Fenqihu Mountain Railway Village

A Historic Railway Trading Post

Perched at roughly 1,400 meters above sea level, Fenqihu grew up around a mid-route maintenance stop on the Alishan Forest Railway, built in 1912 to haul timber down from the mountain. Trains once lingered here long enough for crews and passengers to eat, giving rise to the settlement's famous railway lunchbox tradition.

The Old Street

A roughly 500-meter old street lined with wooden shopfronts still threads through the village, where vendors sell local mountain specialties such as wasabi, aiyu jelly, and tree tomatoes. The traditional wooden warehouse visible in the foreground recalls the settlement's past as a hub for clog-making, a craft once tied to the area's cinder-paved lanes.

Surrounded by Forested Peaks

The village sits in a natural amphitheater, with houses stacked along the slope earning it comparisons to Jiufen, the celebrated hillside town in northern Taiwan. Dense stands of cedar and cypress climb the ridges on every side, and a nearby lookout platform offers sweeping views over the settlement and the rail line that first put it on the map.