The Alishan Forest Railway (阿里山森林鐵路) is Taiwan’s most popular tourist railway line. However, it is notoriously difficult to get tickets on it (I’ll explain why below).
In late-March 2025, I attempted the near-impossible: getting a ticket on the Chiayi-to-Alishan railway line at the peak of Alishan’s cherry blossom season (late-March), the busiest time of the year in Alishan.
With some serious determination (I tried more than 100 times over the course of two weeks), I actually managed to get a ticket on the official site. Luckily, since then, I’ve discovered some easier (third-party) channels for getting early-release tickets, which I will of course share in this article, including the advance booking opportunity you can get with a Taiwan Pass.
Below I’ll also cover the official Alishan Forest Railway ticket booking process in detail, in case you can’t get those early tickets, including several hacks I’ve learned after years of visiting, writing about, and advising travelers on how to tackle Alishan region.
With all the info I’m going to provide, you will be well armed for your ticket-purchasing quest.
My Related Resources
– Guides to visiting Chiayi county and Alishan
– Recommended Alishan itinerary
– How to get a permit for Mianyue Line, my favorite hike in Alishan
– All the ways to get to Alishan
– Alishan bus schedule
– How to book the Alishan bus online
– How to buy, retrieve, or cancel Alishan bus tickets at FamilyMart
– How to ride the bus from Sun Moon Lake to Alishan
– Visiting Eryanping, Shizhuo, Fenqihu, or Taiping Suspension Bridge on the way to Alishan
– Learn about Alishan High Mountain Tea
Alishan Forest Railway: A Quick Intro
The Alishan Forest Railway is a narrow-gauge (762mm) railway line that travels from Chiayi city (30 meters above sea level) to Alishan Forest Recreation Area (the highest station in the park is 2451m).
This makes it the highest railway of its kind in Asia.
The Japanese built the railway line in 1912 to haul Taiwanese hinoki (cypress) trees from the park during their colonial occupation of Taiwan.
You can even ride a train cars made entirely of hinoki wood (see below pic), including a new luxury version. I’ll cover how to ride all of these in the article.
When logging in Alishan came to end, tourists replaced trees. Until 1982, when a highway was finally built, the train was the only way for tourists to reach Alishan park.
In 2009, Typhoon Marakot caused landslides that destroyed parts of the railway line. As a result, the upper half of the railway line, between Fenqihu and Alishan, was closed for 15 years, finally reopening in summer of 2024.
During that time, tourists could only ride the train halfway then had to transfer to a bus for the remaining journey to Alishan.
There are also three short railway lines inside Alishan Forest Recreation Area: Alishan to Chaoping (Zhaoping), Alishan to Shenmu (Sacred Tree), and Alishan to Chushan (Zhushan, the famous sunrise viewpoint).
It is NOT difficult to get tickets for these three lines (you can buy them on the spot), but I will also introduce them below.
Why Is the Alishan Train So Popular?
There are many reasons for Alishan Forest Railway’s allure. Riding it up to Alishan park has been a tourist draw for so long that it has become firmly entrenched as a must-do experience in Taiwan.
The distinctive red locomotives that pull the train up have become a symbol of Taiwan (read about other thing Taiwan is known for).
If you’re interested, you can see many different versions of the old train cars parked at Alishan Forest Railway Garage Park here in Chiayi city. It’s a 20-minute walk from Chiayi station.
On the five-hour wobbly ride to Alishan, passengers are treated to magnificent views of the jungle, bamboo forest, mountains, valleys, and terraced fields of the country’s most famous tea, Alishan High Mountain Tea.
The train passes through some 50 tunnels and crosses 77 iron and wood bridges. At one point is goes in three circles up a mountain, while higher up, it makes use of three switches to travel up the mountain in a Z shape.
The train ride also includes a one-hour stop at Fenqihu (on the way up only, so the way down is only a 4-hour ride). This is the largest station between Chiayi and Alishan, where logging workers used to stop for lunch and to repair trains.
The stop allows passengers enough time to enjoy railway lunchboxes on Fenqihu Old Street and see some old locomotives in the small railway museum.
If you stay longer, you can also do hikes in bamboo forests and see fireflies at night. See my Fenqihu guide for all the details – you’ll need to book a second train the next day or proceed to Alishan by bus.
Alishan National Forest Recreation Area itself is another reason for the train’s popularity. Visitors flock to the park to hike amongst its giant, mist-shrouded trees, view Yushan (Taiwan’s tallest peak), and watch sunrises above a sea of clouds.
When the upper half of the railway line finally reopened in summer of 2024, demand for it skyrocketed, among locals and tourists alike.
Ever since then, it has been extremely difficult to get train tickets for the Chiayi-to-Alishan ride. The whole train typically sells out within a few seconds of tickets being released on the official site.
So, how can you successfully compete with everyone else to get tickets? Read on!
Summary of Key Info and Booking Tips
- If you can, avoid going on weekends and holidays. Tickets will be easier to get in slower seasons (May to November, January to Lunar New Year) and harder to get in busy seasons (December, Lunar New Year holiday, long weekends, March-April cherry blossom season).
- Before the official site releases the tickets, you have two advance opportunities to by them via other channels. The first is here on Alishan EasyGo, a third party site. They sell a quota of 23 tickets per trains, up to 60 days in advance (starting from 12:00 AM Taiwan time), with availability calendar (going up or going down. for their quota of 23 seats only – if the calendar says a day is sold out, it doesn’t mean the whole train is sold out).
- This is a package for TWD 750 that includes train from Chiayi to Alishan, donut to enjoy at the Fenqihu stop, and Alishan park entrance fee.
- They also sell the return trip (Alishan to Chiayi) for TWD 600, which does not include park entrance fee (since you’ll be coming from the park) or donut (since the return ride doesn’t take a break at Fenqihu).
- Please note, when booking this way, you’ll be asked to choose “invoice type”. This is not relevant to foreign travelers, so you can choose “donate”. Don’t worry, you will still receive a receipt by email.
- The ticket will be a QR code. You must show the QR code from the EasyGo portal (screenshot not accepted). Make sure your phone has enough battery power!
- The second advance option, which also becomes available 60 days in advance, is to purchase a Taiwan Pass (see the Taiwan Railways or Hight Speed Rail version, but you must choose the “Classic Edition”). The pass is complicated, but one of its options will be to include a 60-day advance reservation on the Alishan Forest Railway, which taps into the same pool of 23 available tickets per train.
- With the Taiwan Pass, you can choose either direction (one only), and if you choose the way up (Chiayi to Alishan), it also includes the Alishan park entrance fee, so that’s the more valuable of the two options.
- Before you buy the pass, check the availability calendar going up or going down to see if any of those 23 seats are still available on the day you want. If it says sold out for your day, your final option with me to book on the official site (hardest way, but still possible if you read on).
- Your third and last resort is the official Alishan Forest Railway website, where most tickets are released at precisely 6:00 AM (Taiwan time), 14 days in advance for weekday rides, 15 days in advance for Saturday rides, and 16 days in advance for Sunday rides.
- Reservations can only be made on the ticket booking page from 6:00 AM to 24:00 AM (midnight).
- When the seats are first released, they typically sell out in a few seconds. Many people don’t succeed on their first try, especially in busier months. I’ll tell you below how to give it your best shot, but the key is to keep trying many times.
- I have reason to believe that other travel agencies in Taiwan buy up the remaining tickets for their package tours. Then they cancel any tickets they didn’t manage to sell 1-3 days before departure.
- Therefore, many travelers finally manage to get their tickets only 1-3 days in advance (including myself), or even from the Alishan Forest Railway ticket booth (here) in front of Chiayi station on the morning of departure.
