2012年8月24日 星期五

Environment and weather – two undeniable attractions of Alishan!



      Everyone all know that Alishan is one of mountain resort and rich natural preserve. Everyone also knows about the grandeur of Alishan with a dozen of old trees which live for thousand years. These things are quite easily to search in the internet. But just only coming here that you could enjoy the truly Alishan atmosphere and weather which none of words can describe or bring you the truly feeling like that. It is undeniable that the atmosphere and weather two of the most influenced things that impressing you at the moment you come here.

Alishan is more attractive with unique weather and pure atmosphere 
                                                                                                      Photo : Hanje
The first characteristic I want to mention here is about the weather. It is thanks to locating at
an elevation of about 2300 meters above the sea level so it usually is covered by a cloud of mist and
high humidity. In general, the temperature in Alishan is always lower than that in city about 15 degrees.
While in Chaiyi city, people have to suffer the summer’s scorching glow, but at that time in Alishan even
having sunny or not, the temperature never exceed 25oC.The weather in Alishan also is not the same
during the whole day but have a huge difference in temperature between the day and the night and it
also changes among different days. Normally, the sun rise in Alishan at about 5 to 5.30 AM and visitors
can take the train to go to the sunrise station to see the beautiful and famous Sunrise. But at that time,
it is very cold, maybe reach about 10 or even lower with heavy frost so don’t forget jacket and overcoat
if you don’t want to be stiff with cold.


To see the sunrise – visitor have to suffer the weather at about 10 degree

But after the sun rising, the air is little by little warmer with rays of sunlight. In the mid-day,
the temperature is about 20 degrees and the sun is not too burning, which is very suitable and ideal
for hiking and climbing in trails through the dense forests. In the afternoon, it usually is cloudy and
sometime rainy, but just for awhile and after that, the sky is gave back with the blue and clear until
the end of day. When the visitors begin go to see the sunset at stations, the temperature gradually
reduce and reach cold-boundary of about 15oC at about 7 PM. From then, if want to go out, you should
bring heavy overcoat and jacket. Naturally, having some days that it rains for the whole day and the
temperature is low for the whole day also.



Another attraction of Alishan is the clean, pure and healthy atmosphere. It is also because of
locating in high elevation and thinly populated that Alishan can avoid air pollution from vehicles or
factories’ chimneys. Moreover, the abundant of natural biology ecosystem with many kinds of tree helps
regulating the air. Some kinds of trees that have special smells which is useful for driving away
mosquitoes and good for human health and be known as medicines. Coming to Alishan you will easily to fall in love with the cypress smell. Local people said that living here for a long time is one of the best ways to avoid hard diseases, especially heart, lung, nervous diseases thanks to the pure and healthy atmosphere. Beside, alishan is the heaven of cypress – a type of tree has a special smell. Hiking in trails through dense forest, it is easy for visitors to see and enjoy the smell of cypress. …




The environment in Alishan is truly pure and healthy.

It is not by accident that Alishan becomes the number one destination of ecotourism. Beside
visible factors that everyone knows and easy to describe, the special weather of high altitude place and
the healthy atmosphere also are undeniable factors making the attraction of Alishan. And only when
feeling the cold little by little spreads all over your body and enjoying the fascinated smell of cypress
that means you truly come to Alishan.

2012年8月23日 星期四

處處都有生機

當你的人生,事業,感情來到了瓶頸,
當你覺得生活好無趣,生活好煩悶,
那先放下手上的工作,
來享受生態旅遊吧 !
在生態旅遊的過程中您將會體驗到處處有生機,到處都是有希望!


一群的小蘑菇在縫隙中生長,雖然它們看似柔弱,
可是它們能在絕處中生長需要的是堅強。

雖然被風雨摧殘,可是依然勇敢的生長下去,這股勇氣正需要我們學習。

身上有了列痕,還是堅持活下去,只要活著就有希望!

看似孤獨,可是只要細心的看看周圍,你會發現其實有很多人在你身邊!

雖然小蘑菇只是微不足道的小生物,
可是它們的絕處逢生,
值得我們學習!
當你感到穨喪,
請學習小蘑菇的堅持!

