GETTING THERE
How to Get to Alishan from Chiayi, Taichung and Taipei
The bus, the reopened railway and the tour options — how to reach the mountain from each gateway.
See Alishan tours on GetYourGuide ↗Chiayi: the classic gateway
Chiayi is the natural base for Alishan, and the easiest place to start from. The Taiwan Tourist Shuttle bus 7322 leaves from the plaza in front of Chiayi's TRA station (it also serves the high-speed-rail station) and climbs to Alishan in about 2.5 hours for around NT$240 in cash, a little less with an EasyCard. It's frequent, comfortable and by far the simplest way up. From Taipei or the south, the usual plan is high-speed rail to Chiayi — about 1.5 hours from Taipei — and then the bus.
The forest railway, back in service
The romantic alternative from Chiayi is the forest railway itself. After fifteen years of partial closure from typhoon damage, the full Chiayi–Alishan main line reopened on 6 July 2024, so you can once again ride the narrow-gauge line all the way up — a slow, scenic climb through more than fifty tunnels, dozens of wooden bridges, four switchbacks and a spiral loop. An air-conditioned reserved seat runs around NT$600 one-way, more than the bus and slower, but the railway is one of Alishan's genuine wonders, so many people ride it at least one way.
From Taichung
There's no simple public route from Taichung to the mountain, so the practical options are a guided day tour or a private charter. Day tours from Taichung — often pairing Alishan with the Fenqihu old street and a forest-railway ride — handle the transport and a guide, and are a good way to see the forest and railway without self-arranging. For the sunrise, though, you'll want a two-day tour or your own overnight plan, since a Taichung day tour returns the same day.
From Taipei
Alishan is not a day trip from Taipei by any honest measure — it's too far, and the sunrise is unreachable in a single day. The two realistic routes are: take the high-speed rail to Chiayi (about 1.5 hours) and continue up by bus or railway, staying overnight on the mountain; or book a two-day (or three-day, often with Sun Moon Lake) tour from Taipei that handles the whole thing, sunrise included. If you only have a day and you're set on the mountain, consider basing yourself in Chiayi first.
Which to choose
If you're an independent traveller starting from Chiayi, the bus up and the railway down (or vice versa) is a great combination — cheap, scenic and flexible. If you're coming from Taichung or Taipei, or you want the sunrise without arranging the logistics yourself, a tour is the sensible choice, and a two-day one if the dawn is on your list. Match the transport to the trip you decided on, and getting to Alishan becomes the easy part.