3 April Days in Shizhou & Alishan, Taiwan: the engagement edition!

We had spent four days running through Taipei, but I had strongly suspected that going to Shizhou & Alishan would be my favorite part of Taiwan. As much as I love museums, history, shopping, learning about people and their culture – all of which were abundant in Taipei, nature always calls my name. That being said, I didn’t know just how much I would love this place – because this is where we got engaged!!

3 April Days in Shizhou & Alishan, Taiwan Itinerary:

Day 0: Drive from Taipei -> Chiayi (roughly 3 hours at midnight)
Day 1: Chiayi -> Fenqihu -> Cherry Blossom Trail  (takes no more than 15 minutes) -> 10 min drive to Cedar Boardwalk Trail/Bamboo Forest -> Eryanping Tea Trail / Tea Trail (GOT ENGAGED HERE!!) -> Dragon Dance Cloud Sea Alpine Vegetable Hot Pot -> Check in at Aliscenery
Day 2: Breakfast at Aliscenery -> Photos at Sunset Trail -> drive 1 hr to Alishan National Park -> Plum Trail/Cherry Blossom Trail -> Sister Ponds/Pond Shore Boardwalk  -> Shouzhen Temple -> Three Generation Tree -> Giant Trees Plank Trail 2 then 1 -> left Alishan and got dinner back in at Hua Xian Tea 
Day 3: Tea Tour at Hua Xian Tea including Tea Ceremony -> drive south to Fo Guang Shan Temple -> Fly to Manila and fly out to El Nido the next morning

Fenqihu & Shizhou (blue markers on map):

Some quick quips, as I shared most of Taiwan’s quips in my Taipei post:

• We stopped at a great hotel right outside of Chiayi to break up the roadtrip between Taipei and Shizhuo
• The road driving to Shizhou is one of the most beautiful roads we’ve ever driven on – though if windy roads intimidate you, it’s full of those turns
• The climate change between Shizhuo/Alishan and the cities is stark as you drive up the mountain and into the mist
• The town of Fenqihu is where the Alishan railway makes its halfway stop from Chiayi, so people stop to get a lunchbox and explore Shizhuo’s most popular town. Evan stopped for a fresh pour over coffee on Fenqi Hu Old Street. There was also massive line of people waiting for donuts at a local bakery in town.
• Shizhuo is known for its tea plantations because the altitude, cooler temperatures and frequent fog contribute to slower growth of tea leaves so the flavos become more concentrated. I researched for weeks trying to find/book a tea tour in advance. It’s nearly impossible especially if you don’t speak the language. Unless we got lucky, asking once you’re there should get you a tour – and this was probably our favorite activity in Taiwan — besides getting engaged of course 🙂
• The “Tea and Mist Trail” is located by the Eryanping Trail. This is different than the separate “Tea Trail”, “Mist Trail” and additional “Cloud Trail” – all located a 20 minute drive away from Eryanping by the “Sunset Trail” – all of which was very confusing to me – hope that clears it up for someone!

🌸 Cherry Blossom Trail: we assume we came one week (first week of April) after the Cherry Blossoms had fallen but didn’t feel too bad as we’ve both seen Cherry Blossoms before. One thing to note: the trail is much smaller than one would think. It’s a relatively short staircase and ends quickly. That being said I’m sure it’s more crowded when it’s at its peak, but you don’t need to allot a lot of time here.

🌳Cedar Boardwalk Trail & Bamboo Forest in Fengihu: while the trail is a little difficult to find in the town (compounded by active construction on one of its trailheads), there’s not much else to say beyond the fact that the minor struggle is worth it. The 3.4 km trail was a beautiful, fairly secluded and took roughly 1.5 hrs to complete, mostly under the cover of a thick forest canopy.

💍The PROPOSAL (red markers on map <3):

🥂🥾 Eryanping Tea Trail / Tea Mist Trail: here’s where I let my factual side go and bare my emotions to you all. It’s been 6.5 years, so ya’ll I was waiting. I got my nails done extra nice for this trip because Evan had really hinted it was coming soon. But, when I asked if I should take a dress I had been holding out for a nice occasion, Evan played it so cool that I thought it may not happen. Our days in Taipei were mostly rained out, and because I always thought an engagement may happen at the beginning of a trip, rather than many days in — I sort of forgot that it could be a possibility.

Having just completed the Bamboo Forest trail, I was wearing leggings and a sweater – a walking advertisement for Lululemon & Vuori. We had just walked up the Eryanping Tea Trail, during which I had called my mom at 5am NY time to show her the tea fields. We spent some time at the viewing platforms, and that’s when “ilana panic” started to set in as sunset had passed and I knew there was limited time to come back down before I could trip and die on a trail with no light.

Evan recommended we take a different path down (the Tea Mist Trail) — which also walked through a bamboo forest section. We then stepped out onto the fields (not officially part of the path) and Evan kept suggesting we find another viewing platform. Had I known, I would have easily agreed, but I told him to take pictures right then and there.

💞 We exchanged a few loving smooches, and when he started asking me if I would indulge him in being his travel partner for 600 more years (he clearly sees me as his partner in future lives too) — that’s when I vaguely understood what was happening. I’ll keep the rest of the sacred words between us, but I will share my reaction: ultimate surprise.

My best friend had told me when she got engaged that she blanked in the moment and I remember secretly thinking that was crazy. Guess what? Karma is “simply lovely” as Max Verstappen would say. I blanked and those 5-10 seconds felt like 30 minutes where words slowed down for me. Mission accomplished Evan: best surprise of my life 💖

The daytime photos are the photos we took the following morning(s) at the “Sunset” Trail which was at the bottom of our hotel – also a fantastically beautiful place, and much to our surprise, where we would later tour a tea farm.

