Alishan Mountain

Today we visited the famous (well famous here in Taiwan) Alishan Mountain!!! We got up at 0700 and hopped on a train to Chiyang County where it’s located. It’s a 1 hour train ride and then a 3 hour bus ride up the mountain. When we got off the train to find a bus a woman started following me and pointing at a picture of Alishan Mt on a brochure she had. I kept saying “ Wo bu hui yong wen” which means I don’t speak English but she kept following me, pointing at it, and babbling on. I finally got Jim to come over and she took us to this man that spoke English! He actually ended up being a private van company owner and he wanted to set us up with a private van for all day for $16! Normally in the U.S. this would have been really risky because they didn’t look very wealthy and it was just weird that they came up to us AS SOON as we got off the bus. Plus the entire deal was too good to be true. It seemed like they were trying to scam us. Buuuut an awesome thing about Taiwan is that you never pay for anything until you’re done (even for food from stands out on the street) so we decided to take the risk…and it worked out perfectly.

The driver didn’t speak English but he took us to all of the famous spots and completely catered to us. He even stopped every fifteen minutes at places he knew with restrooms and really cheap gift shops! Our first stop was this beautiful bridge and temple at the base of the mountain. There we all got ice cream and toured around. While there, a parade into the temple began! It was a Daoist temple so the parade was very different but very interesting. The performers danced and chanted as almost if they were possessed.

Then we began the 3 hour drive up the mountain and it was absolutely gorgeous!!! The mountains were covered in tropical forests and there were multiple peaks looming up all over. I can’t even describe how amazing it was. Ali Shan mountain is known for “being in the clouds” and at one point you literally drive through the clouds and then when you get to the top you’re above the clouds! It’s absolutely beautiful. I wish all of you could have seen it. I didn’t get any pictures because the cameras don’t show anything but fog. So I guess you’ll just have to visit someday….ha ha When we got to the top we shopped around and then hiked around and enjoyed the cool weather and fresh air! It was about 60 degrees (in Tainan it's about 90 consistently). Supposedly there are amazing waterfalls and little tribal villages but each of the hikes were about 3-4 hours long to get to do them and we didn’t have time. Instead we just walked around in the forests. Here are some pictures.
Then we went to go watch some of the native Taiwanese people perform traditional dances…..and let me just say it was quite the experience! There were about 15 older men there (it looked like they were there for business or something) all dressed up in suits sitting there for the performance. As soon as we walked over and sat down they would not stop staring at us….to the point that it was kind of creepy and completely awkward. They even stood up during the performance and walked on the stage (because it was right in front of us) and literally videotaped us right in front of our faces! They just kept waving and taking pictures and videos of us so we just awkwardly waved back and smiled. They kept on video-taping us for over 5 and we didn’t know whether to just ignore them or what. We were used to people staring as we walked by but we had never had this happen before. The performers didn’t know what to do and just kept dancing around them. It was so ridiculous. Then DURING the dance they started motioning for us to get into pictures with them. But they asked us individually (the picture is of Rainy with one of them!). Different ones pulled different ones of us onto the stage and had one of the other men take a picture of us with them (I can just imagine what they’re going to go home and tell people about us…..like they partied with us all night or something). It was weird but actually pretty funny.

Finally they decided to leave after they all got pictures with us so we actually got to watch the performances. They were so much fun. It reminded me of the Native American dances back home.

It was also interesting because the actual native Zhou people from Taiwan look completely different. They don’t look asian. They almost look Native American but a little bit different. They all had the same noses and eyes. Their performances were interesting too. At one point they asked all of us to come up and dance! It was a blast. And of course…..we had to get pictures with them afterwards J