Travel

Bao'an Station (保安車站)

I’m a bit of a weirdo when it comes to organization, so when it comes to places that I want to visit, I have a map that I’m constantly updating, and, as I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions, the majority of spots that I have on my list are located somewhere in the south of Taiwan. Over the years, I’ve added so many places to visit on the map that I’d probably need months to visit all of them, but all that means is that whenever I do find the time to make my way down south, I always have a tight schedule of things to see and do with the little time that I have.

That being said, when I do find the time, my plans often end up being far too ambitious, and although I always try my best to get a lot of work done, something I’ve come to realize is that the pace of life down there is a lot more chill than it is up here in the north. Instead of running around trying to visit as many places as possible, a better idea might be to, instead, visit a few destinations while also remembering to spend time relaxing, enjoying the weather, eating great food, and enjoying some really cool coffee shops.

These decisions are, admittedly, made a lot easier when your trip is interrupted by a tropical storm that brings with it days of torrential rain. so, with few other options with such weather, a lot of the time during my most recent trip south was spent hanging out in some of the Tainan’s hip coffeeshops, where I enjoyed the tropical fruit-inspired coffee that the city has become known for. When the weather did clear up, I set off to check out some places on my list, but when the rain came back, I was off again in search of another seat at a coffee shop.

Even though I wasn’t as productive on this trip as I have been on others, I made the most of my time, despite the weather, and got to see a few places that I had on my list. Without a hint of irony, though, on the day that I was scheduled to head home, I woke up for breakfast, packed my bags, checked out of my hotel, and walked out into the kind of beautiful weather that Tainan is known for. With a few hours before my train was scheduled to depart, I decided to make the most of the little time I had and made my way to the historic Bao-An Station (保安車站), one of the locations that was pretty high up on my list.

If you’ve been following my blog for any period of time, you’re probably well-aware that one of my ongoing projects has been documenting Taiwan’s historic railway stations, especially those that date back to the Japanese-era, so this was one of the places on my list that I was really looking forward to visiting, and fortunately, I was able to check it out as it was on my way to the High Speed Rail Station that would eventually take me home.

View of the station from the train

Hopping on the train at Tainan Station and heading south on the commuter train, I couldn’t help but feel like I was back in Japan riding through the countryside. The scenery outside of the train, the bright natural light inside the carriage, and only the sound of the train seemed very Japan-like, but that’s probably because I’m more familiar with the trains up here in north where people are always chatting, playing on their phones and watching noisy videos. When the train stopped at Bao-an Station and I got off, that feeling of being in Japan became even stronger, because just across the platform was the small wooden station, which is architecturally identical to many of the older stations you’ll see in the countryside of Japan.

Amazingly, despite being one of the oldest of Taiwan’s remaining wooden train stations, and the amount of traffic that passes through on a daily basis, Bao-an Station remains in pretty good shape. Over the past century, a lot has changed in Taiwan, and the railway itself has been in a constant flux of modernization, but Bao-an Station has stayed the same, which I suppose you could say is credit to the architectural design that has allowed it to remain standing for so long. However, as an actively used heritage building, at some point it’s probably going to have to get a little love in the form of restoration in order to ensure that we’re able to enjoy it for many years to come.

As I usually do with these articles, I’ll start by introducing the history of the train station, its architectural design, and then give readers information about how to visit if they’re interested in checking out this little piece of Taiwanese history.   

Shiyaroken Station (車路墘驛 / しやろけんえき)

To start, I suppose I should talk about the name of the station, because, you might be a little confused with the discrepancy between with the title of the article and the name of the station provided above. Admittedly, this is something that I was quite confused about myself as well until I dug into my research process for this article.

Suffice to say, the name of the station was changed to ‘Bao-an’ (保安) in the 1960s, nearly two decades after the end of the Japanese-era. For the six decades prior, the station was named ‘Shiyaroken' Station in Japanese, which came from the Taiwanese word “Tshia-loo-kinn” (車路墘). The interesting thing about this specific name, and the reason why I was confused, is that there were several areas in Taiwan in the early years of the Japanese-era with this name, but the Chinese character ‘qian’ (墘) is an older word that is rarely used these days in Mandarin, and pretty much non-existent in Japanese.

In addition to Tainan, you could also find places named ‘Tshia-loo-kinn’ in both Taichung and Pingtung as well, and in each case, the names date back to the Qing Dynasty, and (although I haven’t found any credible source regarding the origin of the name) likely referred to ‘road-side stops’ that were once located along the safe trading routes of the time.

To better understand the name, I’ll break it down for you:

  1. 車 (Tshia) - vehicle; car;

  2. 路 (loo) - road; path;

  3. 墘 (kinn) - Taiwanese word for ‘beside’ (旁邊) or ‘nearby’ (附近)

Take from that what you will - The important thing is that after the arrival of the Japanese, the name stayed the same, but it was pronounced “Shiyaroken” (しやろけんえき / シヤロケンエキ) in Japanese, which is actually quite similar to the Taiwanese pronunciation.

Staying on the subject of the station’s name, when it was changed from ‘Shiyaroken’ (or Tshia-loo-kinn) to ‘Bao’an’ in the 1960s, the reason for doing so, if you’re asking me, was a little strange. The official reason for the name change isn’t well-documented, but they changed it to ‘Bao’an’ in honor of the local Bao’an Temple (車路墘保安宮). The reason why I’d argue that this was a bit odd was because the temple wasn't actually all that close to the station, and was in fact much closer to Rende Station (仁德車站), the next stop south. It’s possible that they just changed the name to something that was easier for the ‘newer’ residents of Taiwan, who had trouble speaking Taiwanese, or possibly because the ticket-making system that was used at the time wasn’t actually compatible with the characters.

If you read my article about Taichung’s Zhuifen Train Station (追分車站), the original name of the station in Japanese was ‘Oiwake Railway Station’ (追分驛 / おいわけえき), but given that the Chinese characters for “Oiwake” (追分) are an abbreviation for a much more auspicious meaning in Mandarin, which translates as “chasing your dreams” or “pursuing your destiny” (追到緣分), they made a similar name change to another station nearby. In that case, the next station over, originally named ‘Oda Station’ (王田驛) was officially renamed ‘Chenggong Station’ (成功車站) in the 1960s. This became a hit with the locals, who collected tickets with the stations ‘Zhuifen - Chenggong’ (追分 - 成功) as together the stations translate almost literally as “make your dreams come true” (zhui fen cheng gong / 追分成功).

Given the time frame of that particular name change, I figured the distance from the temple ultimately didn’t really make much of a difference to the Taiwan Rail Corporation at the time because a ticket from the newly re-named ‘Bao’an Station’ (保安車站) to the nearby ‘Yongkang Station’ (永康車站) became an instant hit with locals. The reason for this was similar to the situation above as the tickets employed a homophonic pun in Mandarin that read in a clockwise manner became ‘Yongbao Ankang’ (永保安康), or literally, ‘Peace and health forever!’

Even though my article about Zhuifen Station predates this one, it was only until I started my research for my article did I realize that the ‘auspicious ticket’ thing was initiated at Bao’an Station. I had always assumed it was a result of the name change between Zhuifen and Chenggong.

This is why I enjoy doing all this research for these articles. I learn a lot in the process!

Link: Auspicious train ticket | 吉祥語車票 (Wiki)

With regard to the history of this station, it actually got its start quite early. As I mentioned before in my article about Taiwan’s Remaining Japanese-era Train Stations (台鐵現存日治時期車站), the Jukan Tetsudo Project (ゅうかんてつどう / 縱貫鐵道), known in English as the ‘Taiwan Trunk Railway Project,’ quickly got underway shortly after the Japanese took control of Taiwan. The project, which sought to have a railway constructed from Keelung in the north and Kaohsiung in the south (and beyond), was constructed in different phases, and the southern phase that connected Tainan to Takao (Kaohsiung) was completed quite early.

Amazingly, it would take just over a decade to have the entire west coast railway completed, but by the time the entire system was connected, Shiyaroken Station had already been in operation for about eight years on the southern stretch of the railway between Tainan and the port station in Kaohsiung.

When most people introduce the history of the station, resources will point to a specific date to when it was established, but I have to note that there is a bit of a caveat to those claims - Originally opening for service on November 29th, 1900 (明治33年) as ‘Shiyaroken Parking Lot’ (車路墘停車場), it would only be upgraded into a ‘station’ (驛) a few years later after the opening of the Shiyaroken Sugar Factory (車路墘製糖所), which was located a short distance away from the station. That being said, when the Sugar Factory opened, the station was moved about 1.5 kilometers north of its original location for the benefit of the staff at the factory, officially opening on November 10th, 1909 (明治42年).

Oh, and remember when I mentioned above that the local Bao’an Temple was much closer to Rende Station? Well, that station, which opened in 2014, sits on the same location as the original Shiyaroken Station.

Note: That ‘Parking Lot’ reference above was a very literal translation - Today, the word most commonly used in Mandarin for ‘parking lot’ is ‘停車場’, which is literally: ’Stop Car Space’, but a long time ago in Japanese, the same characters were used to identify a minor train station. The term, ‘Teishajo’ (停車場 / ていしゃじょう) was a designation that was mostly used for smaller train stations, as opposed to the larger stations, known in Japanese as ‘eki’ ( / えき), which is another word that isn’t used in Mandarin.

Although Bao-an Station opened in its current location in 1909, another aspect of the station’s history that isn’t so well-advertised is that it likely wasn’t upgraded into an ‘eki’ (驛 / えき) type of station until 1928 (昭和3年), when the currently used station house was constructed. So, if we’re being strict with these things, the station might have been established well-over a century ago, but the building that we can pass through today is just a few years short of a century old.

Interestingly, though, the history of this station is one that goes in spurts where there’s a flurry of activity, and then some downtime when not much happens for a few years, which then repeats itself. The little station has pretty much remained the same for over a century, but the world around it has changed considerably, and the number of people passing through its turnstiles have been reflected by these changes. Obviously, the number of people passing though the station was consistent while the nearby Sugar Factory was in operation between 1909 (明治42年) and 2003 (民國92年) as the station was only a stop away from the downtown core of Tainan.

Link: Ten Drum Rende Creative Park (Wiki) | Ten Drum Tainan (Taiwan Everything)

In 2001, though, daily traffic at the station increased by about 500% due to the popularity of the 'Yongkang - Bao-an’ auspicious ticket. By the time that craze settled down, though, the number of passengers started to decrease due to fewer trains stopping at the station. Most recently, thanks to the construction of the High Speed Rail Station and the new Shalun Branch Line (沙崙線), the number of arrivals at the station has once again started to increase, and this was helped out even more by the opening of the beautiful Chimei Museum, which is within walking distance of the station.

