Visiting One of Alishan’s Oldest Giant Trees
The Shuishan Giant Tree Trail is an easy walk in the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area that is suitable for hikers of all levels of experience. The trail takes you through old forests and along old railway tracks. If you keep your eyes and ears open, you will be able to spot a wide range of bird species, but you do not need to look too carefully in order to spot the highlight of this trail: Shuishan Giant Tree. This silent giant is an ancient Formosan red cypress that presides over its corner of the forest with a stately grace.
Distance: About 4.7km to complete this loop, but it honestly felt like half that.
Time: 1½-2½ hours. I spent a very leisurely 2 hours walking this with frequent stops to listen, look, feel, and smell (as instructed by the trailside information boards).
Difficulty (regular Taiwan hiker): 1/10 – This is an easy paved trail.
Difficulty (new Taiwan hiker): 2-3/10 – There are some steps, but this walk should be pretty easy even if you haven’t had much prior experience of Taiwan trails.
Total ascent: Anout 120 metres.
Water: A small refillable bottle is enough. There’s a hot and cold water dispenser in Chaoping Station at the start of the walk.
Shade: The majority of the walk is pretty shady, but there are patches without much tree cover.
Mobile network: Mobile coverage is clear throughout.
Enjoyment: I liked different parts of this walk for different reasons. The road section—while not the prettiest—was teeming with bird life, the sensory experiencing part of the walk was fun and relaxing, and the section along the old railway was very pretty.
Bathroom facilities: There are toilets at Chaoping Station.
Route type: Technically, the Shuishan Giant Tree Trail is an out-and-back route, but combining it with part of the Zhushan Sunrise Viewing Trail makes it into a loop.
Permit: None needed, but you do need to pay to enter the park (more on this here).
Jump to the bottom of this post for a trail map and GPX file.
If you’re walking into the park rather than riding the train from Alishan Station, look out for this railway crossing on your right just before you arrive at Chaoping Station. Cross over (when there aren’t any trains coming), and head up the steps marked as the start of the Zhushan Sunrise Trail.
Before the path takes you into the trees, it first passes by a couple of wooden buildings where you can learn about the park’s forestry history (complete with an uncannily lifelike figure of a camphor extractor), and the endangered Alishan salamander. Unfortunately, all of the exhibits are presented exclusively in Chinese.
The first proper section of trail heads up along neat stone steps. The trees are all the skinny Japanese cedars that were planted (after most of the magnificent old growth was felled) in the hopes they’d grow as strong and splendid as they do in Japan. However, as you can see from the somewhat spindly trunks, that plan did not bear fruit.
At the top of the steps, take a right turn and follow the road downhill. (If you turn left and keep walking for another 20-30 minutes, you’ll reach the sunrise observation platform.)
I took my time walking along the road because this section seemed to be an especially fruitful bird-watching location. The entrance of the Shuishan Giant Tree Trail is marked by a stretch of red and blue road and a couple of benches.
Signage and trail design along the way has been engineered to encourage visitors to engage with the natural world using all of their senses. The scattered seats in this clearing are accompanied by a sign telling people to stop, sit andd listen to the voice of the forest.
Most of the trail is a gently winding gravel-topped path, but there are steps in one or two spots.
In another clearing, there is a circluar wooden platform that walkers are invited to lie down on. I put my backpack down to use as a pilllow and lay there for a while watching the clouds dash across the opening in the canopy.
A wooden viewing platform has been built just uphill of Shuishan Giant Tree so that walkers can better appreciate the tree’s magnificent stature. It stands over 30 metres tall and 16 metres in circumference, and although it looks like a single tree now, studies of the tree’s material have revealed that it is actually a composite of ten individual cypress trees.
After walking down from the tree’s platform, the trail joins the old Shuishan Branch Line of the Alishan Railway. n wooden trestle bridge marks the furthermost point of the line still in existence.
From here, you just need to follow the tracks all the way back to where you started.
My journey back was accompanied by creeping patches of fog.
By this time, it was early afternoon, and this region is often cloaked in cloud later in the day.
The trail follows the tracks out of the trees and all the way back down to the road.
There was a train shuttling into Chaoping Station when I arrived back at the tracks. After this, I went to get some sustenance before heading off for one final wander in the park.
HOW TO GET TO ALISHAN NATIONAL SCENIC AREA
Google Maps address: The walk detailed in this post starts from Chaoping Station, which is within Alishan National Scenic Area. If you are planning to arrive here using your own transport, you’ll want to park along the stretch of roadside above the park.
GPS location: N23 30.820 E120 48.780
Public Transport to Alishan
Public transport: Given the park’s location, you’ll probably want to spend the night in the area even if you have your own transport. To get here on public transport there are a couple of options.
- Bus from Taipei – the 1835 Kuo-kuang bus departs Taipei Bus Station, although their website is unclear and doesn’t list any timetable, so you’re better off either calling (good luck) or going in to enquire about when that service operates.
- Bus from Chiayi – the 7322 Chiayi County bus leaves Chiayi Station (not the Chiayi HSR Station), whilst the 7329 departs from the HSR Station (not the regular train station). You can buy tickets for both of these from Famiport or iBon machines – again, just make sure you’re prepared in advance and know where you’re going.
- Train and bus from Chiayi – if it’s you’re first (and maybe only) time in the area you might want to consider riding the Alishan Forest Railway as far as Fenqihu and then transferring to bus for the remainder of the journey (hopefully the whole of the route will be repaired soon, but for now you can only go part of the way). This railway is a truly spectacular feat of engineering, and (assuming you don’t get motion sickness), it’s a journey well worth taking at least once in your life.
Alishan Park Entrance Tickets
There’s no need to pre-book Alishan tickets, you pay when you enter the park. If you have an APRC, student ID, Mountains to Ocean Greenway Passport, or the yellow ticket issued by bus operators to prove you travelled on public transportation, you can get a discount. When I visited, the cost was NT$300 for a standard ticket and NT$150 for a discount. You can check the park’s website for the current ticketing information.
Nearby trails:
Shuishang Giant Trail Map
GPX file available here on Outdoor Active. (Account needed, but the free one works just fine.)
Taiwan Trails and Tales 