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# A trip to Alishan
- URL: https://www.taiwanquest.com/a-trip-to-alishan/
- Published: 2026-11-03T08:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-03T08:33:34.000Z
- Description: Misty forest trails, vintage mountain trains, and puffed-up bags of chips…
- Author: Zhen-Kang

Alishan is Taiwan’s famous high-altitude mountain region. It’s known for ancient misty forests, high-mountain tea, a historic narrow-gauge railway, and dramatic sunrises over a sea of clouds.

During a two-day trip this past weekend, I greatly enjoyed 3 of these 4 things.

## The best option for exploring as much as possible

My journey started on Saturday morning, when my partner and I rented a car in Kaohsiung.

[Despite getting my Taiwan car driver’s license two years ago](https://www.taiwanquest.com/enrolling-at-english-driving-school-in-kaohsiung/), and [despite having driven a scooter here for more than three years](https://www.taiwanquest.com/three-years-of-scooting-around/), this would be only my second time driving a car on Taiwan roads. It’s not something I need to do, and chaotic urban streets—[coupled with limited insurance cover](https://www.taiwanquest.com/a-life-less-insured/)—have made car travel largely unappealing.

But this time, a car seemed like the best option for exploring as much as possible.

![A man holding a key fob, standing next to a white Honda Fit car.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/taiwan-honda-fit.webp)

Our rental was this hybrid Honda Fit—a subcompact that felt huge after three years on a motorbike. It lacked a reversing camera—something I didn’t think was possible to omit in 2026—but in all other ways it was excellent. As someone used to driving cars on the other side of the road, I especially appreciated its automatic lane centering (as, no doubt, did the other drivers around me).

![A fountain outside the Rende freeway rest area in Taiwan.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/rende-service-area-taiwan.webp)

Our first stop was for coffee at this freeway rest area, near the Kaohsiung–Tainan border.

![A large “Happy Halloween!” banner hanging on a wall inside a 7-Eleven convenience store in Taiwan.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/taiwan-7-eleven-happy-halloween-banner.webp)

The 7-Eleven had a Halloween banner on one wall. On point for October 31.

![A banana tree farm next to a highway.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/chiayi-banana-trees.webp)

Just over an hour later, we were passing banana farms in Chiayi County.

![Taiwan’s central mountain range in the distance, with a rural two-lane road in the foreground.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/road-approaching-alishan.webp)

The mountains then came into view.

![A grove of betel nut trees next to a mountain highway.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-betel-nut-trees.webp)

Heading uphill, we saw plenty of betel nut groves—the Taiwanese equivalent of tobacco farms.

![A five-story underconstruction hotel building, with a small Honda Fit rental car parked in the foreground, and a banner promoting an election candidate in Taiwan.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/gongtian-village-alishan.webp)

At 1,200 meters above sea level, we stopped for lunch at a convenience store. (That would be a strange sentence in New Zealand, but convenience store dining is normal in Taiwan. I had vegetarian fried rice.) From the upstairs dining area, we could see a hotel building site. Behind our car, a banner promoted a candidate in the November 28 local body elections. Candidates are identifiable by randomly-assigned numbers (in this case, the red number 1)—a hangover from the early days of Taiwanese democracy when illiteracy was more common.

![Zoomed-in view of multi-story hotel buildings seemingly clinging to a steep mountainside in Alishan, Taiwan.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-clifftop-hotels.webp)

In the distance, we could see other buildings clinging to the mountainside.

![View from a car looking out onto the Alishan Highway in Taiwan.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-mountain-road.webp)

The highway roads were good but narrow. We passed dozens (if not hundreds) of tour buses. Excluding stops, it was around a three-hour drive to our accommodation, which was halfway up the mountain.

![Beautiful green tea fields in the foreground, with a dozen or more red-and-white marquees on a distant plateau across the valley.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-tea-plantation.webp)

Our B&B was in a converted tea-processing factory. We saw tea leaves drying on mats inside neighboring buildings. Across the road was a small tea farm, and in the distance we could see a bunch of red-and-white marquees. Our B&B host said they were for a group wedding event, with many couples marrying simultaneously per local indigenous tradition.

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## A civilized nod to public annoyance

After checking in, we got back in the car to drive another hour uphill. We were heading to the Tefuye Historical Trail (特富野古道), which starts at 1,800 meters above sea level.

The trail was originally a hunting and trading path, before being co-opted into a logging railway during the Japanese Era (1895–1945). The line was one of many on Alishan used to extract wood from Hinoki and Red Cypress trees.

Remnants of the railway have been left intact on the hiking trail, including some sections of narrow-gauge track.