- How to make your plans if you can’t get a booking till the last minute? For me, I also reserved bus tickets to Alishan as a backup plan. Then I just canceled them at FamilyMart after I successfully got the train tickets. Bus tickets can be canceled up to 30 minutes before departure.
- Another back-up plan is to take a Tripool (private vehicle) to Alishan. These can be booked up till 6 PM the day before. Use my discount code Nick2026 when signing up for the app to receive a discount voucher by email.
- After successfully reserving and paying online on the official site, you’ll need to pick up physical tickets from the Alishan Forest Railway booth in front of Chiayi, Fenqihu, or Alishan station. There’s also an e-ticket option but only from Chiayi to Fenqihu.
- The Alishan Forest Railway departs from Chiayi station (here) in the Chiayi city center, not to be confused with Chiayi HSR station outside the city center. It arrives at Alishan station (here). This is called the Main Line of Alishan Forest Railway.
- The ride from Chiayi to Alishan takes about 5 hours and costs TWD 750, or 600 train far plus 150 park entrance fee. The ride includes a stop at Fenqihu for just over one hour.
- There are toilets on the train, small overhead luggage racks, and the conductor will help you store larger luggage after departure. There’s no food or drink service on the train.
- There’s only one train to Alishan per day (Alishan Express No. 5). It departs Chiayi at 10:00 AM, arrives at Fenqihu at 12:12 PM, takes a lunch break there until 1:21 PM, then arrives at Alishan at 2:56 PM.
- Another daily train, Alishan Express No. 1, departs Chiayi at 9:00 AM and arrives at Fenqihu at 11:30 AM. It continues up to a stop called Shizilu, which few people go to, but it doesn’t go to Alishan. This train is easier to get tickets for if you only want to go to Fenqihu.
| Going Up | Alishan Express No. 1 | Alishan Express No. 5 |
| Chiayi | 9:00 AM | 10:00 AM |
| Fenqihu | 11:30 AM | 12:12 PM (arrive) 1:21 PM (depart) |
| Alishan | 2:56 PM |
- The return ride from Alishan to Chiayi takes about 4 hours and costs TWD 600. There’s no break at Fenqihu.
- Alishan Express No. 8 departs Alishan at 11:50 AM, arrives at Fenqihu at 1:29 PM (with no break), and arrives at Chiayi at 3:45 PM. It’s slightly less popular but still hard to get tickets.
- A second train, the Alishan Express No. 2 departs Fenqihu at 2:35 PM and arrives at Chiayi at 4:55 PM. This train actually starts from a stop called “Shizilu” but most people board it at Fenqihu.
| Coming Down | Alishan Express No. 8 | Alishan Express No. 2 |
| Alishan | 11:50 AM | |
| Fenqihu | 1:29 PM | 2:35 PM |
| Chiayi | 3:45 PM | 4:55 PM |
- If you want to book a partial ticket on the No. 5 or 8 (like Chiayi to Fenqihu or Alishan to Fenqihu), you can only start trying three days in advance. Priority is given to passengers traveling all the way from Chiayi to Alishan (or vice versa).
- Therefore, if you’re only going from Chiayi to Fenqihu or Fenqihu to Chiayi, it will be easier to book the No. 1 or 2. These can be booked 14/15/16 days in advance.
- All stations of Alishan Forest Railway (Main Line and Branch lines) take cash and credit card.
- The “Branch Lines” are three short railway lines inside Alishan park (Alishan to Chaoping (Zhaoping) 6 minutes, Alishan to Shenmu (Sacred Tree) 7 minutes, and Alishan to Chushan (Zhushan) 25 minutes). See their departure times here.
- These can be booked on the same website, but it’s not necessary.
- The Chaoping and Shenmu lines cost TWD 100 each way, while the Chushan line is 150 each way.
- For the first two, you can just buy tickets at the station before boarding. They don’t sell out.
- For the Chushan sunrise train, it’s recommended to buy your ticket from Alishan station the afternoon before (1:30 to 4:30 PM), but you can also buy it in the early morning before you get on. At some very busy times, it can sell out.
- On Wednesdays, you can ride in an old train car made of hinoki wood (Taiwanese cypress) on the Alishan to Chaoping (and back) line.
- It’s also possible to ride the wooden train car about once per month from Chiayi station to Beimen (two stations in Chiayi city).
- These are not the same as the new, luxury Formosensis hinoki trains, which I’ll describe in the next section below.
- Besides the train, there are also buses from Chiayi to Alishan. They are half the price, twice as fast, and have more departure times.
- You can swipe EasyCard to ride them, buy tickets at FamilyMart, or reserve seats online then pick up at FamilyMart. Here’s a table of all bus times from Chiayi to Alishan and Sun Moon Lake to Alishan.
- The buses from Chiayi to Alishan also pass small villages like Xiding and Shizhuo, which have tea plantation hikes and guesthouses. The train does not pass these, but you can get off the train at Fenqihu then ride the bus to them.
- My most recommended itinerary for Alishan region is to spend one night at Alishan and one night in any of the small villages (Xiding, Shizhuo, or Fenqihu). See my Alishan itinerary planning guide.
- For example, ride the train up to Alishan (with stop at Fenqihu), spend a night (with sunset and sunrise), do some more hiking in the morning, then bus to Xiding or Shizhuo for a second night.
- Because the train doesn’t get you to Alishan till 3 PM, you won’t have much time to explore after you arrive. If you move quickly and make use of your time after sunrise the next morning, you can still see the best of the park in one night. If you prefer to be less rushed, book a second night there. Another option would be to take an early bus up and ride the train back down the next day.
How to Ride the Luxury Wooden “Formosensis” Train
In 2023, a new luxury train running along the Alishan Forest Railway made headlines around the world.
Called the Formosensis train or Alishan Fusen Sightseeing Train (阿里山福森號觀光列車), its cars are made of fragrant Taiwanese cypress (hinoki) and come with soft seats and individual tables.
Note: these are not the same as the hertiage hinoki train cars running from Alishan station to Chaoping on Wednesdays or from Chiayi statin to Beimen once per month, as I described in previous sections).
Famous influencers were invited and shared videos riding the luxury train. But there was a catch – no one provided any information on how to actually book the thing. There was literally zero information in English anywhere on the Internet on how to book this train for the last two years.
A Taiwanese travel agency, Lion Travel, is in charge of bookings, but multiple travelers in my Facebook group have reported they weren’t able to figure out how on the Lion website or that Lion simply didn’t reply to their messages.
Well, I’m happy to report that it is now possible to book the Alishan Formosensis train here on Klook and here on KKday. Your booking will still be with Lion Travel, but via either of these 3rd party platforms. Make sure to read all the small print.
As I type this, the Klook page only seems to offer one leg, Alishan to Fenqihu (they call it “Fenqi Lake”). The KKday page has Alishan to Fenqihu, Fenqihu to Alishan, and Fenqihu to North Gate (Beimen, a small station here in Chiayi city).
How to Book Alishan Forest Railway Tickets
Now it’s time to book some Alishan train tickets! The below instructions are for the official Alishan Forest Railway website – which means you didn’t manage to get tickets on either of the two advance booking methods I described above.
Personally, I prefer to do this on a laptop, but I’ve heard that’s a millennial thing… If you’re using a mobile phone, things may look a little different.
Step 1: Figure Out When Your Tickets Will Be Released
For your first shot at getting Alishan train tickets on the official site, it is crucial that you understand exactly when your desired tickets will be released.
As I explained above, the tickets are released at 6 AM, 14/15/16 days in advance for weekday/Saturday/Sunday rides.
