How to Apply for Mianyue Line Permits

Mianyue Line (眠月線) is an achingly pretty walk that follows an abandoned railway over exposed trestle bridges and through dark tunnels deep in the mountains of Chiayi County. The walk starts in Alishan National Forest Recreation Area and passes through Taiwan Pleione Nature Reserve, which means that anyone wishing to hike Mianyue Line must first apply for a permit. The following information will guide you through the process of applying for a permit.

Head here to read a full route guide with lots of photos.

At present, there are two systems used to apply for Mianyue Line. There’s the older Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s system, which you can use to apply for hikes in nature reserves and other protected areas, and there’s the newer Hike Smart Taiwan website. This second site is meant to be a one-stop shop for applications that functions seamlessly in Mandarin and English, but unfortunately, that is not the case. The English site features drop-down menus that are Mandarin-only and no matter which language I used, it wouldn’t accept my application. Neither myself nor my partner could figure out why. So…

…until the new site is fixed, it seems easier to apply using the older system. In fact, I found it to be remarkably painless and straightforward.

If you find the following information useful in planning your hikes, I’d be grateful if you considered contributing to the upkeep of this site (see how on the support page). I love hiking and I love writing about hiking but writing these technical guides to the boring stuff is deathly dull. I’ve thought about putting them behind a paywall, but would rather keep all the information on this site free to access if possible.

Step 1

Select Taiwan Pleione Nature Reserve (台灣一葉蘭自然保留區) from the list of nature reserves.

Step 2

Choose the date that you plan to hike. I was applying on the 19th of October and the earliest date I could apply for was the 24th, five days later. It is possible to apply for this trail as early as two months in advance of your intended visit and as late as five days before you intend to go.

Note the huge number of applications on Saturdays and Sundays. Each day, the number of visitors is capped at 350. You stand a 30-50% chance of succeeding in getting a permit on weekends, but you’re almost guaranteed to succeed if you apply midweek.

Step 3

Check the box to acknowledge that you agree with all of the permit regulations.

Step 4

Fill out the basic information of the person who will be making the application. (This may or may not be one of the group members.)

Step 5

Check to accept that you (and your teammates) understand the potential risks of hiking Mianyue Line and agree that you will evaluate your own ability to undertake the hike.

Step 6

Choose the trailhead that you will enter and exit through. The standard one-day walk involves entering and exiting via Alishan National Forest Recreation Area by the ruins of Tashan Station, so you’ll need to select “眠月線鐵道 – 塔山車站”.

Step 7

Since the site is a nature reserve, you’re asked to select your reason for visiting. Hikers need to choose the third option “民眾環境教育之需要”. (This is something like “nature education for members of the public”.)

Step 8

Confirm that you’ve chosen the correct date.

Step 9

Check to agree that you will inform team members of risks involved in the hike and advise them to purchase insurance. (A step-by-step guide to purchasing hiking insurance in Taiwan can be found here.)

Once you’ve done that, press the button saying “下一步” to progress to the next step.

Step 10

Fill out the information of your group members. The first person listed is the group leader. To add any additional teammates, just click the person icon at the bottom right of the form. You must fill in both phone number spaces, but if you don’t have a landline to use, you can use your mobile number twice. It is possible to put a foreign person and phone number as the emergency contact.

Step 11

Triple check that all your basic info is OK, then select “遞交申請” to submit your application.

Step 12

Once you click “submit”, you’ll be taken to this screen showing you the official application document, but there’s nothing else you need to do at this stage.

Step 13

As soon as you send off the application, you’ll get an automated message saying that it has been received by the system.

The next email you get will be sent during office hours. In my case, it was sent the morning after I applied. This second email is simply confirming that there are no technical problems with your application is awaiting review.

The third and final email showed that the status of our application had been changed to “核准進入” meaning that it had been approved. This email arrived four days after I applied and just two days before we were set to hike. However, I believe that if you apply further in advance than we did, you will know your outcome sooner.

The number circled at the bottom here is your application number. You’ll need it for the next step.

Step 14

Head back to the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency website and login using your application code and email address.

Step 15

Click “下載許可證” to download a PDF copy of your permit. You’ll need to print this out and bring it with you to post in the permit box along the trail.

It is very easy to print documents from your phone at 7-Elevens or FamilyMarts all over Taiwan. YouTube is full of tutorials showing you how to do this, and if you get stuck, the staff at most convenience stores will be happy to help if you ask nicely.

Note: Even if you apply well in advance is only possible to download this file four days prior to your visit.

Step 16

On the day of your hike, post the paper printout of your permit into the white letterbox beside the trail. You won’t see this until you’re quite a long way into the hike, but it’s absolutely unmissable.