-see attractions in the area, but perhaps the most famous attraction of all is the Alishan Forest Railway (阿里山森林éµè·¯).
Craig January 12th, 2008
A couple of weeks ago Ashish from Tumbling in Taiwan posted about a recent trip he made to Changhua. In it he mentioned seeing a sign at the train station that said “fan-shape garage” and was wondering what it was. So, with today being a beautiful winters day with clear blue skies, I decided to take a walk down to the fan-shape garage and take a look around.
Dating back to the age of steam, the maintenance garage at Changhua is the only one of its kind in Taiwan. Changhua station used to be an important midway point of the western rail line, and is the southern meeting point of the mountain and coastal lines. The rails radiate out of the garage like spokes and a single turntable is used to position the trains. Today there are three old steam engines located in the garage, and it is also used as a maintenance depot for diesel and electric trains. I was unable to find out any more information about the garage, so I’ll leave you with the pictures.
