Alishan’s Timber Walkway Opens to Public; 3,000-Year-Old Sacred Tree Embodies “Cycle of Life”

▲ New Walkway Around Alishan Sacred Tree (Photo / Courtesy of Chiayi Forest District Office Website)

Tourism Center / Comprehensive Report

Alishan’s Sacred Tree is renowned worldwide and a must-visit attraction for travelers coming to Chiayi. Sixteen years after the tree fell, the Chiayi Forest District Office under the Forestry Bureau has completed surrounding landscape improvement projects to reshape the area around the Alishan Sacred Tree. The newly built walkway near the sacred tree is now officially open to visitors.

Many remember the forest train stopping beside the majestic Alishan Sacred Tree, which was a Formosan red cypress standing 53 meters tall with an estimated age of over 3,000 years. After the Alishan Forest Railway opened, it became a world-famous landmark in Taiwan. The Alishan Sacred Tree was struck by lightning and burned twice, and later, due to heavy mountain rains that overloaded the tree with moisture and loosened the soil, its trunk cracked and partially collapsed onto the forest railway. After evaluation, the Forest Management Office decided to fell the tree on-site the following year for safety reasons.

Sixteen years after the Alishan Sacred Tree fell, the Chiayi Forest District Office under the Forestry Bureau adopted the design concept of the “cycle of life” to create a simple and ethereal landscape space around the tree, offering visitors a place to relax and reflect. With the completion and opening of the “Alishan Sacred Tree Landscape Improvement Project,” visitors can now get a closer look at the fallen sacred tree in its entirety and reminisce about its former glory.

▲ New Walkway Around Alishan Sacred Tree (Photo / Courtesy of Chiayi Forest District Office Website)