During my visit to the station, on a beautiful sunny Monday morning, it was quite busy with a number of passengers coming and going as well as a number of tourists who had come to check out the station prior to walking over to the Chimei Museum (奇美博物館).

Roof damage on the lower right side.

With all of the tourist traffic passing through the station, it remains relatively attractive, and nostalgic for a lot of people, but looking at it through my telephoto lens, its obvious that it is in need of some urgent reparations and restoration. Sections of the roof have begun to sink in, and the city government has cited termite damage on the wooden exterior.

As a Protected Heritage Property, eventually they’ll have to restore the building, but unlike many of Taiwan’s other older railway stations, its highly unlikely that it's in any danger of being torn down or replaced any time soon.

In the drop-down box below, I’ll offer a concise timeline of the stations history and then I’ll introduce its architectural design:

    • 1896 (明治29年) - The Colonial Government puts a team of engineers in place to plan for a railway network on the newly acquired island.

    • 1900 (明治33年) - Shiyaroken Station (車路墘停車場) opens for service on a limited track running between Tainan Station (臺南停車場) and Takao Port Station (打狗停車場).

    • 1902 (明治35年) - After years of planning and surveying, the government formally approves the Jukan Tetsudo Project (縱貫鐵道 / ゅうかんてつどう), a railway plan to be constructed along the western and eastern coasts of the island.

    • 1908 (明治41年) - The 400 kilometer Taiwan Western Line (西部幹線) is completed with a ceremony held within Taichung Park (台中公園) on October 24th. For the first time, the major settlements along the western coast of the island are connected by rail from Kirin (Keelung 基隆) to Takao (Kaohsiung 高雄).

    • 1909 (明治42年) - Shiyaroken Station is relocated 1.5 kilometers north of its original location for the benefit of staff of the newly established Shiyaroken Sugar Factory (車路墘製糖所).

    • 1920 (大正9年) - In a major administrative restructuring policy, Tainan Prefecture (臺南州) is officially established, stretching from Chiayi to just south of Bao-an Station.

    • 1928 (昭和3年) - The current station house, constructed entirely of cypress from Alishan (阿里山) is completed and opens for service.

    • 1945 (昭和20年) - The Second World War comes to an end and the Japanese surrender control of Taiwan to the Chinese Nationalists.

    • 1962 (民國51年) - Shiyaroken Station is officially renamed ‘Bao’an Station’ (保安車站).

    • 2001 (民國90年) - Bao’an Station is recognized as a Tainan City Heritage Building (臺南市市定古蹟)

    • 2001 (民國90年) - Bao’an Station experiences a massive surge in traffic due to the popularity of the Yongkang - Bao’an tickets. Daily ridership increases by at least 500% for the year.

    • 2008 (民國97年) - A second platform is constructed at Bao’an Station, creating the first expansion.

    • 2011 (民國100年) - The Shalun Branch Line (沙崙線) running from Tainan Station to Shalun Station, next to the Tainan High Speed Rail Station opens for service. The number of commuter trains departing Tainan Station is increased, which means that the number of daily departures and arrivals at Bao’an Station increases.

    • 2014 (民國103年) - In order to prepare for the construction of the future Tainan City subway system, the Taiwan Railway Corporation established Rende Station (仁德車站), about 1.5 kilometers south of Bao’an Station on the site of the Shiyaroken Station that was established in 1900.

    • 2015 (民國104年) - The Chimei Museum (奇美博物館) opens in new location within walking distance of the station, which creates an increased amount of daily traffic.

Architectural Design

Whenever it’s time to start detailing the architectural design specifics of the historic Japanese-era buildings that I write about, it’s often where I end up spending the majority of my time researching and writing, but, fortunately, in this case, I won’t need that much time. I’ve already written a number of articles about Taiwan’s historic train stations, each of which was constructed in an almost identical architectural design. If you’ve read any of my articles about the Coastal Five Treasures (海線五寶), Xiangshan Station (香山車站) or  Qidu Station (七堵車站), you’re likely to notice that most of these stations all appear relatively similar,, save for some minor differences.

The reason for this uniform style of design is because during the late Taisho (大正) and early Showa (昭和) eras, prior to the Second World War, many of the (smaller) train stations constructed in not only Taiwan, but Japan as well, were built in what would become a generic style of station design that offered all the functionality that a train station of the era required, were earthquake proofed in design, and most importantly were cost-effective.

Even though the number of stations constructed in this design have deceased in the post-war era, its rarely ever due to the quality of their design, but the changing demographics of the community that they serve. So, even though you can still find quite a few of these stations around Taiwan and Japan, it’s mostly because they have been constructed in areas where the population hasn’t changed much, and a larger station has yet to become necessary.

Considered to be an architectural fusion of a traditional Japanese-style building with western elements, what I personally find surprising about the design of these stations is that there doesn’t seem to be a specific term in the Japanese language used to describe it. Something I’ve had to learn the hard way during my time researching these things, though, is that it is often difficult to come across these specifics from Japanese sources. In the Chinese language, however, the design of these stations is referred to literally as a ‘Hiraya Kirizuma Western Style Wooden Station House” (木造平家切妻洋小屋), which probably doesn’t tell you much, but does offer a pretty good idea of what to expect from the design of the station if you’re familiar with the terms.

To help you better understand, what it basically means is that these buildings are a ‘single-story’ (平家) station ‘constructed of wood’ (木造), which makes use of the traditional Japanese ‘kirizuma’ style (切妻) of architectural design with 'western fusion elements’ (洋小屋) mixed in. That being said, the ‘western’ aspects of the architectural design were, for the most part, inspired by the architectural design of Western Baroque (巴洛克建築), which was quite popular with the Japanese architects of the day. However, for cost-saving measures, the western elements of design were minimal, and Bao’an Station in particular featured far fewer of these western-inspired elements than its contemporaries.

Like the other stations mentioned earlier, Bao’an Station was constructed using the traditional irimoya-zukuri (入母屋造 / いりもやづくり) style, an ubiquitous style of Japanese design that is most often referred to in English as the “East Asian hip-and-gable roof,” which is a term that I don’t really think gives people a good indication about what’s actually going on with this style of design. The key thing to keep in mind about the ‘irimoya’ style is that despite the English translation, it doesn’t necessarily tell you what ‘variation’ of roof is constructed on any given building, but it does indicate that buildings constructed in this style will feature one of traditional Japanese architecture’s various styles of intricate roof design.

I probably couldn’t come up with a more appropriate English term for describe these buildings, but, for me, a name that focuses more on the ‘moya’ (母屋 / もや) aspect of “irimoya”, might offer people a better idea of what’s going on. In layman’s terms, the ‘moya’ is essentially the core, or the ‘base' of the building, and when the irimoya-style is used, the ‘moya’, (literally the “mother-house”) is usually considerably smaller than the roof, which extends well-beyond the base.

This is a style of design that is also used in much more decorative buildings, such as Shinto Shrines, Buddhist Temples, and Martial Arts Halls, but is also commonly used for anything from houses to train stations like this one. The purpose of the building, and the amount of decorative elements aren’t really all that important, what always remains the same is that as the roof eclipses the size of the base and that the building features a genius network of roof trusses and pillars both within the interior and on the exterior of the building that allow the roof to become the defining aspect of the building, as well as ensuring that its weight is evenly distributed to ensure that the whole thing doesn’t collapse.

In this case, the roof of the station was designed using the kirizuma-zukuri (妻造的樣式) style, which is one of the oldest and most commonly used roof designs in Japan. Translated simply as a “cut-out gable” roof, the kirizuma-style is regarded as one of the more ‘basic’ styles of Japan’s ‘hip-and-gable’ roof designs. To explain as briefly as I can, it is a two-sided roof that can appear simple in design from the front of the building, but as you walk around the perimeter, you’ll notice that it becomes much more complex. The roof is layered with the eaves on the lowest layer extending well beyond the base, supported by a network of pillars that surround it on three sides. The top layer is where you’ll find the ”cut-out gable” with the gable-section of the roof covering the eastern side of the building, while the longer ‘hipped' side ‘cuts’ through it. Both of the ends of the ‘hip’ section feature triangular-shaped “tsuma” (妻 / つま) or gable-ends, with rectangular windows placed in the middle that allow natural light into the interior of the building. 

The upper part of the roof is covered with Japanese-style black tiles (日式黑瓦) while the lower eaves are covered with rain-boards (雨淋板) that help to direct the flow of rain water on rainy days. The black tiles that cover the roof appear to be quite old, and some of them are in pretty bad shape.

I haven’t been able to find any information regarding their age, but its possible that they could be the original tiles from the Japanese-era given that they tend to have a pretty long shelf life. They’re likely going to have to be replaced at some point in the near future, though. The original rain-boards, though, have already been replaced, and if their replacements are any indication, it might be better if those black tiles can last a little longer.

Even though the roof is somewhat basic in terms of its decorative elements, especially when compared to the hip-and-gable style roofs you’ll find on other Japanese-era buildings, there are still a number of elements to take note of, I’ll list each of those specific elements below with a diagram that should help you better understand what’s going on.

  1. Hiragawara (平瓦 /ひらがわら) - A type of arc-shaped clay roofing tile.

  2. Munagawara (棟瓦 /むねがわら) - Ridge tiles used to cover the apex of the roof.

  3. Onigawara (鬼瓦/おにがわら) - Decorative roof tiles found at the ends of a main ridge.

  4. Nokigawara (軒瓦/のきがわら) - The roof tiles placed along the eaves lines.

  5. Noshigawara (熨斗瓦/のしがわら) - Thick rectangular tiles located under ridge tiles.

  6. Sodegawara (袖瓦/そでがわら) - Cylindrical sleeve tiles.

  7. Tsuma (妻/つま) - The triangular shaped parts of the gable on the roof under the ridge.

  8. Hafu (破風板/ はふいた) - Bargeboards that lay flat against the ridge ends to finish the gable.

Moving on from the roof, starting from the main entrance to the station, you’ll find a roof-covered ‘kurumayose' (車寄/くるまよせ) porch that protrudes from the flat front of the building with a pair of pillars holding it up. The roof of the porch features a similarly designed kirizuma-style roof facing in the opposite direction of the roof above, adding to the three dimensional design of the building.

The ‘moya’ base of the building is a cube-like structure that is split into two sections, with one side reserved for passengers, and the other for the staff working at the station. One of the major differences between this station and some of the others mentioned earlier is that the passenger side is considerably larger, and features beautiful wooden benches. When you walk into the building from the front entrance, you are met with the ticket booth on the left while the right-hand side is covered on all three sides with beautiful Japanese-style paneled sliding glass windows (日式橫拉窗), which assist in providing a considerable amount of Tainan’s natural light into the interior as well as a bit of breeze on hot days.