Another way of saying this is that tickets are released two weeks in advance. But every Friday, they release the tickets for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of two weeks later, all at once.
If you are booking from a different time zone than Taiwan, you’ll need to figure out what time that will be for you. Keep in mind that Taiwan doesn’t do daylight savings time but your country might.
For example, my city in Canada was 14 hours behind Taiwan at the time of my booking. For my ride on Monday, March 24, I had to be online at ready to book at 6:00 AM of Monday, March 10 (Taiwan time), which was Sunday, March 9 at 4 PM in my location.
Step 2: Do a Practice Booking
In order to prepare for your booking day, I suggest doing a practice booking one or two days before.
By familiarizing yourself with the Alishan Forest Railway website and booking system, you’ll feel less stressed and you can avoid wasting any valuable seconds when your real booking time comes.
For the practice booking, you can get to the point of achieving a reservation hold but not actually entering in your personal info or paying for it. Then you can just cancel it or leave it and it will cancel on its own.
Don’t go past the point where you enter your personal info. If you do this but don’t complete the payment three times, the system will block your passport from making any future bookings for six months.
For your practice booking, follow the steps below. I’ll tell you at what point you should stop.
Step 3: General Booking Page
All Alishan train bookings start on the first booking page of the Alishan Forest Railway site. Unfortunately many people never make it past this first page.
The first thing you’ll notice on this page is a confusing popup about tickets to Fenqihu.
It means that you can’t even try buying partial tickets (like Chiayi to Fenqihu or Fenqihu to Alishan) until three days before departure. Priority is given to those going all the way to Alishan (or back to Chiayi).
However, what it doesn’t mention is that this popup only refers to the Chiayi-to-Alishan train (Alishan Express No. 5 and 8), which goes from Chiayi to Alishan (and back). It doesn’t apply to the Chiayi-to-Fenqihu train (Alishan Express 1 and 2), which don’t go to Alishan.
If you only want to ride from Chiayi to Fenqihu, then it will be easiest to book latter, which only goes from Chiayi to Fenqihu and back. Those can be booked 14/15/16 days in advance.
After you close the popup, check for the red words at the bottom, which say “Ticket sales period 06:00-24:00”. These words will always show when the booking system is closed (midnight to 6:00 AM, Taiwan time).
On your booking day, I suggest you come to this page a few minutes before 6:00 AM (Taiwan time). At 5:59 AM, start refreshing your page over and over again.
As soon as you find that the red words are gone, that means the system is now open.
Now, as quickly as possible, you need to enter the following:
- Date: Click and select your date on the calendar. It’s only possible to select dates that are open for booking.
- Route: Chiayi-Alishan is already selected.
- Itinerary: Choose from “Chiayi” to “Alishan” (or your desired stations).
- Train Ticket: Select your number of adults, children (age 6-11), and exempt tickets (0-5). You can book up to 6 tickets at a time. Under 6 rides free but doesn’t get a seat. If you want a seat for your under-6-year-old, choose a child ticket for them.
- Recreation Ticket: This box will now appear below the train tickets (see below). Everyone needs to purchase an entrance ticket to Alishan Forest Recreation Area. Those arriving by train must buy it here on the train website. Pay attention to the age details below, as the park ticket ages for “full”, “concessionaire”, and “exempt” don’t match those of the train tickets (just to make it extra confusing…)
- Under adult tickets, select the number of “Full” tickets (If you have 2 adults, choose 2 full tickets). In my example above, I only chose one adult ticket, so only one “Recreation Ticket” box opened below it.
- Under child tickets, if you selected any, another box will appear under it. Choose the number of “Full” (age 6-11), “Concessionaire” (age 3-5), or “Exempt” (age 0-2). The latter two would refer to the case when you chose to buy a seat for your under-6-year-old, even though you don’t need to.
- Under “Exempt”, if you selected any of this (under 6 free train ticket with no seat), choose the number of “Concessionaire” (age 3-5) or “Exempt” (age 0-2).
- Click any of the blue question marks for more information about child seats and tickets.
- Verification Code: Key in the CAPTCHA code and click the box “Verify you are human” below it. If you can’t see the code well enough, click the refresh button to the right of it to generate a new one.
- Once it accepts your CAPTCHA code, click the “Submit Request” button at the bottom.
If the train is already sold out, the system will tell you so and send you back to the booking page. Don’t give up after only one try. As I mentioned in the into, I tried over 100 times before I succeeded (at the busiest time of the year). Some people fail on the first try but then succeed later on the same day.
Try again and again, at different times of different days. After the initial ticket release, it will be tough in the coming days (but still worth trying). But your best chance will be 1-3 days before departure, when many agencies or people cancel their tickets.
If there are still seats available, you’ll make it to the next page.
System overload: I think the webpage gets glitchy because so many people are trying to use it all at the same time. It’s very annoying, but I found that sometimes when I entered the CAPTCHA code, it didn’t work. I had to refresh my screen and restart from the beginning. Also, after refreshing the screen, I’d had to wait a second or too. If I started trying to choose my date too quickly, it wouldn’t work and I’d have to start yet again. Valuable seconds lost!
Step 4: Confirmation Page
If you make it to the second page, that means that there are still seats left. But don’t relax yet, because you didn’t secure one of them yet.
On this page, you’ll see a confirmation of the train you booked. You only need to do three things on this page.
Quickly scan the info to make sure you got the right date, departure place, and arrival place. Click the little circle on the left side of your train and then click “Confirm the train number”.
Note: this page also tells you how many spots are left on this train. If the number is high, you should be good. If the number is very low (for example only 2 seats left, like in my above screenshot), you might not get one, because other people may get them before you.
In fact, that’s what happened to me here. In the time it took me to take the above screenshot and click the two buttons, I didn’t get one of those 2 spots. I got sent back to page one. Fail!
After that happened, I wouldn’t make it to this page again until over a week later, with 100+ tries. It was such a tease!
Step 5: Booking Details and Personal Info Page
If you make it to this page, you’ve now *just about* secured booking. But you still need to proceed quickly, as some users have reported still losing their booking while on this page, as others submit their info before them and all the seats sell out.
You still have to enter some personal info to fully secure your spot, and then pay in order to complete your reservation. If booking for multiple people, you’ll only need to enter one person’s personal info (passport, email, etc).
On this page, you’ll see the Booking Details again, with your total fare to be paid (train ride and Alishan park tickets) on the bottom right in red. Make sure again that you got everything right.
Scroll down to the “Ticket collection information” section. Under “Citizenship”, choose your country, then enter your passport number.
Also enter your contact number. Like many booking systems in Taiwan, this number may have to be 10 digits, like all mobile phone numbers in Taiwan. I used my Canadian phone number (with area code but no country code), as that works out to 10 digits, and it worked. Don’t worry about the number, as you don’t need to receive any calls or texts. You could even use a fake number here – it won’t matter.
Most important is that you enter your correct email.
Click the box beside “I have read and agreed to the ticket directions” and click “Complete reservation”.
Step 6: Booking Completed Page
Congratulations! If you make it this far, you now definitely got the booking. At this point, the system will tell you that “You have completed your booking”. (You may first get a popup, with you can just ignore and click “OK”).
You will also receive an email from “Alishan Forestry Railway Network Booking System” (afrts@forest.gov.tw) with your ticket information. The payment status in the email will say “Unpaid”.
On the webpage, under “Expiration of Pay”, you’ll see the deadlines to complete your payment at any Alishan Forest Railway Station (weirdly translated as “Lintie Station”), convenience store, or online (“Internet Payment”). These are Taiwan times.