There were dozens of cars and tour buses parked near the trailhead. But despite the trail’s popularity, in the middle of our gentle 3.5-hour hike, we experienced one moment of being able to—when we stopped moving—hear literally nothing but our own breath.

As best I can remember, that was only the second time I’ve experienced total silence while outdoors. And once again, I found it surreal and disarming. Maybe I’m too used to ambient noise.

Speaking of noise, as on hiking trails in New Zealand, at times we passed people who were playing music while they walked. In New Zealand, I’d sometimes encounter people playing hip-hop or dance tracks at avalanche-inducingly-loud volumes. But on Alishan, hikers were quietly playing classical music instead.

A civilized nod to public annoyance.

![Misty view of cars lining up at a CPC gas station with a roof shaped almost like a letter ‘W’.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-township-cpc-gas-station.webp)

I saw this oddly-roofed gas station as we passed through Alishan Township (2,200m ASL). CPC is a government-owned chain of gas stations. Nationwide gas prices are set weekly, then do not change for the rest of each week. Privately-owned competitors can set their own prices, but they have an obvious disincentive to charge more than CPC. For the past eight weeks, prices have been steady at NT$31.2 (NZ$1.56) per liter for 92 unleaded; NT$32.7 (NZ$1.64) for 95 unleaded; NT$34.7 (NZ$1.74) for 98 unleaded; and NT$29.9 (NZ$1.50) for diesel.

![Cars driving on a misty road on Alishan, Taiwan.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-misty-road.webp)

At 2:15pm, it was especially misty as we looked for a parking space near the trailhead.

![A Chinese-langauge sign with the English text “Watch Out For Bears”. It includes a graphic of a Formosan black near. Another warning sign is out of focus in the background.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/bear-warning-sign-at-tefuye-historical-trail-alishan-taiwan.webp)

This was the first time in my life I’d seen a bear warning sign. Note the white V-shaped white mark on the bear at the top-left. This will be relevant later on. ([The Formosan black bear](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formosan%5Fblack%5Fbear) is endemic to Taiwan, and is Taiwan’s only bear species.)

![The start of the Tefuye Historical Trail on Alishan, Taiwan. This part of the walking trail includes historic narrow-gauge train tracks left in place.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/tefuye-historical-trail-railway-track.webp)

The first stretch of railway track was visible almost immediately after entering the trail. From here, there were intermittent stretches of railway track all the way.

![A man standing on a mountain hiking trail, with tall trees visible through the mist behind him.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/tefuye-historical-trail-man.webp)

It had been 32ºC at sea level, but it was 16ºC on the mountain. I’d accidentally left my hoodie at the B&B, so relative to the people around me, I was a little under-dressed. On the other hand, after a hot Kaohsiung summer (and a hot autumn so far), it was nice to be cold for a while.

![Moss-covered wooden retaining wall on a mountain forest hiking trail, Alishan, Taiwan.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/tefuye-historical-trail-small-bridge.webp)

We saw some wooden retaining walls…

![A wooden footbridge corssing a small gully, and leading to a pagoda-style rest area on the far side of the gully, barely visible through the mist.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/tefuye-historical-trail-rest-pagoda.webp)

…A pagoda-style shelter on the far side of this bridge…

![A beautiful wooden wayfinding sign on the Tefuye Historical Trail, Aishan, Taiwan. It sais Zihjhon is 3 kilometers to the left, and Tefuye is 3.32 kilometers to the right. A misty forest is visible in the background.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/tefuye-historical-trail-signpost.webp)

…And plenty of tasteful wooden signage (unnecessarily precise to the nearest 10 meters).

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We also saw a Mikado pheasant—the bird on Taiwan’s $1,000 note.

![A gently cirving footbridge over a mountain gully. The handrails are made of recycled train tracks. Train tracks are also embedded in the wooden boardwalk, with an alternating zig-zags carved into them.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/tefuye-historical-trail-railway-bridge.webp)

I liked how these rails had been repurposed, and I also liked the pattern on these wooden boards.

![A still misty scene of a lush green forest floor and dense overhead trees in Alishan, Taiwan.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/tefuye-historical-trail-forest.webp)

This was an especially green part of the forest.

![A misty scene of moss-covered fallen trees, rocks, and ferns in the foreground, with tall trees in the background.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-misty-forest.webp)

Magic in all directions…

![A photo taken at ground level on a disused railway track, with tall trees visible in the misty distance.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/tefuye-railway-in-mist.webp)

…And definitely worth a future visit.

---

## Puffed-up little chips

On the way back to our B&B, we stopped at a viewpoint to photograph the sunset—which was completely obfuscated by cloud.

We had vegetarian hotpot for dinner, and bought snacks for later. The bags of chips were weirdly puffed up: a consequence of low air pressure at high altitude.