One of the most notable aspects of the interior is the wooden gate located near the ticket booth. Gates like this were once very common in train stations during the Japanese-era as a means to help filter people in and out while waiting in line, but few of them remain these days. The gate was originally constructed to look like the Japanese word for ‘money’ (円), but was likely replaced at some point and looks a little different now.

Similarly, the entrance to the train platform features two wooden partitions that connect to a fence at the rear of the station, which date back to the Japanese-era. Now that the station has transitioned to electronic card swiping, the original turnstiles have been removed, so you can simply just walk through to get to your train.

This is the part of the station’s architectural design that I appreciate the most as the open gates transition into a fence-like structure that includes a roof-covered portico that surrounds the building on three sides. Part of an intricate network of carpentry genius, the pillars that connect to the fence assist in distributing the weight of the roof, but they also prevent people from jumping over the fence to take a free train ride. The fence, pillars, and gates combine to make an almost three-dimensional design and add complex geometric shapes to the design of the building, and are part of the western-inspired elements mentioned above.

In the past, in order to get to the train platform, you literally had to cross the train tracks and walk up a set of stairs that brought you to the island platform. Given how dangerous this is, especially since the introduction of Taiwan’s express trains that speed through without stopping at the station, an overpass has been constructed that allows passengers to safely make their way to the platform area. As I mentioned earlier, the platform area is one of the areas that has been expanded several times since the Japanese-era, which has allowed the station to keep up with the modern changes to the railway, while maintaining the same historic station house. When passengers are waiting for the train on the platform, you can enjoy a pretty good view of the rear of the station, the roof of the building, and the trees that were planted next to the building when it was originally constructed.

Finally, while not exactly part of the architectural design, I’ll conclude by mentioning the trees. One of the things that I’ve really started to appreciate about Japanese architecture, especially when it comes to the construction of buildings, is that they always plant trees next to the building as a time capsule of sorts that helps to show how old the building is. In this case, we have what has become known as the ‘Bao’an Three Treasures’ (保安三寶), which are likened to 'The Three Star’ deities (三星 / 福祿壽), Fu (福), Lu (祿), and Shou (壽), who are often found adorning the top of Taiwan’s temples. To the right of the main entrance, you’ll find an Orange Jasmine (七里香) while the much taller Palm tree (棕櫚樹) and Coastal she-oak (木麻黃) are to the left. If the memorial plaque next to trees is any indication, they date back to 1909 (明治42年) and predate the current station house, which is pretty cool.

Getting There

 

Address: #10, Alley 529, Wenxian Road, Rende District, Tainan City

(臺南市仁德區保安里文賢路一段529巷10號)

GPS: 22.932940, 120.231660

How is one to get to Bao’an Train Station?

You take the train, of course.

Given all the modernization that has taken place on Taiwan’s railway, the fact that you can still take a train to one of the nation’s oldest stations is pretty cool.

So you should definitely take the train. You do however have other options for getting there. 

The station is located only one stop south of Tainan Train Station, and the ride take only about seven minutes to get there. So, if you find yourself the proximity of the downtown core of Tainan, you shouldn’t have much of a problem hopping on a train. Likewise, if you’ve travelled into the city by High Speed Rail, you can transfer to a commuter train from the Shalun Train Station (沙崙車站) and take the train to Bao’an Station, which is a seventeen minute ride.

As a smaller station though, Bao’an Station isn’t serviced by every train headed south rom Tainan, so if you want to visit, you’ll need to make sure that you get on one of the silver Local Commuter Trains (區間車). 

Bus

In terms of buses, there are a few options that’ll help you get to the station, or the Chimei Museum (奇美博物館), which is within walking distance of the station. Located a short distance from the main entrance of the station, you’ll find a roof-covered pavilion set up where buses will come in off the main road and pick people up and drop them off. There are options that will take you to downtown Tainan, as well as others that will take you to the High Speed Rail Station, and beyond.

The following bus routes are available at the Bao’an Station stop:

Tainan City Bus (幹支線公車): Red Line #3, Red Line #4

High Speed Rail Shuttle Bus (高鐵快捷公車): #H31

Kaohsiung Bus (高雄客運): #239, #8042, #8046

I’ve linked to each of the bus routes above, but Taiwanese websites like this are notoriously unreliable, so if you click on any of the links and they don’t work, you should be able to just search the bus route on your own, and you’ll be able to find the link that they’re currently using.

Youbike

The bus stop is also home to a large Youbike Station where you can swipe your EasyCard and hop on one of the shared bicycles. If you’ve taken a Youbike on the ride from Tainan, you can easily dock the bicycle at the docking station in front of the train station and check out the train station, or take the train back to the city.

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend downloading the Youbike App to your phone so that you’ll have a better idea of the location where you’ll be able to find the closest docking station.

Link: Youbike - Apple / Android

Whether you’re simply on your way to the much larger, and (probably) much more interesting Chimei Museum nearby, a stop by this historic train station is an added bonus to your excursion out of Tainan. There aren’t too many stations like this left in Taiwan, and the fact that it still looks so great after nearly one hundred years is a testament to the skills of the carpenters and architects of the era. If you're just getting off the train to before heading else, make sure to take a few minutes to enjoy the historic station, and don’t forget to take a few photos at the same time.

References

  1. Bao'an Railway Station | 保安車站 中文 | 保安駅 日文 (Wiki)

  2. 保安車站 (國家文化資產網)

  3. 保安車站 (國家文化記憶庫)

  4. 保安車站 (鐵貓)

  5. 保安車站 (臺灣驛站之旅)

  6. 保安車站 (Blair and Kate's 旅遊與美食)

  7. 臺南市文化資產 (Wiki)

  8. 112 年度臺南市文資防護專業服務中心成果報告書 (臺南市文化資產管理處)

  9. 臺灣鐵道旅行案內 (臺灣總督府交通局鐵道部)

  10. 台南縱貫線木造車站巡禮 - 保安車站、林鳳營車站、後壁車站 (LINE Today)

  11. 仁德糖廠 (Wiki)

  12. 木造車站-海線五寶 (張誌恩 / 許正諱)


Gallery / Flickr (High Res Photos)

Taichung Train Station (臺中驛)

At some point during my elementary school years, my grandma arrived at our house to collect my sister and I for a trip to visit the extended family. Every summer we’d have a several day long family reunion in Halifax, but this time was different. Most of the time my grandfather would be in charge of driving us on the two hour journey to this city, but this time, he was busy with work, so he couldn’t join us. Instead, we drove to a local train station, and for the first time in my life, I stepped foot on a train.

For people here in Taiwan, getting on a train for the first time probably isn’t one of those memorable experiences that they remember vividly later in life, it’s just something that is simply part of daily life for a lot of people here that they take it for granted. For Canadians, though, taking a train, sadly, tends to be a very rare occurrence. I remember getting off the train, walking down a large covered platform, and then emerging into a massive open building, probably one of the largest buildings I had been in by that point in my life, and was in awe of the beauty of the European-style building.

Decades later, I found myself on a train bound south to the central Taiwanese city of Taichung for a weekend trip. When we arrived, I remember getting off of the train, walking down the platform to the station hall from which we’d start our weekend of exploration. Putting my ticket into the turnstile, I walked into the massive station, and was almost automatically transported back to that vivid childhood memory of my first experience on a train.

The station was busy, but the interior was massive, with high ceilings, white walls and European-style architecture. It wasn’t an experience that I was expecting, but it was one that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I didn’t particularly know that much about Taiwan at the time, so I never really put much thought into why the building appeared the way it did. but I enjoyed the quick reminder of my childhood experience, and then walked out of the station to check into our hotel for the weekend. Now that I’ve been in Taiwan for quite a while, and I’ve learned a lot about the nation’s history, I’m a little sad that I didn’t spend time taking photos of the station as it was while it was still in action.

Sadly, the historic Taichung Station, which had served the community just short of a century, like many other historic train stations around the country, was replaced with a modern-looking monstrosity, but came with the promise of increased efficiency, and for some people, that’s more important.

Actually, the modern station is quite beautiful in its own right, I shouldn’t be so harsh in my description. It’s a very well-designed open space, but it’ll never be as iconic as its predecessor.

Of the major Japanese-era railway stations, Taichung’s beautiful railway station was part of a short list of buildings that remained in operation almost a century after they were constructed. Today, only Hsinchu Station (新竹車站), Chiayi Station (嘉義車站) and Tainan Station (臺南車站) remain, and unsurprisingly, it seems like they might be running short on time, as well. Fortunately, unlike the disappearance of Japanese-era railway stations in Keelung (基隆車站), and Hualian (花蓮車站), local authorities had the foresight to preserve the historic station, giving the people of Taichung the peace of mind that even though some things might change, others would stay very much the same.

Today, I’m going to introduce the historic Taichung Train Station, it’s history, and its architectural design. Even though the station has recently been decommissioned, it has become part of a large cultural park that focuses on the history of the railway, something for which you’ll discover Taichung owes much of its prosperity to, so if you find yourself visiting the city today, a visit to the Railway Cultural Park that they have set up is a pretty good way to spend some of your time.

Taichung Railway Station (臺中驛 / たいちゆうえき)

To introduce the historic Taichung Railway Station, I’m going to do a bit of a deep dive into the events that led up to the arrival of the Japanese in Taiwan, and the development of the railway, which ushered in an era of modernity and economic opportunity that the people of Taiwan had yet to experience. While explaining how the railway became an instrumental tool for fueling the Japanese empire’s goal of extracting the island’s precious natural resources, I hope to also offer a bit of context as to why this station in particular became so important. Before I start, though, I need to reiterate that the building I’ll be introducing isn’t the current railway station, it’s the historic building that is located directly next door.

For anyone who has grown up in the Taichung, terms like ‘First Generation’, ‘Second Generation’ or ‘Third Generation’ don’t really mean anything - there’s only one Taichung Station, and there’s that newer-looking building next door where the trains currently come and go from. Understandably, when you’ve been the beating heart of a city for well over a century, it takes people a while to adjust to the newer situation.

The history of the railway in Taiwan dates back as early as 1891 (光緒17年), just a few short years prior to the arrival of the Japanese. A first for Taiwan, the railway project is arguably one of the most ambitious development projects undertaken by the Qing government while they still held control of the island. Under the leadership of Liu Mingchuan (劉銘傳), who would end up being the last governor of Taiwan, at its height, the Qing-era railway stretched from the port city of Keelung (基隆) to Hsinchu (新竹). However, even though the project was led by foreign engineers, the end result turned out to be a rudimentary, treacherous route that ultimately came at far too high of a cost to continue financing. Suffice to say, none of this should be particularly surprising, especially when you take into consideration that during the two centuries that the Qing controlled portions of the island, they never particularly cared very much about developing it, and this was especially true during the final few decades of their administration as they were more occupied with war (and revolution) at home.