We’ll be paying online, and I suggest doing it right away, even though you have until midnight of the next day. At this point, I also suggest screenshotting your reservation number in case anything goes wrong or you don’t get the email.
Scroll down to “Ticket Collection Information”. In the table under “Booking Details”, you will see all your train info again, with something new: your seat number (see image above).
The seat numbers are auto-assigned and you can’t change them. They will always put you together when possible, but if you and your companions are separate, that’s because there were no seats left together.
Check the below Alishan Forest Railway seating chart to see where your seat will be. As you can see, the train cars have single seats on one side and double seats on the other.
The only case I can imagine that you don’t love your seat is if you are solo and got an aisle seat on the double side. In that case, you could try making a brand new booking and hope to get a window seat, but I suggest you still complete payment for this booking first and don’t cancel it until you succeed at getting the new one.
Also, don’t select “change schedule” here, as you will lose your current booking.
To proceed, click “Online Payment” at the bottom.
Step 7: Online Payment Page
On the payment page, “Visa, Mastercard, JCB” is already selected and your email address should auto-fill. You can ignore the other items.
There’s also the option to select EasyCard, but I don’t know how that works and don’t recommend choosing it.
There are also some notes below the above screenshot, with details about the booking and tax ID. You can mostly ignore it, but you need to click a little box at the bottom which says something like “I agree”, otherwise you won’t be able to proceed.
Then, hit “Online Payment Information”. You’ll be taken to a page to enter and submit your credit card details.
There may be a couple popups here. For one, you just need to click “Understand”. I also got a Chinese-language popup and had to click 關閉 (close).
If your credit card doesn’t work, try another. It is a common issue in Taiwan that some international credit cards just don’t work on certain websites or at certain places of business.
Unlike the Alishan bus ticket booking page, I haven’t heard of too many travelers having issues with the train one.
Step 8: Payment Success Page
This page lets you know that your payment went through and shows your reservation number again.
It also informs you that you’ll need to show your original identification document (passport) used to book the ticket when you pick up your tickets at the Alishan Forest Railway ticket window in Taiwan.
When I picked up my tickets, I only had to show my passport. They didn’t ask for the booking number.
At this point, you should receive a second email, which looks just like the last one, but the payment status now says “Paid”.
Step 9: Choose Paper Ticket or E-Ticket
At the bottom of the above page, click “Booking Record Inquiry/Refund/Payment/Electronic Ticket”.
You can also get to later this from the main Alishan Forest Railway booking page. Just hover over the orange “Online Booking” button in the menu and select the same thing. You’ll then need to enter your passport and reservation number to locate your ticket.
Now you’ll see your ticket again, with options at the bottom to Change schedule, Cancel Reservation/Refund, Paper Ticket, or E-ticket (not available for tickets to Alishan, such as mine here).
For groups, if you have people sitting in different cars, it’s recommended to choose paper tickets, for when the conductor comes around to check them.
One plus of choosing paper tickets is that you can keep the ticket as a souvenir.
Step 10: How to Pick Up Paper Tickets
If you want to pick up a physical ticket, choose “Paper Ticket” at the bottom right. A pop-up will inform you that once you choose this, you won’t be able to change it.
Once you arrive in the region, you can pick up your tickets at the Alishan Forest Railway ticket window in front of Chiayi station anytime before your departure. The opening hours are 8 AM to 5 PM. You can also pickup tickets for any Alishan Forest Railway ride at Fenqihu train station or Alishan train station.
When I picked up my tickets, I only had to show my passport, but it’s possible they may ask for your reservation number, too. You can find that in the emails you received from them.
Step 11: How to Get Mobile Tickets
Mobile tickets or “e-tickets” are convenient, but there are a few things to note. First, they are only available for trips between Chiayi and Fenqihu. They aren’t available for going to Alishan station.
You’ll need to make sure your phone has power and Internet access for finding the tickets when needed. Screenshots are not OK.
If you booked for several people, you can show all the tickets on your phone, but your group needs to enter the station together and should be all in the same train car. If your group is in separate cars, get paper tickets instead.
To choose this, select “E-Ticket” on the above screen. Again, you’ll see a popup stating that once you choose this, you can’t change it.
A QR code will now be produced. This is what you’ll need to show to enter the station.
To find your ticket again later, like when you arrive at the station, go to Alishan Forest Railway ticketing website, hover over the orange “Online Booking” button at the top (see image below), then select “Booking Record Inquiry/Refund/Payment/Electronic Ticket.”
On the next screen (see image above), click the dot beside “Passport No.” then enter your passport number used to make the booking. You’ll also need to enter your reservation number (find it in the email you received) and a CAPTCHA.
How to Cancel Alishan Forest Railway Tickets
Alishan Forest Railway tickets can be cancelled anytime up to 30 minutes before departure.
Go to the main Alishan Forest Railway ticketing website, hover over “Online Booking” at the top, then select “Booking Record Inquiry/Refund/Payment/Electronic Ticket” (the same process we did in the last section for finding your ticket).
Select “Passport No.” and enter your passport number used to make the booking. You’ll also need to enter your reservation number (find it in the email you received) and a CAPTCHA.
After the system pulls up your ticket, click the box beside it and then select “Cancel Reservation / Refund). On the next page (see screenshot above), select “Cancel Confirm”.
A refund will be issued to your credit card, minus a 10% cancellation fee.
My Experience Riding the Forest Railway to Alishan
I don’t want to reveal everything here, but here are a few things I noted on my train journey to Alishan.
Beginning at Chiayi station, I showed my ticket to enter the station (you could also show QR code here if you have a mobile ticket).
I then turned right on the first platform and walked to the end of the platform, in front of the police station, to find the Alishan Forest Railway boarding spot.
A few minutes before the 10 AM departure time, the train finally pulled in and everyone boarded, after lots of photo-taking, of course.
On the train, I found that there actually wasn’t a lot of room for luggage. People with larger luggage had to place it by their legs or in the aisle.
About 20 minutes into the ride, the conductor came around and took people’s larger luggage to store somewhere at the back.
Throughout the journey, there were recorded announcements in Mandarin and English introducing the various stations along the way. Here’s a map of all the stations and a schedule of which ones it stops at.
The second station, Beimen (北門 or North Gate), is a historic station in Chiayi city. I had actually visited it the day before (see photo below).
The first 45 minutes of the train ride is not very exciting in terms of scenery. You’re just leaving the city and crossing the Chianan Plain. After that, the train enters the forest and starts going uphill.
The views quickly become impressive, but I found it almost impossible to get good photos of them. It’s hard to take nice scenery photos through a glass window on a moving train.
And most of the time, we were traveling through forest, with only quick glimpses of mountain views between trees or bamboo. Every time I whipped out my camera, it would be too late.
Overall, I found the scenery was better on the right side for the first half of the journey, but better on the left for the second half. The scenery on the second half is grander, after Fenqihu that is.
Still, both sides had many good views, and because the train is quite narrow, you can see out the windows on either side.
Around Dulishan station, the train did a full three circles up a mountain. At 11:30, I caught a few views of tea plantations. At 12:12, we arrived at Fenqihu, where we had a break until 1:21. I left my luggage on the train.
One hour is plenty of time to walk up and down Fenqihu Old Street, enjoy one of the famous lunchboxes or other snacks, and visit Fenqihu 1912 Loco Shed, the small railway museum.
See my Fenqihu guide for all the details about planning your short visit here.
Note: there’s a small light show, where different colored lights are shined on the locomotives, at 12:30 and 1:00.
Inside the Shed’s cafe, I also enjoyed an Alishan Railway Honey Beer and an Alishan wasabi soft serve ice cream. It was surprisingly delicious and not really spicy.