🥘Dinner at Dragon Dance Cloud Sea Alpine Vegetable Hot Pot

I’m not sure why our hotel owner told us so many times that dinner is nearly impossible to find after 6PM in town – but it is possible, until at least 7:30. This hot pot spot was the highest rated restaurant we could find still open after our engagement, and though the waiters didn’t speak much English, getting a private room with one other couple for what became our pseudo engagement night dinner was fantastic – as was the food.

🍵 Dinner & Tea Tour at Hua Xian Tea including Tea Ceremony:

After a day in Alishan, we came back to Shizhou and had dinner at Hua Xian Tea. What’s great about this place is you tell them your dietary restrictions, of which they are VERY accommodating, and they bring out a smorgasbord of plates and food, all of which were delicious.

Our server Lisa, the daughter of the owners, was so sweet that I asked if she would perform a tea ceremony for us. The next morning, we met once more at the family restaurant only to shuffle into the back of Lisa’s father’s pickup truck for a ride back up the mountain to their tea plantation. This was an amazing experience for both of us. I really enjoy tea, but by no means am some sort of a tea connoisseur, so this introduction to tea-making was exactly what we were looking for. We took part in a tea ceremony, walked around the tea fields with Lisa and her dad, then drove back to their factory for a full tour of the process of tea making.

Here are some of the things we learned:

• The tea farm is 70 years old. There are about 20-25 tea pickers, and 8 people working in the factory. In the factory, each of the eight have their own assigned machine that they work on. They have both oolong and black tea. All the tea is sold only in Taiwan.
• The name of this tea/farm/factory – Hua Xian – directly translates to “Discover Flower Tea” – but they modified the English name to “Find Tea”. I would have bought a t-shirt if I remembered to ask!
• 20-25 people pick tea leaves for 10 days every season (so leaves are being picked roughly 40 days of the year) – the winter and spring seasons are known for having the best teas.
• After the tea leaves are picked, the tea is put into barrels and driven to the factory (which is also where Lisa’s three generations of families live) and they bring the tea up the elevator to the top floor
• They then lat out the leaves in the sun for 1-2 hours, two times – and in between they let the leaves dry in the shade. Then they use discs to further dry the tea leaves inside the factory.
• Then they add the leaves to a large rotating drying drum / oven which “fries” (roasts) the tea at 300 degrees for 10 minutes while spinning it to evenly distribute the tea leaves
• Oolong tea is added to thick nylon bags where it is then tightened/spun and compressed to a large hard brick, which makes the tea ball shaped.
• Black tea is added to a large rotating press with rounded inserts which cause the tea leaves to form into long “snakes” or rolls.
• All of this is part of the curing process where the tea is naturally fermenting and drying.
• They process 600 kilos of tea at a time on each farm – I say this because the dad, grandpa, and uncle all have their own farms – one of which is 1.5 hrs south growing the black tea.

Alishan National Park (green markers on map):

We chose to stay in Shizhuo and visit Alishan National Park as a day trip (roughly a 1 hr drive away from Shizhuo). Similar to Shizhou, our hotel owner said that the two big hikes in Alishan are better done in the morning when the skies are more likely to be clear of fog, but if you have time and energy for multiple hikes, research led me to believe that the Duigaoyue Trail was best for sunrise & the Tashan Trail was best for sunset (each around 3 hours).

We had wanted to sleep in after our engagement bliss (not to mention my plantar fasciitis) so we skipped these two — but we did all the other trails, which can easily be covered in a day at the park — or even half a day. We didn’t even take the Alishan famous train as it seemed extremely packed – we walked throughout the entire park.

Below are some photos from the Giant Trees Trail (there are actually two “giant trees” trails and we also walked past both the Sacred Tree and No 28 Giant Tree as well), the Sister Ponds, and the temple

Cherry Blossom Trail

I know Alishan is far more popular, but I enjoyed Shizhou and its nature far more. Plus, it was far less crowded.

Fo Guang Shan Monastery (orange marker on map):

When I say we went here, what I mean is we drove past it on the way to the airport and dipped in for a hot minute. The monastery is massive, including a museum, a cemetery, eight pagodas, a shrine with over 1,000 statues, the Great Buddha Land and Land Cave, underground palaces (which are not accessible to the public, but just sharing) a massive hall and shopping center with a vegetarian only Starbucks, and of course the Big Buddha. I’m not exaggerating when I say we spent about 15 minutes here, but I’m sure you could spend a whole day here.

My favorite fun facts:

• The Big Buddha is the largest copper-cast Buddha statue in the world (the head alone is three stories) – here’s a map of the whole place
• The eight pagodas represent different ideas: 1) teaching 2) assemblies 3) goodness 4) givings 5) harmonies 6) perfections 7) admonishments 8) paths
• The three signs reading: Do Good Deeds, Speak Good Words, Have Good Intentions

Other places for consideration in Taiwan:

• Other Hikes in Alishan: Duigaoyue Sunrise Trail & Tashan Trail (both for iconic sunrise/sunset views) – but in general, it’s clearest in the mornings and throughout the day the fog sets in
• Kaoshiung: explore the city and see the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas/Lotus Pond Floating Temples & go back to the Fo Guang Shan Monastery and spend more time there
• Taroko National Park & Gorge: if you know me, you know I love gorges. Due to an earthquake that hit Hualien country on April 3, 2024, many trails are still closed and being worked on — but hoping that by our next visit, we can visit!
• The western cities of Tiachung & Tainan
• Explore the East Coast of Taiwan and its cities and beaches

Thoughts on Shizhuo or Alishan? Engagement quips of your own? Share away 🙂

This entry was posted in Taiwan