The Manchu’s came to power in China at a time when the previous rulers had become far too weak to contend with constant rebellions and civil disorder. In what may seem like a case of history repeating itself, by the late 1800s, Qing rule had similarly become incompetent, and corruption was rife throughout the country. Putting it bluntly, the level of corruption and incompetence prevented China from modernizing its military, but it also resulted in them shooting themselves in the proverbial foot with some diplomatic missteps that led to war with Japan.

Known today as the ‘First Sino-Japanese War’ (1894-1895), the whole affair ended about as quickly as it began, resulting in considerable embarrassment for the Qing rulers, who were completely unprepared to wage a modern war against a well-equipped Japanese military. The year-long war ultimately shifted the balance of power in Asia from China to Japan, and would be one of the catalysts for revolution in China that would just a few years later bring thousands of years of imperial rule to an end.

Unable to successfully wage war against the Japanese, the Qing were forced to sue for peace a little more than six months into the war. This resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki (下関条約), which forced China to recognize the independence of Korea, and the Chinese would have to pay Japan reparations amounting to 8,000,000kg of silver. More importantly with regard to this article however, it also meant that Taiwan, and the Penghu Islands would be ceded to Japan in perpetuity.

Shortly thereafter, the Japanese set sail for Taiwan, landing in Keelung on May 29th, 1895. Upon arrival, Japanese forces were met with fierce resistance from the remnants of the Qing forces stationed on the island, local Hakka militias, and the indigenous people. Over the next five months, the Japanese gradually made their way south fighting a nasty guerrilla war that ‘officially’ came to an end with the fall of Tainan in October. That being said, even though the military had more or less taken control of Taiwan’s major towns, the insurgency and resistance to their rule lasted for quite a few more years, resulting in some brutal events taking place during that time.

Nevertheless, similar to the war with China, the superiority of the modern Japanese military easily dispatched the local armies, which vastly outnumbered them. The campaign, however taught the Japanese a hard, yet valuable lesson as figures show that over ninety-percent of the Japanese military deaths were caused by malaria-related complications.

Taiwan’s hostile environment turned out to be one of the main reasons why the Qing were so ambivalent towards the island, but is something that the Japanese were intent on addressing, especially since they were invested in extracting the island’s vast treasure trove of natural resources. To accomplish that mission, they would first have to put in place the necessary infrastructure for combating these diseases.

One of the colonial government’s first major development projects got its start shortly after the first Japanese boots stepped foot in Keelung in 1895. The military had brought with them a group of western-educated military engineers, and they were tasked with getting the existing Qing-era railway back up and running, as well as coming up with proposals for extending the railway around the island. As the military made its way south, the team of engineers followed close behind surveying the land for the future railway. By 1902, the team came up with a proposal for the ‘Jukan Tetsudo Project’ (縱貫鐵道 / ゅうかんてつどう), otherwise known as the ‘Taiwan Trunk Railway Project,’ which would have a railroad pass through each of Taiwan’s established western coast settlements, including Kirin (基隆), Taihoku (臺北), Shinchiku (新竹), Taichu (臺中), Tainan (臺南) and Takao (高雄).

Link: Taiwan Railway Museum (臺灣總督府鐵道部)

Construction of the railway was divided into three phases with teams of engineers spread out between the ‘northern’, ‘central’ and ‘southern' regions of the island. Amazingly, in just four short years, from 1900 and 1904, the northern and southern portions of the railway were completed, but due to some unforeseen complications, the central area met with delays and construction issues due to the necessity for the construction of a number of bridges and tunnels through the mountains.

Nevertheless, the more than four-hundred kilometer western railway was completed in 1908 (明治41), taking just under a decade to complete, a feat in its own right, given all of the obstacles that had to be overcome. To celebrate this massive accomplishment, the Colonial Government held an inauguration ceremony within the newly established Taichung Park (台中公園) with Prince Kanin Kotohito (閑院宮載仁親王) invited to take part in the ceremony.

The Japanese authorities touted the completion of the railway as part of a new era of peace and stability in Taiwan, and one that would help to usher in a new period of modernization, one that would bring economic stability to the people of the island - and for the most part, they were right about that.

The completion of the railway was instrumental in the development of the island and was a stark contrast from what the Qing considered a “ball of mud beyond the pale of civilization” (海外泥丸,不足為中國加廣) to an integral part of the Japanese empire.

Link: Mid-Lake Pavilion (湖心亭)

While the construction of the railroad, for the most part, seems to have gone by quite smoothly, as mentioned earlier, the central region was faced with delays in its completion in part due to poor planning and the necessity for the construction of large bridges and tunnels, which took longer than anticipated. That being said, by 1905, there were trains running a limited service route within Taichu Prefecture (臺中廳 / たいちゅうちょう) prior to their eventual connection with the northern and southern portions of the railway across the Da’an (大安溪) and Dadu (大肚溪) rivers.

One of the stations along the limited service route was the First Generation Taichung Railway Station (台中停車場), a modest single-story wooden station hall, which officially opened on June 10th, 1905 ( (明治38年). For the three years prior to the completion of the railway, the ‘Taichung Line’ connected the downtown of Taichung with Koroton Station (葫產激驛 / ころとんえき), Tanshiken Station (潭仔乾驛 / たんしけん), Ujitsu Station (烏日驛 / うじつえき), and Daito Station (大肚驛 / だいとえき), known today as Fengyuan (豐原), Tanzi (潭子), Wuri (烏日) and Chenggong (成功) Stations, respectively.

First Generation Taichung Railway Station

Link: Railway Station Name Change Chart (臺灣日治時期火車站新舊地名對照表)

With the completion of the Western Trunk Railway in 1908, Taichung, like many other major settlements around Taiwan experienced an economic boom, and as its economy thrived, more and more people made their way to the city to take part in the economic successes, that were in large part thanks to the railway. As the most important passenger and freight station in central Taiwan, Taichung Station quickly became an extremely busy place, and after less than a decade, the city had already outgrown its small wooden station hall. Thus, when the decision was made to replace the original station with a new one. This time, though, Taichung Station would become one of the largest stations on the island and would be one that reflected the prosperous community that it served.

Second Generation Taichung Railway Station

That being said, while construction of the new station was getting underway, some of the issues and delays caused during the construction of central Taiwan’s railway ended up persisting long after its completion. With the constant threat of earthquakes and typhoons creating major service disruptions, and the fact that central Taiwan was an important region for the extraction of sugarcane, fruit, and other commodities, the Railway Department of the Governor General of Taiwan (台灣總督府交通局鐵道部) was forced to come up with a solution to the problem. The answer came in the form of the “Kaigan-sen” (かいがんせん / 海岸線), or the Coastal Railway Branch Line, which started just south of Hsinchu and connected with the Western Trunk railway in the south of Taichung.

Link: The Coastal Railway Five Treasures (海線五寶) | Tai’an Railway Station (泰安舊車站)

The ‘Second Generation Taichung Railway Station’ officially opened on November 6th, 1917 (大正6年) - Much larger than the first generation building, the 436㎡ (132坪) station was constructed with reinforced concrete, red bricks and a beautiful wooden roof using a mixture of European Renaissance Architectural design. The construction of the second generation station was also an important time with regard to the expansion of the platform space, which was expanded to a size of 403㎡ (122坪), offering a covered roof for people waiting for their trains to arrive, and the installation of an underground walkway to replace the overpass that was constructed for the first generation building.

Over the following century, Taichung Station became one of the longest-serving symbols of the city, sharing important cultural and historic links with the people of Taichung. The station has lived through war, the subsequent authoritarian era, and has witnessed first hand a modern city develop around it. Like many of its contemporaries, however, the station fell victim to modernity, and in 2016, ninety-nine years after the first train rolled into the station, the final train departed.

It may have been the end of an era for the storied station hall, but we are fortunate that the local government had the foresight to realize that the historic building holds a special place in the hearts of the citizens of the city, said to ‘served as the iconic beating heart of the city.’ If they tore it down and replaced like so many of the other historic railway stations around the country, there might have been riots in the streets. Today, the historic Taichung Railway Station is part of a large railway cultural park next to the current station, and the people of Taichung, and the rest of us, are able to enjoy its continued existence.

Before I move on to detailing the architectural design of the station, I’ve put together a timeline of events in the dropdown box below with regard to the station’s history for anyone who is interested:

    • 1896 (明治29年) - The Colonial Government puts a team of engineers in place to plan for a railway network on the newly acquired island.

    • 1902 (明治35年) - After years of planning and surveying, the government formally approves the Jukan Tetsudo Project (縱貫鐵道 / ゅうかんてつどう), a railway plan to be constructed along the western and eastern coasts of the island.

    • 1905 (明治38年) - The First Generation Taichung Station (台中停車場) opens for operation.

    • 1908 (明治41年) - The 400 kilometer Taiwan Western Line (西部幹線) is completed with a ceremony held within Taichung Park (台中公園) on October 24th. For the first time, the major settlements along the western coast of the island are connected by rail from Kirin (Keelung 基隆) to Takao (Kaohsiung 高雄).

    • 1909 (明治42年) - A cross-platform sky bridge is constructed alongside the first freight warehouse.

    • 1913 (大正3年) - The Western Trunk Railway is extended further south to Pingtung (屏東), known then as Ako (阿緱/あこう).

    • 1917 (大正6年) - Construction on the Second Generation Taichung Railway Station is completed with an official opening ceremony held on November 6th.

    • 1919 (大正8年) - Construction on the "Kaigan-sen” (かいがんせん / 海岸線), coastal branch railway in the Miaoli-Taichung area gets underway.

    • 1922 (大正11年) - The Coastal Railway is completed and opens for operation.

    • 1923 (大正12年) - Crown Prince Hirohito makes an official visit to the city.

    • 1925 (大正14年) - Prince Chichibu (秩父宮雍仁親王) makes an official visit to the city.

    • 1926 (昭和1年) - Prince Takamatsu (高松宮宣仁親王) makes an official visit to the city.

    • 1935 (昭和35年) - The magnitude 7.1 Shinchiku-Taichū earthquake (新竹‧台中地震 / しんちく‧たいちゅうじしん) with an epicenter in nearby Houli (后里) rocks the island becoming the deadliest quake in Taiwan’s recorded history and causes massive damage around the island.

    • 1945 (昭和45年) - The station is heavily damaged during Allied Bombing raids.

    • 1946 (民國35年) - President Chiang Kai-Shek (蔣介石) marks his first visit to Taichung, traveling by train.

    • 1947 (民國36年) - Residents of Taichung hold a ‘228 Incident’ (二二八事件民眾起意大會) speaking event outside of the railway station, resulting in one of the first government crackdowns in central Taiwan.