When opened, they ejected a puff of artificially-flavored air.

(Unrelated, but during New Zealand’s bizarre 2014 election campaign, an [Internet Mana Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet%5FParty%5Fand%5FMana%5FMovement) press secretary infamously called a reporter a “[puffed-up little shit](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/the-year-of-speaking-dangerously-the-worst-gaffes-of-2014/5GF6ETZ6DK2ZJKJ4362CZ7742A/)”. I hadn’t thought of that phrase for over a decade until I saw the bags of “puffed-up little chips” in front of me.)

(Incidentally, I later learned the hard way that bottled drinks also behave differently at altitude…)

![A near totally gray scene, with just a few plants visible in the foreground. The mist is blocking everything else.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/obfuscated-sunset.webp)

The obfuscated sunset.

![Puffed up  bags of chips on a shelf in a convenience store at Alishan, Taiwan.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/high-altitude-puffed-up-potato-chip-bags.webp)

The puffed-up little chips.

---

## The sea was too thick

We woke up at 5am to chase the sunrise. The B&B host had recommended a small peak above the group wedding venue, so we tentatively drove up a one-lane road to the top, where we found a few other people waiting for the famous sunrise over a sea of clouds.

But the sea was too thick, so we missed the sun for a second day.

![A narrow one-lane mountain road, between a bamboo drove and a cliff, illuninated by car headlights at night.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/narrow-alishan-mountain-road-at-night.webp)

Driving up the one-lane road at 5:15am.

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A 6am pan around the mountaintop.

![A blue micro-truck driving on a dirt road through high-altitude tea fields on Alishan, Taiwan.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/taiwanese-blue-fortune-truck.webp)

Just after the obfuscated sunrise, we saw a blue ‘fortune truck’ (發財車) drive through the tea plantation. Fortune trucks are micro-sized commercial vehicles—blue by default—that are ubiquitous in Taiwan. The name reflects the idea that they’re money-making machines for hard-working small-business owners. A more accurate (but clunkier) translation might be ‘vehicle that makes you rich’.

---

## A rickety seven-minute ride

After some more sleep, we drove an hour back uphill to Alishan Station. It’s the main mountain station for the Alishan Forest Railway, which stretches from near-sea level to 2,451m ASL.

We caught one of the vintage trains 1.8km downhill to Shenmu Station (2,138m ASL). It was a rickety seven-minute ride to a spot that’s famous for its giant ancient trees.

(Less-rickety trains travel to and from Chiayi City, 71km away, including the luxury train [Formosensis (福森號)](https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/news/5899062)—which I’d like to take sometime, although apparently it’s hard to get tickets.)

We spent a few hours wandering through the forest, had lunch at an expensive hotel that looked borderline abandoned from some angles, then walked back to Alishan Station before driving down the mountain.

![A waterfall next to Alishan Highway. It is perhaps dozens of meters tall, but there is not much water.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-waterfall.webp)

It was sunnier on day two. We saw a couple of minor waterfalls near the road.

![Cars driving though a heavy-duty double-landed rock shed on Alishan mountain. An abandoned scooter is parked on the far side of the road, with warning road cones nearby. Some pillars are decorated with red, blue, and black triangle shapes.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-highway-rock-shed.webp)

We drove through a bunch of rock sheds. Note the indigenous pattern on the left side (and the broken scooter).

![Alishan Station, a beautiful, large, wooden railway station on a mountain plateau.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-station-taiwan.webp)

We paid NT$200 each (NZ$10) to enter the national park area. As a permanent resident, I was fortunate to pay the same discounted price as Taiwanese citizens. (Not gonna lie, it was a great feeling to be recognized in this way.) We parked a five-minute walk from Alishan Station, a beautiful wooden building that opened in 2007.

![A vast plaza at the front of Alishan Station, with rocky mountains visible in the distance.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-station-mountain-view.webp)

Looking across the station plaza, it truly felt like we were high up in the mountains.

![People queueing at the Alishan Station ticketing booth, with timetables and the current temperature (16ºC) displayed.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-station-ticket-office.webp)

It was 16ºC for the second day in a row.

![A large wooden viewing deck with beautiful wooden detailing, on the 3rd floor of Alishan Station.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-station-viewing-deck.webp)

There was an open-air viewing deck on the third floor.

![An Alishan Forest Railway train at Alishan Station.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-forest-railway-engine.webp)

This was our vintage train for the 7-minute ride to Shenmu Station. The white ‘V’ on the front is a nod to the chest pattern of the [Formosan black bear](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formosan%5Fblack%5Fbear).

![Two passengers on bench seating inside the Alishan Forest Railway train.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-forest-railway-interior.webp)

There was bench seating on the inside.

