Our final destination in Taiwan was Alishan, which is up in the mountains. The main reason for visiting Alishan is for the hikes and the mountain views, but honestly, the best thing in my opinion was the chilly temperatures. It was a cool 17 degrees when we arrived mid-afternoon. That was the coldest we had been for weeks! It was thrilling to be outdoors and not dripping in sweat for a change.

Alishan is a national park. It is really, really not a vegan food destination. According to Happy Cow, there are a few places serving vegan options, so we went to one restaurant for dinner. Besides that though, we brought our own supplies for breakfast in the hotel and packed lunch on the go – we were only there for 24 hours so it was fine.

Shan Bin Restaurant

All the shops and restaurants (and there are not very many!) are clustered together in the one main area of the national park. This restaurant is in with everything else, and was easy to find. We got the large vegetarian hotpot and two portions of rice to share between two of us. This was a good amount of food.

The hotpot had a fun assortment of vegetables and mushrooms, along with some tofu. We really liked the taro as its something we don’t get at home and had been enjoying in Taiwan, and enjoyed its potato-like texture. There wasn’t much flavour coming from the broth itself, so we were happy to have some hot sauce on the table that we could add to our dishes for more flavour.

The staff were good and attentive, they came around and poked the pot from time to time and let us know when everything was ready to eat. It was certainly not the best meal of our trip to Taiwan, but we got plenty of protein and enjoyed the experience.

Activities in Alishan

If you’re in Alishan, you’re probably there to do some hiking and see the sunrise and sunset. We enjoyed some fairly gentle walks during our brief stay. (A quick note to anyone who suffers travel sickness – the bus there goes along some very twisty roads, so take whatever precautions you need to.) We kicked things off on arrival by taking the forest railway to Chaoping and walking the Sister Ponds Trail and Giant Tree Trail, both of which meandered through misty forests.

We attempted to see the sunset from the main station at Alishan. When we arrived shortly before sunset, the view was totally clouded over (as it had been since we arrived at the mountain a few hours earlier). Miraculously, the clouds cleared briefly right as the sun was setting so we got to enjoy the mountain view and some beautiful colours – just for a moment. There was only one other family there even attempting to see it because it was such a cloudy day. Remember, don’t write it off automatically if things look cloudy. The view changes quickly!

Like the majority of people staying in Alishan, we were up before the lark to catch the sunrise train up the mountain. The departure time of the train is announced the evening before, and you can buy your ticket then as well. The train was busy, and everyone piled off to scramble for a spot at the same view spot. We quick-marched about ten minutes back downhill on the main road to the old train station and enjoyed the view from there, with only three other people. Again, we were at the mercy of extremely changeable weather, but we got lucky and saw the sun emerge behind the mountains and above a thick layer of clouds. The dawn chorus was the perfect soundtrack! It was well worth the early start.

We slowly wandered along the trails back to town through the forest, enjoying the views along the way. Our final trail was along the disused railway out to an enormous old tree. It was a very quiet walk, hardly anyone else seemed to be heading that way, so it was really peaceful and lovely. The whole stay was really fantastic. It would have been nice to stay a bit longer to enjoy the cooler temperatures and do some more ambitious hikes in the area – even with the limited food options.