    • 1949 (民國38年) - The Rear Station Hall (後站) officially opens.

    • 1964 (民國53年) - The Rear Station Hall is restored and renovated.

    • 1979 (民國68年) - The Taiwan Railway Corporation completes construction on the electrification of the Western Trunk Line.

    • 1995 (民國83年) - The government designates Taichung Station as a Second Grade Protected Historic Building (二級古蹟).

    • 1999 (民國88年) - The devastating 921 Earthquake (921大地震) in central Taiwan causes a tremendous amount of damage to the railway, shutting it down for almost two weeks.

    • 2005 (民國94年) - Taichung Railway Station celebrates its centennial, and the earthquake reparation work on the station is completed after a several year long project.

    • 2012 (民國101年) - Construction on the Third Generation Elevated Taichung Station (臺中車站高架化新站) breaks ground.

    • 2016 (民國105年) - On October 15th, the final express train to pass through the historic ground-level railway station is dispatched from Pingtung on its way to Taipei. The next day, the first northbound train departed from the elevated station at 6:25am, and a few minutes later, the first southbound train departed at 6:33am.

    • 2017 (民國106年) - The Second Generation Taichung Railway Station officially celebrates its centennial anniversary.

    • 2020 (民國109年) - The massive 19,800m2 Taichung Railway Cultural Park (臺中驛鐵道文化園區) is officially inaugurated, and the historic railway station is reopened to the public as part of a park that will continue to expand over the next few years as other historic buildings are restored.

Architectural Design

Looking back, it’s safe to say that the construction of Taiwan’s major railway stations certainly wasn’t an undertaking that the Japanese authorities took lightly. For each of Taiwan’s major population centers, the colonial government constructed a building that was ostentatious not only in its size, but it’s architectural design as well. For those of you who live in or have visited Taiwan, you may find it difficult to believe, but over a century ago, the island was pretty much devoid of development - prior to the arrival of the Japanese in 1895, it would have been extremely rare to see major construction projects like this, so massive buildings like this would have been something completely new to the people living here.

To put it in perspective, the construction of this station is likely to have aroused a similar type of awe and amazement as Taipei 101 did while it was under construction.

Of particular note, the railway stations constructed in Keelung, Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan, and Kaohsiung were highly regarded for their architectural beauty, most of which made use of a fusion of European and Japanese architectural design, with reinforced concrete, something that was quite uncommon, and very expensive, in the early years of the colonial era.

Something I’ve found to be quite a head-scratcher, and what seems to be one of the most common inaccuracies that you’ll find with regard to discussions about the Taichung Railway Station is the ‘person’ credited with its architectural design. So, let me take a minute to explain what’s actually getting lost in translation here. Most of the resources you’ll find regarding the architectural design of the station is that it was designed by an architect named Tatsuno Kingo (辰野 金吾 / たつの きんご), and oddly enough, both the Chinese and English resources that you’ll find misinterpret this fact.

In actuality, Tatsuno is fondly remembered as one of the founding members of the Architectural Institute of Japan, first studying under Josiah Conder, who is considered the “father of Japanese modern architecture,” before traveling to study architecture at the University of London. When he eventually returned to Japan, he took up a position as the Dean of Architecture at the University of Tokyo, and instructed many of the young designers who would follow in his footsteps. Tatsuno’s designs were inspired by the work of Christopher Wren and William Burges, architects whose work he studied during his years at the University of London. As part of the first generation of European-trained Japanese architects, Tatsuno’s architectural styles influenced many of those who followed in his footsteps designing modern buildings in the European Classical and Victorian styles.

In the early days of Taiwan’s colonial era, young Japanese architects likely salivated at the opportunity to come to Taiwan. The island was essentially a blank canvas, and with the government’s support, they hopped on boats and came to a place where they had considerably more freedom to be creative with their urban development projects. That being said, Tatsuno, who is known for his work with the Bank of Japan, Tokyo Station, the National Sumo Arena, etc, never actually made it to Taiwan, passing away in 1919.

Nevertheless, in order to do the building honor, the architects at the Department of Public Works (臺灣總督府交通局鐵道部) took inspiration from Tatsuno’s work, which by that time had become known as the “Tatsuno style” (辰野式), and with so many of his students employed in Taiwan, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that buildings like Presidential Building (總統府), the Monopoly Bureau (專賣局), Taichung City Hall (臺中市役所), and the Ximen Red House (西門紅樓), among others, were all inspired by his work.

Making use of a combination of red bricks and white stone in decorative patterns, with the addition of dormer windows, straight-flowing lines and beautiful stone pillars, Tatsuno’s style imitated the architectural designs he observed while studying in London. Combining elements of Gothic, Baroque, Renaissance and Art-Nouveau in a mixture that architects of the era referred to as “Free Classical,” (自由古典風格) it’s rather obvious that quite a few of these elements are elegantly put on display within the Taichung Railway’s architectural design. So, even though Tatsuno didn’t personally design the station, a quick look at one of his masterpieces, Tokyo Station (東京驛) should give you a pretty good idea as to where the inspiration for this station came from.

Interestingly, Tatsuno Kingo (金吾) was often referred to instead as “Kengo” (堅固), a play on words in Japanese that referred to the firmness and symmetry for which his buildings were designed. With that in mind, following the Tatsuno-style of ‘Free Classical’ design, the Taichung Train Station follows suit with equally-sized eastern and western wings connected to a tower located directly in the center of the building.

While the building looks large enough to have several floors, once you enter, you’ll notice that the interior space features high ceilings, which are naturally lit by the large windows in the center and along the eastern and western wings. The lobby is a bright and spacious room featuring white walls with the wings only separated only by stone columns, which help to stabilize the weight of the roof above.

If you look carefully at the stone columns within the building, you’ll notice a bit of localization going on with the inclusion of decorative elements featuring a variety of local produce, including bananas, pomegranates, pineapples, wax apples with a mixture of flowers and plants.

While the columns within the interior are decorative and celebrate central Taiwan’s agricultural prowess, what you don’t see is their functionality, which is covered by the closed ceiling. Within the attic space, there is an intricate network of wooden roof trusses and beams that have been installed to help stabilize the four-sided sloping gable roof that covers the station. The space above the eastern and western wings does the majority of the work with regard to stabilization as the central section, which features the iconic clock tower.

The central portion of the station tends to be the most architecturally significant section of the building as it protrudes from the roof in both the front and the rear. The space features a large front door as well as an open space at the rear where passengers would make their way through the turnstiles to the platform area. Protruding from the four-sided gable roof in the front, the central portion features its own two-sided roof with stone-carved floral and fruit displays at the apex and on the left and right.

The clock-tower rises up above the mid-section and features a four-sided copper roof of its own, with a spire reaching from the center.

While I’m not particularly sure if there was a clock in this space or not, the circular section in the middle facing outward from the building was replaced with the ‘Taiwan Railway’ logo at some point after the Japanese Colonial Era ended.

Once you’ve gone through the turnstiles to the platform area, one of the things you’ll want to pay attention to are the cast-iron columns along the platform space that maintain a similar approach to the Renaissance-style of architectural design. This is actually one of the only railway stations in Taiwan that maintains its original Japanese-era architectural designs, so when the area was restored, they made sure that extra attention was paid to these columns along the platform, which in some cases look like they’re straight out of Rome.

Speaking to the restoration of the building, it’s important to note some of the changes that took place within the station over the years. Today, if you visit, you’ll find the original wooden ticket booth, which has been well-preserved. That being said, as the city grew, the amount of passengers passing through the station increased. Thus, the eastern wing was renovated to feature a much larger ticket booth with offices for the station master and staff.

You can see the original train schedule displayed above this space, and there are currently informative displays in this space that help visitors understand the history of the building. The chairs within the western waiting space have been removed, and the space is now open with some educational displays added that help visitors understand the architectural design.

Taichung Railway Cultural Park (臺中驛鐵道文化園區)

A few years after operations at the century-old railway station were transferred to the newly constructed elevated station, the ‘Taichung Railway Cultural Park’ was officially inaugurated. Located next to the current railway station, the park not only includes the historic Taichung Station, but several other historic railway-related structures as well. That being said, the roll out of these historic structures, and their restoration continues to be a work in progress.

As I noted in my article regarding the role that Public-Private Partnerships (linked below) have played in the conservation of historic buildings in Taiwan, the Taichung Railway Cultural Park is almost a case study in its own right as the formation of the park has utilized a complex combination of OT (Operate-Transfer), ROT (Rehabilitate-Operate-Transfer) and BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) agreements with regard to the restoration and operation of the spaces within the park.

As part of the private partnerships operation agreement, the newly constructed elevated railway station also includes an impressive space on the first and second floors where visitors can enjoy local restaurants and purchase souvenirs from the city. As one of the city’s largest transport hubs, the railway station portion of the park can be a pretty busy place, but it has also become a popular spot for weekend pop-up markets, which are held along the historic train platform areas attracting quite a few visitors. It’s also become a great stop for foodies who can either enjoy a meal in one of the fifty-or-so restaurants within the park, or from some of the vendors within the market.

Similarly, if you’re a fan of the railway, it’s a great place to visit to enjoy the history of one of Taiwan’s oldest train stations, with exhibitions about its history, and even some historic trains that you can get on and check out.

Link: The role of Public-Private Partnerships in Conserving Historic Buildings in Taiwan

The culture park (currently) consists of the Second and Third Generation Railway Stations, the historic Taichung Rear Station (臺中後站), the Taichung Railway Freight Warehouses (二十號倉庫建築群), Taichung Station Railway Dormitories (復興路寄宿舍) and the Taiwan Connection 1908 railway path (臺中綠空鐵道). As mentioned above, though, not all of the buildings within the park have been restored and reopened to the public. Thus far, the historic train station, the rail platforms, the freight warehouses, and the green corridor have been opened. The railway dormitories and the rear station on the other hand are still in the process of being restored, and it’s unclear as to when they’ll have their official opening.

One of the best things about the park is that if you’re interested in the city’s history, you’re also a short walk from the historic Teikoku Sugar Factory Headquarters (帝國製糖廠臺中營業所), Taichung Park (台中公園), Taichung City Hall (台中市役所), the Taichung Prefectural Hall (台中州廳), and the Taichung Prison Martial Arts Hall. Similarly, the Taichung Confucius Temple (台中孔廟), Taichung Martyrs Shrine (臺中市忠烈祠) and the Taichung Literary Park (台中文學館) are all close by, and each of them originated during the Japanese-era, albeit with some caveats.