If you are determined to see the bamboo forests, one hour is a little tight, but you could at least get a quick look if you move quickly, then pick up a lunchbox just before getting back on the train. Don’t miss it, though!
Another option would be to ride the 9 AM train to Fenqihu and try to get tickets (3 days before deparute) for Fenqihu to Alishan on the later train. That would give you two hours in Fenqihu, which is a safer amount of time to try to squeeze in a little hike.
Back on the train, we departed at 1:21. At 1:37 PM, we passed the train coming down. At 1:39, I caught a brief glance of Yushan (Taiwan’s tallest mountain) on the left. At 2:10, we officially passed from tropical to temperate climate.
At 2:14, we reached the first switch, where we stopped and then went backwards. A few minutes after was the second switch and forwards again – we were literally zigzagging up the mountain.
At 2:23, we passed an enormous tree on the left.
At 2:38, we stopped for 10 minutes at Erwanping Station (二萬平火車站) for an awesome view of the Alishan train with Tashan (塔山), the tallest mountain in Alishan, backing it (see the cover picture of this article).
The scenery before and after Erwanping was some of the best of the whole journey.
At 2:45, I could make out the Mianyue Line across Tashan, a destroyed/abandoned line of the forest railway in Alishan park that is now a hiking trail (which I’d be doing the next day!)
At 2:51, we pulled in next to a crowd of tourists at Shenmu station inside the park, then did a third switch for the final stretch to Alishan station.
Arriving at Alishan station, I was pleased to note that there were luggage storage lockers in the station (I was previously only aware of the ones in the bus station).
To make use of the limited time I had to explore Alishan, I put my luggage in lockers (coin only) so I could hit the trails right away. I would come back later to get it and check in to my hotel.
See my guide to using luggage lockers in Taiwan for more info.
Stepping out from the station, I was struck by the beauty of the many cherry blossoms right outside – read my Alishan cherry blossom guide to see more photos of that!
Thank you for all your fantastic information Nick. I recently caught the train from chiayi to Alishan thanks to your advice.
We missed out on tickets on the day they were released ( attempted to get them the minute they were released but website crashed) and attempted multiple times following this. We were successful getting tickets 4 days before our trip. On the day we travelled (Sunday 8th June) we would have been able to get tickets at the station with multiple seats available on the train. We had a great time on the train so really glad we were able to get the tickets. So frustrating that someone seems to be buying tickets in bulk then returning them a few days before the day.
So glad you made it! And yes, I think it’s local travel agents or ticket resellers that do that. It’s very annoying!
Hi Nick, thanks to your guide I was also able to get my tickets today (Wednesday) for this Saturday. It was just like you and the others described – on the day of the first release they were sold out within seconds but I kept checking until finally today some were released again.
Thanks a lot for your helpful explanations!
Hi, it’s me again. I took the train from Chiayi to Fenqihu today but I wasn’t able to get a ticket to go further up to Alishan for the next day online. However, as soon as I arrived at Fenqihu train station I asked at the ticket office if there were any tickets left for the next day, and there was just one left! So I’ll be able to take the train again tomorrow and really look forward to it! I loved the train ride today!
… Now that I can took the train it confused me that there were many vacant seats on it on a Saturday and even though booking was so hard…
This is one of the reasons I think that travel agencies buy all the tickets at first, then cancel the ones they didn’t sell at the last minute.
Glad you were able to get a ticket!
How do you book Chiayi-Fenqihu 15/16 days in advance? When I select Fenqihu as final destination, the date selection calendar still shows the same 14 days just as if I select Alishan as final destination.
You can only book 14 days in advance for weekday trips. Saturdays can be booked 15 days in advance and Sundays 16 days in advance.
Would you suggest also taking the train on the way back? The return ticket seems readily available all the time. So I wonder if most people taking a bus down instead.
I think more people take the train up because it feels more special to take it uphill and arrive in Alishan by train. The uphill one also includes a one-hour stop at Fenqihu, while the downhill one doesn’t. However, you’re correct that it can be easier to get tickets on the downhill one. I wouldn’t take it both ways, though. It’s a long train ride (more than twice as long as the bus), so personally I enjoyed it but wouldn’t want to do it twice within a few days.
Hi Nick,
Following your very thorough guide I tried to purchase tickets earlier this week – for the Alishan –> Chiayi route. Having done a practice run and woken up early on the day, I managed to get through to the page where you put in your personal details, where you’ve said that we have a (temporary) hold on the tickets so we can relax. Unfortunately not so for me! After putting in my personal details without too much rush, so that I could be sure to get them right, I was booted out and sent back to the start with nothing to show for it, as I believe tickets had all sold out while I was doing that. I did put in a very fake phone number (a series of 0s) so that may have been the reason, but wanted to let you know that this can still happen even after getting to that stage.
Luckily I checked randomly about 48 hours later and managed to secure the tickets I wanted, though I’d been prepared to check again and again for the next couple weeks!
Thanks for all your information here, it’s super helpful.
Hi Nick,
Thanks for your site and for this post which has been super helpful !
With your indications, I have been able to get a ticket for next week but made a mistake entering my passport number (I did put another number). Do you know if it is possible to change it online or get the ticket only with the reservation number ?
I’m not sure there’s any way to change it online, but I suggest you visit the Alishan Forest Railway ticket window at Chiayi station sometime before your trip, either the day before, or the morning of the trip, and explain what happened. They should be able to fix it there. It’s open 8 AM to 5 PM.
Thank you so much for letting me know about this. I don’t think it was the phone number issue, and I do still think your tickets should be held while entering the personal details. I think this may have been a system error – I find the website is just crappy sometimes because too many people are accessing it at the same time. But I’m just making guesses here, and you could be totally right. I’m very glad to hear you managed to find tickets later! I’ll add a warning to the article about this.
Hi Nick,
How do I book Chiayi to Fenqihu? I don’t see that option
Thank you, Cookie
All the instructions are the same, but on the booking page, you will choose Fenqihu as the arrival station. There are two trains per day to Feniqhu. The 9 AM train goes to Fenqihu only, so that will be easiest, and you can book 14/15/16 days in advance for weekday/Saturday/Sunday trips. The 10 AM goes to Fenqihu and Alishan, so that one will be harder to get tickets, and for partial trip (to Fenqihu only), you can only buy it from 3 days before.
Hi Nick,
We will be traveling from Taipei and will have large luggage, I understand the train will not be able to accommodate large luggage. Do you have any recommendations? We are staying 2 nights in Alishan and then will head to Tainan
Hey Nick,
I’m sure the train ride was amazing but the real question is: wasn’t it boring?
I can’t imagine enjoying 5h train ride, no matter how good the landscape is. So would you really recommend it considering that?
I’m also concerned as time in Taiwan is not endless and I’m wondering if Alishan and especially the train ride are really worth it.
You can bring your luggage on the Alishan Forest Railway. There isn’t much room at the seats or overhead area, but when I rode it, around 15 minutes after department, the conductor came around and took people’s large luggage to a storage area at the back of the train. Are you riding the train only one way (going down from Alishan)?
You’re right, it is a little long. However, it didn’t feel so long to me thanks to the one-hour lunch break in Fenqihu, which means it’s actually only 4 hours of train time. The first hour after leaving Chiayi is not so exciting. But the scenery gets nicer for the remainder of the journey. And the scenery is often fleeting – like you’ll see only trees but then catch very short glimpses of mountain scenes – that kind of kept me aware, always looking out for those glimpses. But I definitely wouldn’t recommend riding the train up AND down. One-way is enough. Then you can take the bus or car the other way, which takes only half the time.