佩珊筆

Goodbye Alishan, welcome Chukou with new discovering!

I thought that I can stay in Alishan until the end of the project, but there is a typhoon is coming to Taiwan, this makes me have to leave here sooner .


Another Typhoon coming changes our schedule!

The day I gone, Alishan was rain and quite foggy make me fell a little bit regret. 2 months gone too fast and I fall in love with this place with sunrise, with the sound of birds, of the weather of mountain and with funny and caring people here.


Alishan was rainy in my last day!

I am sure that if I have opportunity to come back Taiwan, I will come to Alishan!!

Goodbye Alishan, I go to Chiayi City continues my work at Chukou nature center. This is likely an education centre where has enough facilities for teaching and educating citizens about forest and nature, especially for young generation.

Coming here, we learned how to make some lovely handmade from nature-friendly materials like wood, dry seeds, rags….


We are making some owls from cotton and rags  




And these are results


Helen and Lyvia are drawing in the wooden stairs. They are truly artists


We were surprised with their outcome !!

2 days in Chukou nature centre came with us with new things and new experiences. We are so exciting for the next activities here. 


2012年8月17日 星期五

A manual for a trip to Alishan


After one month serving in Alishan, today I will write an article for you – my friends who want to go to Alishan for your holidays. 


Step 1: Reaching Alishan.

From Chiayi city, you just find the way to go to Chiayi railway station (This place is quite easy to find, just ask someone if you are foreigner or not the local one). In front of the train station is the bus station where you can buy the ticket to Alishan. The price of the bus is NT$ 221 for one round and the bus will take from you about 2.5 hours to reach Alishan.


Take the bus to reach Alishan 

In the past, instead of coming by bus, you can also take the train to Alishan. The zigzag railway is one of the most famous characteristics in Alishan. The train will start from chiayi and passes through the scenic of beautiful and grandiose mountain and take about 3.5 hours. But this main railway was damaged by the typhoon in 2001 and now still closes until the end of this year (the staffs here talked to me that, but I am not sure @-@) for fixing in prediction.

So easy, now you are in Alishan!!!

Step 2: Getting information

Before coming here, you have to buy the entrance ticket costs NT$ 150 per person.  No sooner buying the ticket then you will be dropped at the parking car. From there, you will immediately see the visitor center where is better you should come. At the visitor center, we will give necessary information for your trip.

We work in Visitor center, where we will help visitor for getting information.

If you are foreigner, have us – international volunteers

If you can speak Chinese – Our Taiwanese friends will help you

Not only that, you should get some Alishan maps here which are very useful for you !!



Get some maps for your easy trip @-@

Step 3: Starting your trip with some suggestions

 No 1: Sunrise


Fascinated sunrise  
                                                Taken by: an Alishan staff

One of the most attractive of Alishan is the scenery of Sunrise. But it is not easy. To see the sunrise, you have to wake up at about 4 o’clock because the train which leads us to Jhushan viewing platform will start at around 4.30 AM. And after you arrive to the main viewing platform, it maybe is so crowded because of so many visitors. You can walk more than 10 minutes in the right side, skirt the small trail and you will reach another viewing platform which is more sparse. From then you are free to enjoy the amazing scenery of Sunrise.

No 2: Sea of clouds




If you are lucky, you swill have opportunity to see the sea of clouds in Alishan. This is a feature of Alishan as well as high mountain areas where the clouds settle into the valleys below us. This landscape usually is seen at sunrise or sunset when it is sunny high up on the mountain. And the sea of clouds can change the color with white, gray, purple or red making interesting sceneries.



No 3: Hiking Alishan trails



As I mentioned in other article, Alishan has amazing trail system which can leads you to anywhere you want in ALishan Mountain. During hiking, you will see many kinds of tree with special sharps, many kinds of flowers and birds together with special landscapes like sister ponds, Sacred Tree, Three Brothers and Four Sisters… suffering here for more information about Alishan trails.

No 4: Cherry blossom.

Alishan Cherry blossom 
                                       Source: Google 

One of the most attractive of Alishan is the beauty of Cherry Blossom. Unfortunately that this is not spring – the season of Cherry Blossom but If you have chance to come here in the spring, I am sure that the beauty of Cherry Blossom will be one of the most interesting sceneries you ever seen in your life. 