Unfortunately, even though the government has spent a considerable amount of money restoring buildings and making the railway park a really cool place to visit, the amount of information you’ll find available about it online is pretty weak. One of Taiwan’s biggest problems when it comes to tourism is that the government is willing to spend the money to develop these places, but when it comes to marketing them, especially to an international audience, they have absolutely no idea what to do. If you don’t believe me, feel free to click the link below to check out the railway park’s official website. I highly doubt you’ll be blown away by the effort that was put into its creation, or the amount of information that’s available.

Website: Taichung Railway Cultural Park (臺中驛鐵道文化園區) | Facebook Page

Hours: 11:00-21:00 (Monday to Friday), 10:30 - 21:30 (weekends and national holidays).

Getting There

 

Address: No. 1, Sec. 1, Taiwan Boulevard, Taichung (臺中市中區臺灣大道一段1號)

GPS: 24.141480, 120.680400

Whenever I write about one of Taiwan’s train stations, obviously the best advice for getting there is to take the train. Even though the historic Taichung Train Station has been put out of operation, both the station and the Taichung Railway Cultural Park are conveniently accessible via the newly constructed elevated Taichung Railway Station. So, if you’re coming from out of town, no matter if you’re coming from the north or the south, once you arrive at Taichung Station, you’re able to visit the culture park as soon as you exit the gates. That being said, if you’re arriving in town by way of the High Speed Rail, you’re going to have to transfer from the HSR station to the Xinwuri TRA Station (新烏日站), both of which are directly connected to each other. From there, you’ll make your way to Taichung Station, which is only four stops away.

If you’re in the city with a car, simply drive to Taichung Station, with the address provided above input into your GPS. There is a parking lot located within the lower levels of the station, so finding parking near the park is quite easy. Similarly, if you’re driving a scooter, you’ll find quite a bit of parking to the right of the historic station running perpendicular along Jianguo Road (建國路). It shouldn’t be too difficult to find a parking space, unless of course you’re visiting during a national holiday.

Old stamps for printing tickets

If you’re already in the city, but would like to visit, the park unfortunately isn’t accessible via the newly opened Taichung MRT, and it doesn’t look like it will be in the near future. So, if you want to make use of public transportation, the city has a number of buses that stop at both the front and rear sections of the station. The number of buses is quite expansive, so instead of listing them here, click the link to the Taichung Bus (台中客運) website below, where you can find the schedule and prices for each of the buses that service the station.

Link: Taichung Bus - Taichung Railway Station Buses

If you weren’t already aware, due to the lack of a proper subway system in the city for so long, the bus network has become quite expansive, convenient and reliable. If you’re in the city, taking the bus is probably one of your best options for getting around. If like most people, the bus network is a bit intimidating, never fear, simply open up Google Maps and set the Train Station as your destination, and the bus routes that you’ll need to take from wherever you are.

While living in Taiwan, I was fortunate enough to pass through the gates of the historic train station on quite a few occasions while it was still in operation. I’ve always been a big fan of Taichung, and there’s always quite a bit to do when visiting the city. In the near future, the city will be opening several new Japanese-era culture parks, so it’s likely that I’ll be making my way down there more often to check out some of these newly opened tourist attractions. Now that the train station has become part of a much larger culture park, it is a convenient place to check out, especially given that it is located next to the current station. If you’re arriving in town by the train, like so many millions of others have since 1905, you’re automatically treated to a birds-eye view of how Taichung has developed into a major city over the past century.

References

  1. Taichung Railway Station | 臺中車站 中文 | 台中駅 日文 (Wiki)

  2. 臺中火車站 古蹟 (Wiki)

  3. Taichu Prefecture | 臺中州 中文 | 台中州 日文 (Wiki)

  4. Tatsuno Kingo | 辰野金吾 中文 | 辰野金吾 日文 (Wiki)

  5. 第二級古蹟臺中火車站整體修復工程調查研究及修護計畫 (臺灣記憶)

  6. 國定古蹟臺中火車站保存計畫 (文化部)

  7. 台中火車站 (國家文化資料庫)

  8. 臺中火車站 (國家文化資產網)

  9. 台中車站 (舊) (鐵貓)

  10. Taichung Station Railway Cultural Park (臺中驛鐵路文化園區)

  11. 台中車站‧台灣唯一跨時代三代同堂的大車站 (旅行圖中)

  12. 臺中驛 (Wilhelm Cheng)

  13. Departing from where it all started: Taichung Railway Station (Taiwan Fun)


Jialishan (加里山)

Miaoli’s Jiali Mountain has been a hike that has been at the top of my list of trails to check out for quite some time, but has sadly stayed that way due to it being somewhat inaccessible, that is, if you don’t have your own means of transportation - So, when a good friend of mine sent a late night text asking: “Jialishan, this Sunday, you in?”, I didn’t need to take any time to consider, it was an automatic yes.

And, let me tell you, I was so happy that I was able to add this one to my list of mountains in Taiwan that I’ve hiked.

The weather that day was absolutely perfect, the light on the trail was beautiful, the scenery on the peak was spectacular, and I also met some cool new hiking friends in the process!

Nicknamed Taiwan’s Mount Fuji (台灣富士山), with a peak reaching 2220 meters, Jialishan is one of the highest of Taiwan’s ‘100 Minor Peaks’ (小百岳), a group of mountains that range between elevations of 2600m at the highest and 20m at the lowest. Unlike Taiwan’s highest peaks, however, each of which reach over 3000m in height, the ‘Minor Peaks’ are a constantly evolving selection of popular day-hikes that range from entry-level hikes, with easy access to public transportation, to hikes like this one that require a little more skill and effort to complete.

Whereas the major peaks often require permits and a commitment of several days to complete, many are surprised to learn that they may have already completed some of the ‘Minor Peaks,’ some of which include Taipei’s Qixing Mountain (七星山), Jiantan Mountain (劍潭山) and the so-called ‘Four Beasts Mountains’ (四獸山). So, if you’ve found yourself on the peak of Taipei’s Elephant Mountain (象山) enjoying the spectacular views of the Taipei cityscape, you’ve already been on at least one of the ‘minor peaks’.

In each case, the hikes mentioned above are easy to get to, and don’t particularly require too much effort or skill to complete. That being said, there are a number of hikes on the list, mostly located in central Taiwan, that are considerably more difficult, and require a lot more effort. At 2663m, the highest mountain on the list, Mount Daito (大塔山), might not be the most difficult to complete, but still, it takes the better part of a day. The fifth highest mountain on the list, Jialishan, similarly takes the better part of a day to complete, but isn’t exactly the easiest to reach, nor is it the easiest for most people to complete.

Nevertheless, the challenges you face while hiking the trail aren’t likely to outweigh the rewards as you’ll enjoy dense forests of Japanese cedar, a historic timber railway, and stunning views of the several mountain ranges.

Hiking the mountain on a clear day, we were able to enjoy a view of Taiwan’s second-highest peak, Snow Mountain (雪山), which was covered in snow at the time. At the same time, thanks to the peak being the highest in the area, we were also rewarded with 360 degree views of the Central Mountain Range, which includes the Alishan Mountain Range (阿里山山脈) to the south, where Mount Daito, mentioned above is the highest peak.

Given that I love hiking Taiwan’s mountains, and the hike also included a walk along a historic Japanese-era railway, this is exactly the kind of experience that the doctor ordered after a long, rainy and cold Lunar New Year holiday. The popularity of this hike shouldn’t surprise anyone as all of your sweat won’t compare to the rewards you’ll receive at the peak.

Today, I’m going to introduce the trails on the hike, talk a bit about the railway you’ll see along the way, and offer information about how to get there so that anyone wanting to enjoy the hike has the information they need to get there. Unfortunately, I have to preface this by letting you know that for most foreign visitors, getting to the trail isn’t that easy, and its likely that you’ll need help in that department, so I’ll be providing links to groups that will be able to help arrange transportation and guides.

Jialishan (加里山)

Before I start introducing the trails on the hike, let me first take some time to provide some practical information about the mountain and the range that it is a part of. If you’re already familiar with Taiwan’s geography, you’re likely aware that the country is geologically ‘split’ between the eastern and western sides by several mountain ranges. The term “Central Mountain Range” is probably the most well-known in this regard, but there are actually several ranges that make up what is essentially the spine of Taiwan, including the Alishan Range (阿里山山脈), Xueshan Range (雪山山脈), the Coastal Mountain Range (海岸山脈) and the Yushan Range (玉山山脈).

The Jialishan Mountain Range (加里山山脈), is located on the north-western edge of the spine spreading from Nantou County (南投縣) in central Taiwan to Keelung (基隆) on the north coast. About 180 kilometers in length, the range includes a number of mountains, several of which are well over 2000 meters in height, most notably Jialishan at 2,220 meters, Dongxishui Shan (東洗水山) at 2,248 meters, and the highest mountain on the range, Le Mountain (樂山) at 2,618 meters. While they not be the largest on the range, there are a number of peaks that are part of the Jialishan Range that are incredibly popular with tourists, some of which I already mentioned above, such as Elephant Mountain (香山), Jinmian Mountain (金面山), Jiantan Mountain (劍潭山), Bitou Cape (鼻頭角), etc.

A snow-capped Snow Mountain in the distance.

Suffice to say, you may not have heard the term before, but if you’ve spent any time hiking in Taipei, you’re likely to have found yourself enjoying one of the mountains that is part of the mountain range.

Despite Jialishan itself not being the highest peak on the range, geographer Tomita Yoshirou (富田芳郎 / とみたよしろう) and geologist Lin Chaoqi (林朝棨) coined the term during the Japanese-era, and it stuck. That being said, there is debate as to whether the ‘Jialishan Range’ is actually a mountain range or not. Similarly known as the “Western Thrust Fault Mountains” (西部衝上斷層山地), one of the main reasons why it’s not incorporated into the Xueshan Range is due to differences in the range’s geology, which is more similar to that of the Alishan Range to the south. Another reason why there is debate as to whether or not it is a mountain range on its own is because its topography is cut by several different rivers, which act as tributaries for some of Taiwan’s major sources of fresh water.

The debate as to whether it’s a mountain range or not really isn’t the point for this article, but as the namesake for the range, Jialishan is not only a popular hike, but a prominent mountain as well. Located between Miaoli County’s Nanzhuang (南庄鄉) and Tai’an (泰安鄉) townships, the mountain has been known throughout history as “Jiali'xian Mountain” (加里仙山), Santai Mountain (三台山), or Jialishan (嘉璃山), which has a similar pronunciation to the current name, but uses different Chinese characters. Today, the mountain is officially know as “Jiali Mountain” (加里山), but is also nicknamed ‘Miaoli Mountain’ (苗栗縣山), and since the Japanese-era, it has been referred to as ‘Taiwan’s Fuji Mountain’ (台灣富士山).