After 11 days of trying, I am so excited I was just able to book my train ticket (Alishan-Chiayi on 7/10)!!!! Thanks so much Nick for your clear instructions here, and reminders to persist in the face of a sold out train.
Can you get the ticket back in the Alishan recreation area train station on the day you return? (I bought the return only ticket online)
So glad to hear. Have a great trip!
I am visiting Taiwan in November and I must say, your articles are so helpful. Thank you. I will be staying close to Shizhuo and will aim to get one of the tickets to Alishan from Fenqihu a few days before. Otherwise, I guess I will just have to take the bus, and consider the smaller train lines within the park itself…
Hi Nick. We’re traveling to Taiwan in March next year and your date is exactly our planned date to travel to Alishan from Chiayi (March 24, 2026). Would you know if we need to book return ticket in advance from Alishan back to Chiayi on the same day? and should it be by train or bus? It’ll be just a day tour though. Would that be enough?
Do you mean to pick up the physical ticket? If you booked it online, then yes, you can pick up the physical ticket at the ticket window at Alishan Station. Make sure to bring your passport.
If you are just going for a day trip, then I recommend taking the bus there, not the train. March is a very busy time in Alishan, so the train would be very hard to get tickets (I tried dozens of times before I succeeded). What’s more the train is very slow and doesn’t reach Alishan till 3 PM, which would only give you two hours before taking the last bus back to Chiayi. If you take the bus, you can get there earlier in the day and have more time to explore. Or, try to spend the night in Alishan. And even if you take the bus, I highly recommend booking both ways (there and back) because the buses always sell out during cherry blossom season.
Nick,
Your article was a fun read. The downside … I realized by reading your article the train ride is not doable during my four night stay in Taipei. I like trains and your article came up during my search on the Alishan Forest Railway. I hope to take a ride on the high speed train somewhere outside of Taipei for a day trip in mid November.
I suppose I could catch the high-speed train to Chiayi and a bus up to Fenqihu. Then hope we get four tickets departing Fenqihu at 2:35 pm on Train #2.
Any thoughts for two couples in the early 60’s.
One couple are fellow Canadians from St. John’s.
Thanks
Hello Nick, thank you for this incredible resource. I am spending one night in Shizhuo (on my way to Tainan from Taipei). Is it worth taking the train all the way to Alishan (and then bussing back down for my accommodations) or is the ride just to Fenqihu already quite special? In which case i could drop off my luggage and bus into Alishan that day, or bus there for the morning the following day.
Thanks again, Michael
Hi Nick, thank you for the guide. I wanted to share that I just encountered the same situation that you think is a glitch: I was on the website right at 6AM, I got to the personal info page, and after submitting, I was sent back to the start with a “sold out” message.
It’s worth trying. Good luck!
It would be a long day, but it would still be possible to take an early HSR to Chiayi, taxi to Chiayi Station (30 minutes), ride the Alishan Forest Railway to Alishan (arrives 2:56 PM), then take a bus back down. There’s a bus from Alishan back to Chiayi HSR at 4:40 PM, or the last bus from Alishan to Chiayi Station at 5:10 PM. Either one would give you enough time to take a little stroll inside Alishan park.
If you don’t do the full ride, then your idea of busing to Fenqihu and riding the train back down would also work.
And both plans are dependent on actually getting tickets for the train, which can be a little tough, as I describe in the above article.
The full ride from Chiayi to Alishan is a little long (5 hours). The first half (to Fenqihu) has some nice scenery, but the second half (to Alishan) is more dramatic. The one hour lunch stop at Fenqihu is also nice.
My most recommended itinerary it to spend one night in Shizhuo and one night in Alishan. There are so many different possible ways to organize this, especially if you want to add the train ride also. For example:
Train Chiayi to Alishan (with stop in Fenqihu). Sleep there, explore more the next morning, bus to Shizhuo, sleep there, return to Chiayi.
If you want to squeeze it all into one night only, then it becomes more complicated, especially with the luggage factor. You’ll spend more time on buses and trains than actually visiting the area. But if that’s what you hope to do, let me know, and I can give more options about how to do it.
Sorry to hear that happened. Did you manage to get tickets eventually?
I was also kicked out during entering my Phone Number etc. Although there would be tickets available for tomorrow, so I’m not too concerned
Hi Nick,
Is the view going up to Alisan or going down back to chiayi is prettier from your experience?
Thanks
Sherry
It’s exactly the same route and views. Just the feeling is different (traveling uphill instead of downhill). Then main plus of going up is the one-hour stop at Fenqihu.
Hi Nick,
Is the view going up to Alisan or going down back to chiayi is prettier from your experience?
Thanks
Sherry
Hi Nick,
How long is the stop at Fenqihu coming down from Alisan?
Thanks
Sherry
Hi Nick
I am thinking about taking the shuttle bus ( going up) from Chiayi THSR at 11 am and arrive at Fenqihu 12:50 pm. Then take the scenic train at Fenqihu at 1:21 pm to Alisan. Do you think the schedule is too tight for this transfer happening- 12:50 pm arrival then departure with a different transportation ( scenic train) at 1:21 pm.
Sherry
Hi Nick – Thanks so much for your great article. I booked my ticket this morning for November 6th, but may have had a mistake. I am taking the bus from Alishan to Fenqihu, stopping, and wanted to take the Express Train 2 from Fenqihu to Chiayi but I bought the ticket from Shizilu instead of Fenqihu. Can I board at Fenqihu with that ticket? Thanks for your help.
It’s exactly the same route and views. The main difference is in feeling (traveling upwards vs downwards) and that only the upwards journey includes a one-hour stop at Fenqihu.
The train only stops long enough for passengers who are disembarking there to get off (or new ones to get on). But those who are doing the full journey won’t have enough time to get off the train.
Hi Nick,
I am practicing buying Alisan forest train ticket online following your direction. I’m buying 3 full tickets. Would I need to enter all 3 people’s personal information ( psssport etc) or just 1 person personal information for three tickets?
Sherry
Hi Nick
i’m looking at your direction for Allison for ticket purchasing online-
Where is the link “ online payment information “ to enter credit card number in step 7 called Online Payment Page ?
Sherry
Hi Nick,
Would you know the bus number and possibly the bus schedule for taking bus(es) from Chiayi TRA to Chiayi THSR? I am not sure if google give accurate bus info correct.
Thanks
Sherry
Hi Nick thanks for your blog- such great travel advice. Hoping you can answer some queries I have- firstly I won’t arrive at Chiayi HSR until 9.13am will that give me enough time to get to Chiayi station to catch the Alishan railway at 10am. The HSR ticket is booked already so not sure if can change to an earlier train on the day without additional charge. Secondly I am unable to pre book bus tickets from Alishan to Taipei. every laptop i have tried won’t let me in the order.kingbus.com.tv and 12.goasia keeps getting stuck when trying to book same . Any suggestions thanks alot
yeee I got my ticket one day before! online payment would not work, but I just payed at the ticket office in Chiayi on the same day. thanks for all of your guides!
Thanks for the guide! If that helps anyone, I ended up briefly seeing the second screen exactly as the purchasing window opened (14 days before) around 6am, but the tickets were gone so quickly I got kicked out right after I filled in my data on the second page. We tried many times after with no luck – but finally secured three full train tickets literally the day before, at around 10:30am local time, when 5 tickets magically became freed up.