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Here’s a small video of a small train.

![An Alishan Forest Railway train stopped at Shenmu Station.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-forest-railway-at-shenmu-station.webp)

The terminal station is at the start of a famous boardwalk which passes giant ancient trees.

![An idylic mountain stream running past Shenmu Station on Alishan mountain.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/shenmu-station.webp)

Here’s the view back to the station, after the train’s departure.

![A giant red cypress tree and in the foreground, a bilingual information panel.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/formosan-red-cypress-fusion-tree.webp)

This Formosan red cypress is the oldest amongst the giant trees. It’s 45 meters tall and around 1,100 years old.

![Wooden stairs leading uphill through a forest.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/shenmu-boardwalk.webp)

We followed the boardwalk up and through the forest, expectedly emerging at…

![A colorful Daoist temple with a dozen cars parked out the front, in the middle of an Alishan forest.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-temple.webp)

…This unexpected temple (and carpark) in the middle of nowhere.

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An event was starting just as we arrived.

![An arched wooden footbridge over a small gully, surroudned by tall trees, in Alishan national park.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/shenmu-footbridge.webp)

We continued uphill. It’s not obvious, but red-and-blue indigenous patterns are visible on the platform at the upper-right.

![Close-up view of circular holes in a boardwalk, through which tall trees are growing.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-boardwalk.webp)

There were holes in the boardwalk to accommodate existing trees.

![Two hollowed out tree trunks, seemingly stacked on top of each other, with a third (alive) tree growing out the top.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/three-generation-tree.webp)

This is a three-generation tree, where the 2nd and 3rd generations grew out of the 1st. They range in age from 900 to 1,500 years old.

![An abandoned three-floor concrete building, govered in moss in the midst of a forest.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/aishan-abandoned-buildings.webp)

There were a few abandoned buildings amongst the trees.

![A qaint, summetrical, Japanese-style wooden museum in Alishan forest park.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-museum.webp)

We happened across the Alishan Museum, built during the Japanese Era, in 1935.

![A circular stone monument with bronze Japanese kanji on the front, amongst a grove of tall trees in a forest.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-pagoda-of-the-tree-spirit.webp)

This monument was also built by the Japanese, in 1935\. Named Pagoda of the Tree Spirit, it was built to remember 77 loggers (Japanese and Taiwanese) who died on the job, and to “placate the spirits of the 100,000 trees that had been felled”.

![A traditional Japanese-style bell tower, with a large bronze bell hanging from the roof.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/aishan-bell-tower.webp)

We also came across a Japanese bell tower…

![Close-up of a fuzzy white caterpillar.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/taiwan-fuzzy-white-caterpillar.webp)

…And a fuzzy white caterpillar (my first time seeing one of these).

![The upmarket cafe and reception area of Alishan Hotel.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-hotel-reception.webp)

We had lunch at Alishan Hotel. At the time we researched accommodation for our trip, it was charging NT$14,000 (NZ$700) per night…

![An exterior wall of Alishan Hotel, which has peeling paint, cracked concrete, lichen, moss, and water stains. It looks abandoned.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-hotel-exterior.webp)

…Which would’ve surprised me had I not been inside, because parts of the exterior looked borderline abandoned.

![Alishan Post Office, a traditional Chinese-style three-story building on Alishan mountain, with two posts boxes (one red, one green) on the pavement outside.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-post-office.webp)

On reaching Alishan Station, I noticed Taiwan’s highest post office (2,201m ASL). But it was Sunday so it was closed.

![A monkey exploring a construction side on the side of a mountain road.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5e/e3/5ee3f160-68a0-49ef-af6f-ec70abc1d13e/content/images/2026/11/alishan-monkey.webp)

On the downhill drive, we saw a lone monkey (at bottom-left). Not quite as cool as the Mikado pheasant, but still, a monkey!

---

## An excellent weekend

My partner was working in Taipei the next day, so I dropped him off at the Chiayi High Speed Rail Station at around 7pm. From there, it was a 90-minute freeway drive back to Kaohsiung. This was my first time driving a car solo in Taiwan, and everything went fine.

On returning the rental, I had to pay a gas fee of NT$3.1 (NZ$0.16) per kilometer.

(Rental cars in Taiwan come with a fuel card so you don’t pay directly for gas; instead you use the fuel card to buy gas, then pay a per-kilometer fee later. This seems bizarre to me, and unfair for anyone renting a hybrid, but oh well.)

Gas fee aside, it was an excellent weekend.

[Sun Moon Lake](https://www.taiwanquest.com/a-trip-to-sun-moon-lake/) is now my second-favorite spot in Taiwan.

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