The Jialishan trailhead is located deep within the mountains, and as mentioned earlier, isn’t the easiest to get to, but as you pass through the historic Hakka village of Nanzhuang and make your way further up into the mountains, you’ll discover that you’re passing through several indigenous communities, and the further you make your way up the road to the trailhead, the more remote you’ll find these communities become, consisting mostly of mountain-side farms.

Note: Located within Nanzhuang Township, you’ll find the following indigenous tribes: Rareme’an (向天湖部落), Kahkahoe’an (八卦力部落), Hororok (鵝公髻部落), Walo’ (瓦祿部落), Ray’in (蓬萊部落), Sasasezeman (東江新邨部落), Raisinay (石壁部落), P’anoh (鹿場部落), Sinpitu (鹿湖部落), Haboeh (大窩山部落), Batbato’an (二坪部落), Tamayo’an (大湳部落), all of which are members of the Saisiyat People (賽夏族), one of the smallest of Taiwan’s officially recognized indigenous groups, mostly located within Hsinchu County and Miaoli County.

Link: Council of Indigenous Peoples (原住民族委員會)

The important thing to remember about the road to Jialishan is that the further you drive into the mountains, the narrower, and more steep the road becomes. It’s not an easy road for most vehicles, and you need to drive carefully and constantly be aware of and considerate of on-coming traffic. On our drive to the trailhead, we encountered a relatively new Lexus that was overheating and had to stop on the side of the road to let the car cool down. With that in mind, you’ll want to keep not only your own physical condition in mind, but also the condition of your vehicle before attempting to reach the trailhead.

Once you’ve arrived at the parking lot, you’ll pay a small parking fee, and the trailhead is a short walk away.

Jialishan Trail (加里山登山步道)

A short distance from where you park your car, you’ll find the trailhead marker for the trail, where you’re likely to encounter fellow hikers taking photos prior to setting off, or just after they’ve finished their hike. The marker includes both the name of the trail and a map of the routes you can take through the forest. While looking at the map, you’re likely to notice that you have a few options on the hike, but most people choose to hike to the peak, and then either leaving the way they came, or completing a circuit from the trailhead to the peak, to another peak, and then down through the historic timber railway trail.

The first option, which is probably the most popular, is just over seven kilometers in length, and will likely take anywhere between six and seven hours to complete. That, however, depends on the amount of time you take to enjoy the peak, and how often you take breaks.

The circuit hike on the other hand takes considerably longer, and is almost double the length. While the vast majority of people hiking the trail are likely only hiking in and out, if you’re like myself and want to enjoy the complete experience, the most important thing you’re going to have to keep in mind is the time you’re setting off from the trailhead - if you aren’t at the trailhead shortly after the sunrise, its probably not a great idea to hike the circuit as you’re likely to find yourself hiking out in the dark. Today, I’ll be sharing photos from the circuit hike, which my group started shortly after 7:30am, and didn’t actually finish until close to 4:00 in the afternoon. So, for your own personal safely, you’re going to want to keep this in mind prior to starting the hike.

As I move on below, I’ll introduce both the in-and-out ‘Jialishan Return’ hike as well as the ‘Circuit Hike’ with an introduction to each of the hikes, a break down of the routes you’ll take, and offer downloadable GPX files that you can put on your phone prior to the hike. Then I’ll offer information about how to get to the trail and the things you’ll need to bring with you.

Jialishan Return Trip

As I’ve mentioned a few times already, the in-and-out route is probably the preferred hike for most people hiking this mountain - It’s a straight forward 3.9 kilometer hike to the peak, and then heading back the way you came. I’ve seen some articles claim that the hike is seven kilometers in length, but the good people at the Hiking Journal (健行筆記), one of Taiwan’s best resources for information about mountains and trails, have a detailed break down of the hike with GPX that show that its actually closer to eight.

The estimated break down for the hike is as follows:

Jialishan Trailhead (加里山鹿場登山口) → Fengmei River (風美溪) - 0.6K, 15min

Fengmei River → Refuge Hut (避難山屋) - 1.3K, 70min

Refuge Hut - #9 Boulder Ascent ( 九號救援椿陡升坡) - 1.3K, 45min

#9 Boulder Ascent → Jialishan Peak (加里山三角點) - 0.5K, 45min

Jialishan Peak - Jialishan Trailhead - 3.9K, 175min

Once you’ve parked your car, you’ll find it’s a very short walk to the trailhead and given that you’ve already travelled so far up into the mountains already, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the transition from paved parking lot to nature is almost instantaneous. For much of the first hour or two of the hike, you’ll be passing through a forest of Japanese cedar trees that date back to Taiwan’s Japanese era (1895 - 1945), part of a reforestation effort after the timber industry culled the original forest. It’s not until you reach higher elevations that you’ll encounter the mountain’s native alpine-like forest.

Even though the trail is well-maintained, one of the things you’ll have to be mindful of while hiking are all of the tree roots that you’ll encounter along the trail. In some areas, the roots are absolutely beautiful, especially when the morning light is shining on them, so even though you need to tread carefully, they’re also an enjoyable aspect of the hike. Similarly, the first portion of the hike travels along an abandoned railway, so you’ll have to be careful while walking along the rails as some of them have become dislodged over the decades.

Along the way, you’ll encounter several rest stops where you and your party can sit, catch your breath, or have a snack. The stops usually feature a bench, but the higher you get, you’ll also find that the trail is home to some really large boulders that are pretty good for sitting on as well.

You’ll also come across periodic trail markers that provide information about the direction hikers need to take, and the remaining length of the trail that are meant to help you from getting lost.

Shortly after starting the hike, you’ll have to cross the Fengmei River (風美溪), but don’t worry, you won’t get wet. There are large rocks you can walk on and ropes that assist you in crossing the river. Prior to crossing the river, the hike is a quaint walk through a flat forest, leading you to think that its going to be a pretty easy day.

After crossing the river, though, the flat sections of trail are few and far between as the trail becomes quite steep. This is where the rest stops come in handy as you’ll undoubtedly need to take breaks. Later on, there are several slopes that you’ll have to climb, so if you have brought gloves with you, you’ll probably want to put them on to keep your hands soft and pretty.

That being said, the slopes are rarely very difficult to walk up, so even though it’s advised that you bring a pair of gloves with you on the hike, it’s not like other popular hikes like Wuliaojian (五寮尖), Stegosaurus Ridge (劍龍稜) or Huang Di Dian (皇帝殿) where gloves are an absolute necessity.

After a few hours of hiking, you’ll reach the aptly named ‘#9 Boulder Ascent’ rock, which comes with a warning sign for danger, but don’t let it scare you, it’s pretty easy to walk up the rock, and once you get to the top, you’re treated to your first glimpse of the amazing views that the peak is renowned for, looking directly toward the Snow Mountain Range.

From there, the peak is only a few hundred meters away, and once you arrive you’ll be treated to 360 degree views of several different mountain ranges. While at the top, you’ll likely want to take a photo with the stone triangulation point (三角點), identifying the peak of Jialishan, with the name of the mountain and its elevation, for your collection.

The peak tends to be quite windy as it’s completely open to the elements, so even though you’ll want to stay there to enjoy the view for a while, it’s probably a good idea to wear a hat to prevent yourself from getting sunstroke. You might also need a windbreaker, even on a hot day.

While we were on the peak, there was a group of seasoned Taiwanese hikers who had nestled themselves into a flat spot and were having a massive full course spread before leaving. So, if you can find a spot, you’ll probably want to have something to eat before heading back.

Once you’re done on the peak, simply head back down the way you came.

This time, though, you’ll want to take extra care on the slopes as you’ll be walking down them instead of up, and you might run into traffic along the way. Take it slow.

Trailhead (登山口): Jialishan Hiking Trail (加里山登山步道)

Trail Length (步道里程): 7.8km

Altitude (海拔高度): 1280-2220m

Time: 6-7 hours

Difficulty: (難易度): Medium

Permit: (申請入山): No

The downloadable GPX for the Jialishan Return hike is linked below:

Link: Jialishan Return Hike (健行筆記)

Jialishan - Dujuanling Circuit (加里山 - 杜鵑嶺)

Your other option, which if you have enough time - I highly recommend, is to complete the Jialishan - Dujuanling Circuit hike. However, with the in-and-out route reaching nearly eight kilometers, it’s already quite long for what most people are comfortable with for a day hike. The circuit route is considerably longer, more difficult, and requires a lot more time, but along the way you’ll make your way to Dujuanling (杜鵑嶺), another peak, and get to experience a completely different forest, one that was left somewhat untouched by the timber industry, before making your way to the historic timber railway part of the route.

The break down for the circuit hike is as follows:

Jialishan Trailhead (加里山鹿場登山口) → Fengmei River (風美溪) - 0.6K, 15min

Fengmei River → Refuge Hut (避難山屋) - 1.3K, 70min

Refuge Hut - #9 Boulder Ascent ( 九號救援椿陡升坡) - 1.3K, 45min

#9 Boulder Ascent → Jialishan Peak (加里山三角點) - 0.5K, 45min

Jialishan Peak → Dujuanling (杜鵑嶺) - 1.7K, 40min

Dujuanling → Marker #4 (杜鵑嶺四號救援椿) - 1.0K, 50min

Marker #4 → Marker #14 (14號救援椿) - 1.3K, 60min

Marker #14 → Jialishan Trail (加里山登山口叉) - 2.7k, 70min

Jilishan Trail → Refuge Hut - 2.7K, 70min

Refuge Hut - Jialishan Trailhead - 1.9K, 50min

The circuit hike follows the same route to the peak of Jialishan, but once you’ve reached the peak, you’ll continue walking along the ridge on a path that takes you to another peak named Dujuanling (杜鵑嶺). Completely different than the peak of Jialishan, this one is tree-covered and measures at an altitude of 2113m, just seven meters lower than the Jialishan. For a lot of hikers, the hike to Dujuanling means that they get to cross another one off of their list, so it’s well worth the extra effort.

That being said, there’s not much to see at the peak of Dujuanling, so you’ll probably just take a photo with the triangulation point and then continue making your way back down to the trailhead.

As mentioned earlier, one of the main reasons why the circuit hike is more attractive is that you get to travel through a more untouched portion of the forest, and then meet up with the area where a historic trolly system met with the timber railway.

Unlike the first portion of the trail, which pretty much just goes up, this part of the circuit trail has several areas where you’re going up, down, up, and then down again - it’s a lot harder on the legs - so if you’re hiking this one, you’re going to get a pretty good workout on the extra four kilometers of trail. Once again, given that you’ll need a few extra hours to complete this hike, the time you arrive at the trailhead is really important, as is your level of fitness. Requiring around eight hours, if you haven’t arrived early enough, it’s probably not a good idea to hike the circuit.