A few other things that came up for us that I thought I’d list for others:
– if you buy tickets for a group, you don’t need to line up passport numbers for everyone – just one number for the person who’ll be picking up the actual physical tickets
– our train was air conditioned (which was nice), although that also meant you couldn’t open windows to take nicer photos
– if you like trains and are in Chiayi with some time to kill, check out Beimen (North Gate) station and the area to its west – some of the Alishan cars and locomotives are chilling in there, so you might be able to take nice photos
Fenqihu is very small, so it’s definitely enough time to transfer. You would also have time for a quick lunch, such as a bento box, which you ca take onto the train if you don’t have enough time to finish it.
This will be fine. Shizilu is one stop before Fenqihu, so it means you’ve paid a tiny bit too much. You can just board the train as normal. They probably won’t even check tickets until it starts driving away from Fenqihu, and they probably won’t even notice that you got one stop late. And even if they notice, I don’t think it will be a problem.
I haven’t tried buying for multiple people, but I’m almost certain it will just be one person’s passport and personal details for buying multiple tickets.
Hi, I’m not sure what you mean here. If you were following the steps to book, you should have automatically been taken to the payment page. If you made the booking but didn’t pay yet, and you need to get back to the payment page, then go to the Alishan Forest Railway booking site https://afrts.forest.gov.tw/TP01_1_E.aspx Hover over “Online Booking” and select “Booking Record Inquiry” to find your booking. There should be an option there to pay for it. If you don’t pay before the deadline, your booking will be canceled.
Google is generally quite accurate. But you can also find the schedule of the shuttle (which is actually free if you show HSR ticket for that day) on the HSR website Chiayi station page here: https://en.thsrc.com.tw/ArticleContent/1a39d0e0-a5d0-4b92-a90b-7e94ab840b1d Scroll down to bus section, then change it to bus 7212, then it will show the times To Chiayi Station (these start at Southern Branch of National Palace Museum, so you need to add 5-10 minutes if boarding at the HSR station), and To THSR Station (departing from Chiayi Station). You can also find a current schedule here: https://www.taiwanbus.tw/eBUSPage/Query/QueryResult.aspx?rno=72120&rn=1600672900747&lan=E
47 minutes is tight but doable. GoogleMaps puts the travel time by taxi at this time of morning at 18 to 30 minutes. So even if it takes the maximum amount of time in the taxi, you should arrive with a few minutes to spare.
If you don’t want to take the chance (for example some unexpected delay on the road), you can cancel your HSR ticket (there’s only a small fee to refund) then book a new earlier one.
I don’t think there’s any online option to book the direct bus from Alishan to Taipei. Please note that this bus only runs once per week, Saturdays, departing Alishan at 11:30 AM. Schedule is here: https://www.taiwanbus.tw/eBUSPage/Query/QueryResult.aspx?rno=18350&rn=1703269471584&lan=E If you want to book a seat on this bus, go to the Kuo Kuang ticket window and Taipei Bus Station (or another other major city bus station in Taiwan) and book it there. This bus doesn’t tend to sell out, as it’s not the fastest way back to Taipei. Most people take the bus from Alishan to Chiayi HSR and ride the HSR back to Taipei for the fastest way.
hey Nick, thanks for the responses. sorry for typo error i meant to ask how to buy tickets from sun moon lake to taipei via the direct bus as the every laptop i have tried won’t let me in the order.kingbus.com.tv and 12.goasia keeps getting stuck when trying to book the tickets.
It’s the same thing as I mentioned for Alishan. I don’t think it’s possible to book the Sun Moon Lake to Taipei bus online. Most people just buy this ticket at the station. It’s not common for this bus to sell out, as most people go the faster way (HSR to Taichung, bus to SML).
Hello! Just got a ticket for this Sunday using your method. However, I am still thinking if it makes sense in my scenario: I have to go up (by the train) and go back (by bus) to Chiayi City the same day. Is the ride itself worth it? I will have max. 2 hours in Alishan…
Usually for day trips to Alishan, I don’t recommend that people take the train up, because it takes up most of your day. If exploring Alishan is your priority, you can get there much earlier and faster by bus. However, the train ride in itself is an attraction, not to mention you’ll get to see Fenqihu too. It just puts some pressure on your Alishan stop, because you definitely can’t explore the whole park, or even much of it, before the last bus out at 17:10. If you do this, then I’d recommend booking a seat on that bus. The buses sometimes sell out, and you wouldn’t want to get stuck there.
Hey Nick! Thanks for this super-detailed guide. Following your instructions, we managed to get tickets with the forest railway both ways, from Chiayi to Fenqihu and from Alishan back to Chiayi. To our surprise, the train down from Alishan to Chiayi was almost completely empty. In our car, it was just us and one other couple. Weird, considering how hard it is to book before they sell out.
I have to say though, that spending the night in Fenqihu was the highlight of our Alishan trip, so that’s highly recommended!
Just wanted to chime in and say I also got to the page where I entered my personal information but when I clicked submit it said sold out. I did it relatively quickly too.
I lost my booking when I tried to submit on the personal info page, so your reservation isn’t secured on that page. 🙁
Sorry to hear that. I have edited my post to warn people.
Sorry to hear that happened. I have edited my post to warn people about it.
So glad to hear you managed to get tickets both ways and enjoyed your trip. That’s honestly strange about the train being so empty. Did you go close to the typhoon? It’s possible many people canceled their trip due to possible rain.
Thanks for the post, Nick. Is there a better side (left or right of the train) for views going up the mountain?
Both sides are good, and the train is pretty narrow, so either way you can see out both windows. But overall, I felt like the view was just a hint nicer on the right side from Chiayi to Fenqihu, while it got better on the left side from Fenqihu to Alishan.
Just failed to get tickets for December 11th – like other commenters I got through to the personal details page and was kicked out after. I even had prepared a notepad on my second monitor to copy the details over but was still too slow somehow
Not sure if I did something wrong, but I was able to get a ticket through Alishan Easy Go via the Taiwan PASS website. I was about to buy the classic version Taiwan PASS to get earlier access the Forest Railway reservations, then I noticed one of the options was Alishan Easy Go. I did not end up getting the whole Taiwan PASS because they had one way tickets Chiayi-Alishan a la carte. I was to get my ticket about 25 ahead of my trip date, and it seems to be legit. I guess I will find out when I go at the end of the month!
Hi, I wanted to ask your opinion on taking the train from Alishan to Chiayi. Does the trip up and down use the same route and pass the same sights? If we cannot take the train up to Alishan, is the trip back down the best alternative? Hoping someway, somehow to experience the train ride.
Yes, it’s exactly the same route. The main difference is that on the way up, you get an hour-long break at Fenqihu, which is nice. On the way down, it doesn’t take a break there.
No info at all about facilities on the trains? Are there toilets? What else?
It’s a 4-5 hour train ride. So yes, there are toilets. What else – that’s pretty much it. There are sets, toilets, windows, overhead luggage racks, and some limited space at the back for larger luggage. If you need snacks, please bring them.
You’ve made an incredible discovery. Thank you so much for letting me know. It’s mind-boggling that they don’t publish this anywhere. I will update all of my articles!
Hi Nick, I bought for multiple people, and it just needed my details, not everyone’s, if this helps.
Thank you. I’ve added a note to the article about this.
Thank you Nick for this post and for your terrific website which has been a godsend during our trip to Taiwan. Just to offer hope to those out there struggling to buy tickets from Chiayi to Alishan via the website – we turned up the day before and bought them directly from the ticket office in about two minutes. After pretty much giving up hope we couldn’t believe how easy it was. So excited for our trip tomorrow!
So glad to hear you managed to get tickets on the spot, and thanks for letting us know!
can i do a train ride at fenqihu station to alishan station ?
Yes, but you will need to follow my guide above to purchase the tickets. You can also try to get a ticket on the same day from Fenqihu station. Often there are seats available at the last minute.
