They said Alishan is famous for five wonders: the railway, forest, cloud sea, sunrise and sunset. We're lucky we experienced four out of the five wonders thanks to the good weather! 

Initially, I didn't think sunrise was something to look forward to because I've seen few sunrises at different places before and it didn't really spark any joy in me lol. I thought the sunrise was something that I can just exclude out of my itinerary and then we could just have a day-trip at Alishan to save money on accommodation as hotel prices at Alishan were quite expensive. Besides that, I was so reluctant to wake up so early for just a sunrise. I just don't really have a fondness for sunrise. And the chance of seeing the sun rise at Alishan is said to be scarce.

But well, I don't know what lead me to include the sunrise in my plan eventually, but I didn't regret it at all. I think we woke up at 4 AM early in the morning to catch the train to Chusan 祝山 for the sunrise viewing. The sunrise time and the train departure time will be shown at the ticket counter in the evening before. Make sure to check just one day before because the time changes everyday. Alternatively, we can also confirm with the hotel the night before. Our train departure time that day was 4.50 AM so we dressed ourselves in winter wear and started waiting at the train station at 4.30 AM.

The weather in the morning was freezing cold but still bearable for me. I wore my cheap Taobao down jacket with my Uniqlo regular HeatTech tights. We walked from our hotel to the Alishan Train Station 阿里山火車站. I expected less crowd at the station as compared to weekends and public holidays but I didn't expect the platform to be empty haha. Yes, the queuing area was totally empty when we got there at 4.30AM. So, we sat on the bench while waiting and we only started queuing up when a group of tourists came.

Then, we were asked to wait on the platform while they were performing checks on the train. All the passengers can fit into just one train I guess so there's no need for another train. I think on weekdays they only sell tickets for one train anyway. The train ride to Chusan Station 祝山站 took around 30 minutes and return tickets costed us NT$ 150 per person. The ride during early morning was in the dark so we couldn't see any view outside the windows. We were told the time for the only train going back down to Alishan Train Station was at around 6.30 AM and we had to walk back ourselves if we missed it.

When we reached the sunrise viewing area, I quickly find a place beside the railings so that I could take sunrise photos without people's heads in it. Luckily there weren't many tourists and best of all, hardly see any tourists from China due to some political issues between Taiwan and China. There were several shops selling snacks and hot beverages at that area.

There was an Taiwanese uncle who kept "yelling" at the tourists, just like what people said in their blogs. Haha, he seemed like a passionate guy who loved Alishan so much and was very happy to share his knowledge and experience about Alishan with tourists. He said he's just temporarily replacing a park guide because the park guide went overseas for training. But this temporary replacement has been going on for years lol. But soon there will be new park guides coming back and he can finally retire lol. Later on though, we found out that he's also selling cypress wood products, not sure whether on behalf of the park management or just his personal business. That explains his enthusiasm lol.

Not long after, we were greeted with this view. It definitely looked better in the photos because when I saw it with my own eyes it felt like just a dark sky to me.

The uncle said we were lucky because it's one of the two days with best sunrise view at Alishan. And if we could see the dawn, it means that we will definitely see the sunrise! And he asked us not to worry because that day was the day with the least number of tourists in that month so we can sure see the sunrise with the best view lol. 

We were told that the sunrise time gonna be 5.58 AM.

The sky's getting brighter and brighter.

It was my first time seeing a sunrise SO NEAR!

The sight of watching the sun climbing up from the mountain bit by bit was quite captivating. I didn't take serial photos of that though since I was taking a video.

Oh BTW, that single tree that's always in Alishan sunrise photos and always get accused of spoiling the photo hahaha was actually a special tree with its own story. Once upon a time, they cut down all the trees around it for the sunrise view and this tree was chosen to be left untouched so that it can be sort of like a landmark for Alishan.

I was in awe with Alishan once again. It is one of the five wonders of Alishan indeed. First time seeing the light rays from a sun so near and so clearly. 

The sun was soooooo BIG and BRIGHT that we could not look at it with naked eyes! The sea of clouds complemented the view well.

Yeah that's all I wore for the sunrise viewing. So, it's not that cold. And yeah I wore the same dress for 2 days hahaha. Talking about travel-light.

Then, we took the train back down to Alishan Station. Alternatively, we could also walk back to our hotels but it would take few hours or so. But the view during the train ride was something not to be missed though. 

We straight headed to the restaurant to have our free breakfast included in our hotel stay. It was just in the restaurant area a few minutes walk from the train station. It's a simple buffet style traditional Taiwanese breakfast. I think the restaurant had signed contract with many hotels in Alishan because it seemed that a lot of tourists came to the restaurants after us. The breakfast was a good start to our day. It was simple yet delicious.

After finish eating breakfast, we walked back to our hotel room and packed to leave. After finish packing, my parents and sis napped while I checked the transportation schedules. We checked out around 9.30 AM I think. We used the hotel's shuttle service to go to the park entrance. We were supposed to tell the staff at the 7-Eleven counter at the park entrance if we wanted to use Easy Card to take the public bus back to Chiayi 嘉義. I think by doing that we reserve our seats for the bus. I think the way to buy tickets was also through the 7-Eleven counter.

Small paper slip that were given to us to indicate that we had reserved our bus seats at the counter

The bus arrived around 10 AM. We took the bus to Chiayi HSR Station 嘉義高鐵站 because we're taking HSR to  our next stop --- Taichung ! The bus ride costed us NT$122 per person only!

And that's it for my Alishan trip!

I can't say enough how lucky we were with the weather! I mean with the typhoon that happened just few days before our trip, and the weather forecast that predicted rain every single day at Alishan, somehow the odds were in our favour! We even got to see the beautiful sun rise thanks to the good if not perfect weather.

The only small regret I have was I didn't get to see sunset at the place that I wanted. The place was called 隙顶二延平山步道 and the photos on the internet were beautiful. I think it was a hiking trail? Nah, it would be tiring for my parents so maybe next time.