Trailhead (登山口): Jialishan Hiking Trail (加里山登山步道)

Trail Length (步道里程): 12.5km

Altitude (海拔高度): 1280-2220m

Time: 7-9 hours

Difficulty: (難易度): Medium-Difficult

Permit: (申請入山): No

The downloadable GPX for the Jialishan Circuit Trail is linked below:

Link: Jialishan Circuit Trail GPX (健行筆記)

Jialishan Timber Railway (加里山林業鐵道)

The historic ‘Old Street’ in Nanzhuang (南庄老街) has been a popular destination for weekend tourist crowds for quite a while, but unlike most of Taiwan’s other so-called ‘Old Streets’, such as Daxi Old Street (大溪老街), the history of Nanzhuang isn’t very well advertised. When you visit, you’ll find an incredible amount of Hakka and Indigenous culture and cuisine lining the streets, but explanations as to why the village was once so prosperous are hard to come by.

Like most of Taiwan’s other tourist old streets, you’ll find buildings constructed with baroque facades, a massive temple, and vendors lining the streets selling local snacks, but one of the problems caused by Miaoli being Taiwan’s most debt-ridden county is that it is unable to restore buildings of historic significance. In Nanzhuang’s case, the village would do well to follow the example of Daxi, and restore some of the buildings that were instrumental in bringing so much wealth to the village.

Link: The Daxi that Japan left behind (日本留下的大溪)

In 1918 (大正7年), the Taiwan Governor General’s Office established the Nanzhuang Camphor Forest Operations Headquarters (南庄樟林作業所), and over the next few decades, the village experienced massive growth thanks to the Forestry Industry, extracting not only camphor from the mountains, but citronella oil and coal, as well.

Jialishan, the highest mountain in the area was home to a large amount of camphor (樟腦), an incredibly important natural resource during the Japanese era, so the mountain became home to a highly developed logging industry that boasted over 5,200 meters of railway, and a cable trolly that transported timber down the mountain.

When the Japanese era came to an end, the timber industry continued for a short time, but the operation was eventually abandoned as camphor reserves were depleted, and its importance wained in favor of a synthetic alternative. Left abandoned for decades, the railway and (amazingly) some of the trolly equipment can still be found on the mountain today. As you hike the mountain, you’ll have the opportunity to walk along the historic railway in areas where the rails are still intact, but changes in the landscape over the years have made it so that the original route isn’t accessible or safe to hike.

While I do write hiking guides somewhat regularly, one of my areas of expertise with regard to my research and writing about Taiwan focuses on the island’s fifty year of Japanese colonial rule. Most of you are here for information on the hike, but I think it’s important to note how that period transformed a lot of what you’ll experience when you hike the Jialishan Trail today. The key thing to keep in mind was that in addition to Taiwan’s fruit, sugar and coal, camphor was one of the most important natural resources extracted by the Japanese, making the island an untapped treasure trove that assisted in amassing massive amounts of foreign exchange and fueling Taiwan’s development.

One area that is quite admirable, especially when you look back with a modern view of these things, is that there was enough foresight to realize that the extraction of camphor was an unsustainable industry, and that the reforestation of these mountainous areas was essential for not only the long-term health of the timber industry, but for the natural environment as well.

Scientists were sent to Taiwan to set up research stations in many of the main timber industry locations around the island, such as those in nearby Kappazan (角板山) and Chikuto (竹東). It was in these stations where they made scientific breakthroughs, such as in the cultivation of cinchona (金雞納樹), a flowering plant known for its medicinal value, especially with regard to treating malaria. In other cases, many of the mountainous forests around Taiwan were reforested with Japanese cedar (杉 / すぎ), which was also incredibly important for the future development and construction projects across Taiwan.

Today, you’ll find several ‘Forest Recreation Parks’ (森林遊樂區) around Taiwan that were once occupied by the timber industry, but have been converted into mountainous hiking trails where people are able to escape the city and enjoy nature. Dongyanshan (東眼山) in the mountains of Taoyuan is another well-known example, and is an area that was also reforested with beautiful Japanese cedars that have been growing for nearly a century.

Link: Dongyanshan Forest Recreation Park (東眼山國家森林遊樂區)

For a lot of hikers, the abandoned railway on this hike is reminiscent of what you’ll experience on other popular tourist mountains, like Alishan (阿里山) and Taipingshan (太平山), but in this case, the railway isn’t as accessible, so the photos you’ll get won’t be the same as those that have become popular on Instagram in recent years!

preparing for the Hike

As mentioned earlier, while preparing to hike Jialishan, there are a few things you’ll first need to take into consideration as well as some other things you’ll want to take along with you for the hike, so I’ll offer a few helpful suggestions for those of you wanting to enjoy this trail.

The first, and probably most important thing you’ll want to consider is your level of fitness, and the amount of time you have to complete the hike.

In both cases, you’ll want to arrive early in the morning to start the hike, but when it comes to the ‘circuit’ hike, both the amount of time you have, and your level of fitness are going to be major factors in your level of success. The circuit hike is a lot longer, and a lot more difficult to complete, and you’re going to have to carry a lot more water and food with you if you choose that option. As a frequent hiker, when I’m not climbing mountains, I spend a lot of time on cardio at the gym, and still, at the end of this one, my legs were feeling a bit like rubber. If you have doubts, I highly recommend sticking to the shorter hike.

Things you’ll need to bring:

  • Water - It’s advisable that you carry at least 2-3 litres of water with you on this hike. Depending on how much water you drink, you might even want to carry more with you just in case. I completed the circuit hike, and I can attest that 2L was not sufficient.

  • Food - You should prepare some high-protein snacks, and bring a lunch that you can enjoy while hiking. As you pass through Nanzhuang, there are a number of convenience stores and supermarkets where you can stop and purchase snacks, but that will be your last chance to purchase anything, so make sure you have what you need beforehand, and also don’t forget to carry your garbage out with you.

  • Gloves - There are a number of areas where you’re going to have to pull yourself up a rock face with the help of ropes. The ropes are a great help, but they can be hard on your skin. You’ll probably want to prepare a pair of gloves that you can put on when necessary. Most hardware stores in Taiwan sell cheap $10NT work gloves that you can purchase for hikes like this. You don’t need to buy an expensive pair of gloves at a hiking store.

  • Sun Protection - One of my worst habits is that I rarely remember to prepare sunscreen (or a hat) for the hikes I go on, and I often end up getting heat stroke, which was the case with this hike. During the hike, especially when nearing the peak, you are going to be completely open to the sun, so you’ll want to make sure to prepare both sunscreen and a hat to protect yourself.

  • Towel / Quick Dry Clothing - You’re going to sweat on this one, so I highly recommend you bring a towel with you to wipe yourself down from time to time. I don’t sweat as much as most of my hiking friends, but I was absolutely dripping during this hike. Similarly, you’re going to want to wear quick-dry clothing to ensure that all of your sweat doesn’t result in you catching a cold when you’re done.

  • Windbreaker - While on the peak of the mountain, it’s going to be quite windy. You should probably consider preparing a windbreaker jacket to protect yourself.

  • Phone / Camera - This is something that I probably don’t really have to mention, but if the photos in this article aren’t already evidence enough, the trail and the peak are absolutely beautiful. You’ll definitely want to have something to help record your experience. On that note, though, if you have a drone, you should leave it at home. The peak of Jialishan is in a restricted zone, so you’ll have carried your heavy drone for nothing as it won’t take off unless you have a special permit.

  • Friends to enjoy the experience with - Hiking is always better with friends. For safety, don’t hike this one alone. Friends are also useful for helping to take photos.

Getting There

Jialishan Hiking Trail

Address: Luchang Communication Rd, Nanzhuang Township, Miaoli County (苗栗縣南庄鄉東河村鹿場24鄰19-20號)

GPS: 24.586000, 120.997240

Alright, so here’s the bad news. Getting to Jialishan isn’t so easy.

You more or less need to have your own means of transportation, and the road to the mountain is very remote and narrow. It’s more or less impossible for a bus to get up there, and if someone even attempted it, it would cause massive traffic jams or accidents on what are cliff-side roads.

The address and GPS coordinates I’ve provided above aren’t for the trailhead, they’re for the parking lot that is made available to hikers a short walk from where the trail starts.

If you have your own means of transportation, the parking lot has a fee of $100NT for the day, no matter how long you’re on the trail, and there will be people there to direct you where to park.

Included in your parking fees are access to a public restroom where you can use the washroom before and after your hike, or simply just to wash up.

The Parking Lot on Google Maps is listed as the “Jialishan Trailhead Forest Camping Area” (加里山登山口森林露營區), and there are camp grounds near by, which might actually be quite useful if you can get to the trail the night before and wake up early in the morning for the hike.

In terms of public transportation, there’s nothing that will get you even remotely close to the trail, so your only option would be to hop on a bus to Nanzhuang and then grabbing a taxi to the trailhead. That being said, getting back down from there would be a bit of a nightmare as its unlikely that many taxi drivers would be willing to go that far and take their car on the steep road just to pick you and your group up.

If you’re intent on hiking the trail, you’re in luck, as the best option would be to take a chartered ride with the good people at Parkbus, who often schedule trips to this mountain (as well as others) for a minimal charge.

I can’t guarantee the frequency for which they plan trips to this specific mountain, but as I’m looking at the site now, their next trip to Jialishan is taking place a month from now, so they likely have a regular schedule of trips to the mountain that you’ll want to keep track of.

Their services include both pick up and drop off at Taipei Station, so you’ll have your travel completely covered, as well as the assistance of an experienced English-speaking guide.

Link: Jiali Mountain -加里山 (Parkbus)

Long on my list of trails to hike, I have to say, I was quite content with this one. The day we hiked the mountain was absolutely beautiful with great weather and clear skies. The trail was fun, and even though I was feeling the pain when I got home, it was well worth it. The views from the peak of Jialishan are spectacular, and if you’re well-versed in Taiwan’s geography, you’ll easily be able to point out some of the other major mountains off in the distance. Suffice to say, this is a hike that is highly recommended, but you need to keep your level of fitness in mind, and make sure that you bring enough water and snacks to keep your body well-fueled for the experience.

If you end up hiking the mountain, have fun and be safe!


References

  1. 加里山 (Wiki)

  2. 加里山山脈 | Jialishan Range (Wiki)

  3. 台灣小百岳 (Wiki)

  4. 台灣小百岳列表 (Wiki)

  5. 加里山登山步道 (健行筆記)

  6. 加里山登山步道 | Mt. Jiali Summit Trail (台灣山林悠遊網)

  7. 苗栗加里山步道 (WalkerLand)

  8. 台灣小百岳苗栗加里山 (GoSunBody)

  9. Jiali Mountain (Taiwan Trails and Tales)

  10. Jiali Mountain (Parkbus)

  11. Hiking Jialishan (Taiwan Outdoors)