Hi! Is the third party you mention (Easy Go) reliable? Tickets on the official website are sold out but on the website you linked they have tickets. I’m a bit worried since I can’t find any review or mention online..
Members of my Facebook group have bought them with no issue. And they offer the same quota of tickets which is also available to Taiwan Pass holders, which is a legitimate, widely used pass issued by Taiwan Tourism.
Ні Nісk!
Fіrѕtlу thаnk уоu fоr аll thе dеtаіlеd іnfоrmаtіоn . Наd а quісk quеѕtіоn fоr уоu – іm рuttіng tоgеthеr аn іtіnеrаrу fоr mу fаmіlу tо vіѕіt іn Dес 2026. Wе wіll hаvе а bіg grоuр оf 9 (4 аdultѕ, 2 grаndраrеntѕ аnd 3 сhіldrеn аgеd 10,8 аnd 6). Dо уоu thіnk іtѕ wоrth dоіng а dау trір frоm Таіреі tо Аlіѕhаn? Оr ѕtауіng іn Аlіѕhаn fоr 1 nіght аnd thеn bеіng аblе tо dо а ѕhоrt trір tо Fеnqіhu аnd thеn rеturn tо Таіреі thе nехt dау? Аnd wоuld уоu rесоmmеnd gеttіng tо Аlіѕhаn vіа Тrірооl gіvеn wе hаvе grаndраrеntѕ wіth uѕ оr bеttеr tо bооk а рrіvаtе drіvеr оr рrіvаtе tоurѕ оn Кlооk? Тhаnkѕ ѕо muсh!
It’s a long way from Taipei to Alishan, so I don’t recommend doing this as a day trip. You will spend most of the day getting there and going back. If you can, it’s much nicer to spend a night there. From Taipei, the fastest way is to take the HSR to Chiayi (this is twice as fast as driving). Then start your Tripool from Chiayi HSR station. Your group is too large even for a van, so you would need to book two vehicles. Going by Klook tour works, but most of them leave from Taichung or Chiayi. It’s best to depart from Chiayi to minimize driving time.
If I can buy ticket from this option:
“Before the official site releases the tickets, you have two advance opportunities to by them via other channels. The first is here on Alishan EasyGo, a third party site. They sell a quota of 23 tickets per trains, up to 60 days in advance (starting from 12:00 AM Taiwan time), with availability calendar”
Why does people want to buy ticket from official website (14 day in advance) or get Taiwan Pass (60 days in advance and from the same pool as first option)? Thanks.
The advance ticket quota often sells out. So once those are gone, people’s only option will be the official website. Also, not many tourists are even aware of the advance ticket quota. I only just found out about it a few months ago. As for Taiwan Pass, people would choose that option if they would like to enjoy the other benefits of the pass.
hi nick. as back up. are there any busses i can take from fenqihu to alishan is i did not manage to get train?
Yes, please see my Alishan bus timetable: https://www.taiwanobsessed.com/chiayi-to-alishan-bus-schedule/ If boarding at Fenqihu, you can’t reserve a spot on the bus. Your only option is to line up and swipe EasyCard.
Hi!
I’m considering buying tickets from EasyGo for a return from Alishan to Chiaya. We plan to stay in Fenqihu and I am wondering if we can board from Fenqihu even though we would be buying tickets that depart from Alishan. Would our tickets be cancelled if we didn’t board at Alishan?
Your site is so helpful and detailed but the planning details seem endless, thanks!
Hi Nick,
thank you for this comprehensive guide! Looking to score train tickets late March. Will follow your guide. Was just wondering how do I book the heritage cypress carriage/train? Do I need to pre-book that or can it be booked same day at the station?
Hi Nick,
thanks for the good guide. I am considering taking up the bus as the bus makes several stops and I would hop on / hop off in Shizhao and Fengihu. That way I would have a bit over two hours on each of them. For me it also makes more sense as the first bus leaves earlier in the morning than the train. If I do it like this I would arrive in Alishan around the same time as the train. If I would take the train down on the next day I would have time until around noon in Alishan. If I do it the other way round I will have less time in Alishan as the first bus where I could make the same stops as above leaves earlier in Alishan and also arrives later in Chiayi….So to me my plan seems good especially as it is way easier to get tickets downhill. Now I am only wondering if there is a specific reason why I should go up instead of down by train. I imagine the views would be quite the same…So I wondering what could be the reason most people go up. Or do you think the views are less spectacular going down….I could also imagine they would be even nicer as you have a wider view in the valley. Thank you
Hi Nick, thanks for the thorough guide. I am wondering if the site that you redirect us to look at the availability (https://alishan.welcometw.com/) is a legit Main Line ticket seller, as I see there are buying function on it and the ticket availability is also constantly updated. Thank you!
Hi nick, thank you so much for all the info! I wasn’t aware that there was other option to book the train ticket.
Just a quick check, if I book ticket using EasyGo, it will be issued as an e-ticket right? I won’t need to collect physical ticket at the counter?
If you buy a ticket from Alishan to Chiayi but don’t board the train at Alishan, then they would consider that you didn’t show up, and so you seat would then be considered available. While you aren’t supposed to do this, it’s possible that the seat could still be empty at Fenqihu, and it’s possible that you could get on and take it. However, it’s also possible that they may sell this seat to someone else (for example a new passenger who wants to board at Fenqihu), then it could be a problem when you try to get on. If you plan to board at Fenqihu, then it’s better to just buy the ticket on the official site. You can book the 2:35 PM departure 2 weeks in advance. If you want to try to get a seat on the 1:29 departure (the train which originates at Alishan), you will only be able to try from 3 days before. For either one, the tickets tend to sell out almost instantly, but then it becomes easier to get tickets from 1-3 days in advance, or even from the station on the day of departure.
Sorry about the slow reply, and I hope you managed to get tickets. I have described in detail in the above article how to do this. See Section 4 (How to Ride the Luxury Wooden “Formosensis” Train). Also note that you can ride simpler cypress train cars on the Alishan to Chaoping Line inside the park on Wednesdays, no reservation needed.
Your original plan makes perfect sense to me. The views are exactly the same each way. The only concern is that if you have luggage, when you stop at Shizhuo, there’s nowhere to leave your luggage. In Fenqihu, there are luggage lockers in the train station.
Regarding tickets, Alishan Forest Railway tickets can be hard to get (even for going down). So for your plan, you still have to be vigilant to get the tickets. The advance tickets for foreigners which i describe in this article are the best way. For the buses, you can swipe EasyCard for all the rides. If your first ride from Chiayi is very early, you should have no problem to get on without a reservation (as long as it’s not one of those busy periods). For your rides boarding at Shizhuo and Fenqihu, you can’t book those anyways. And just make sure to check the bus times carefully and arrive at the bus stop a little early to get a good spot in line.
They are a third party seller, but they are definitely legit. It’s my most recommended way to book Alishan Forest Railway tickets because you can get them well in advance, see the availability calendar, and it’s much easier to book that the official site.
Yes, it appears that they issue you a QR code, which you will use to enter the station. Make sure your phone has batter power and you are able to show the QR code from the EasyGo portal. A screenshot of it is not acceptable.
Hi Nick,
I was wondering whether the assigned seat is shown when using either of your 2 suggested advanced booking methods and whether they allow changes or cancellations?
As a single traveller, as you said, I would really not want the aisle seat on the 2 seat side and would be gutted to turn up and discover this one the day…..
Yes, you will find out your seat number when you make the booking. And as a single traveler, you are most likely to be placed in one of the single seats with window. If you purchase the ticket, seat changes are not allowed, but cancellations are allowed up to three days before.
Thanks so much, your blog has been my Taiwan bible!