Step 4: Shopping in Alishan 

Alishan has some souvenir shops where you can buy somethings for memorable. Almost of them sell typical mountain foods or wooden things for decoration. 

Some kind of foods here


Buy some wooden souvenir in Alishan 

NOTE: 

Due to its elevation, Alishan is considerably cooler than the coast, with daytime highs averaging 14-24°C in summer and have snow in winter. So don't forget to bring your warm clothes  when coming to Alishan. 


2012年8月16日 星期四

在墾丁森林遊樂區所見所聞。

嘉義國際暑期志工在屏東處志工到訪之後我們就一起來到屏東了!

我們的第一站是墾丁森林遊樂區。

去到那裏,屏東處志工還排成兩行歡迎我們。感動。。XD


在那裏讓我印象深刻的植物是奇盤腳。
它一根一根,滑滑的,好特別,加上它只會在晚上開花,讓我覺得他有一股神秘感。

阿里山有紅檜巨木,那墾丁也有茄苳巨木。
各有各的特色。


在墾丁森林遊樂區還有一個讓我覺得奇特的東西,那就是珊瑚礁。
那裏的珊瑚礁顯示在N年前哪裏是海底,而現在竟然變成了森林。
大自然的變化真的是讓人意想不到啊!

阿里山有觀日平臺,墾丁卻有觀海樓。
一山一海,完全是不同的感覺。

當天的天氣不是很好,霧霧的,所以看不見海,不過在那裏吹風也是很不錯的選擇。
可是比較瘦小的人站在那裏就得小心了,那裏的風會把你吹得動歪西倒,而東北季風風勢會更大。
而當時站在那裏的我真的被大風吹得站不住腳了。


 在那裏的另一個以外收穫--仙洞。
它雖然簡單可是很有感覺,真的是有一種進入仙洞的感覺。

進入仙洞后,即將升仙了!?

屏東處的課長還跟我介紹四位在那裏實習的馬來西亞沙巴大學森林係學生給我認識,在異國見到自己的同鄉就有種奇妙的感覺,當然我也不忘向他們推薦來阿里山玩啦!


最後我們都帶著滿滿的愛離開墾丁森林遊樂區。

佩珊筆 

Crazy fun with the trip to Pingtung office @-@

After 2 days Pingtung’s visitors visit Chiayi, we finally can enjoy our trip to Pingtung office on the 7th and 8th of August. This is really an awesome memory with many of fun make me can’t stand laughing during the trip.
We are welcomed by so cute songs and continuous applause of all staffs here, this make me so touch.


“They are very very warm and cute”

The first place was “Kenting forestry recreation area” I love the weather here so much. Because here is the southeast of Taiwan, the temperature is not too hot and have strong windy, which makes me miss the nice weather in Alishan so much :XX



The staff of Kenting forestry recreation area interprets about some special tree here.


 I was so interested in some of tree have bizarre shapes.

After that, we went to a viewing station where the super super strong wind nearly blows us.


“Standing here with the wind was so exciting”


The next place was “bat cave”. 


Actually, I did not see any bat here, but the scenery was so fanciful.


Finishing the first place, we took a picture together in front of the “Recreation area”



The first day of the trip was behind us, we came to a hotel which is very luxury and facility.

 It was really a crazy night which reminds me of the funny training days in Taipei so much.



---------*--------*--------

In the second day of the trip, we went to Shungliu – the place that our Pingtung friends serve in. Shungliu is an area with sloping hills and is the kingdom of butterfly. Our friends said that, just only in this area have more than 500 types of butterfly. And truly that I saw many butterflies here, but actually me and our friends could not take some pictures of them to show for you guys @-@



We hiked along wide trail, across two streams and ... finally, we reached a beautiful water fall.



We have a small lecture about some water insects and after that, we went to practice immediately at the near river.



It was so fun, I selected many kinds of insects under the water.  

Our 2 days trip finished with the regret in interns from both 2 offices. Thank you so much, friends from Pingtung office and I believe that our friendship will be better than ever thanks of this trip. Good bye and see you in re-union day.