【Traveler's Notes】Exploring Taiwan’s Railway Hidden Gems

#Lingering amid mountain vistas and waterscapes, spectacular railway journeys
South-Link Line (Fangliao – Taitung) | Alternating landscapes of light and shadow between mountains and sea

The South-Link Line is the youngest route in Taiwan’s circular railway system. Its construction, which involved traversing mountains and ridges, was even more challenging than that of the North-Link Line between Su’ao and Hualien. It has been in operation for just over twenty years.

On this youngest railway line runs the only remaining blue local train in Taiwan with openable windows and humming electric fans. To catch the only daily 10:50 local train departing from Fangliao Station, we took the 9:20 Tzu-Chiang Express from Xinzuoying Station to Fangliao Station, scheduled to arrive at 10:35. The timing seemed manageable, but a faint unease lingered — what if we were significantly delayed? Finally, the train arrived at Fangliao Station at 10:45. That narrow margin was truly nerve-wracking. We quickly disembarked, dashed through the underpass, and rushed to the other platform. Only when we saw the blue local train still parked at the platform did we finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Enjoying a Private Tourist Train
The conductor, noticing we were boarding the local train, specifically reminded us: “This train has no air conditioning—it gets pretty hot!” After we insisted on boarding anyway, he added: “Don’t sit in the first car, it’s too noisy. The second or third cars are better.” There were only seven passengers on this trip, almost all of whom were camera-toting travelers excitedly hopping on and off to take photos; some were busy opening windows and switching on the fans. The conductor sat with everyone in the third car, feeling almost like a tour guide, counting heads and memorizing who was on board, so that at subsequent stations where trains crossed paths and waiting times varied, no one would loiter too long on the platform and miss the train. Throughout the entire ride, apart from our group, no one else got on or off—giving us the distinct feeling of having chartered the local train for our journey.

The local train slowly pulls away, revealing endless orchards outside the window. The wax apple and mango trees remain intentionally pruned short, resembling clusters of round balls—a deliberate farming technique to make harvesting easier. Many fruit trees are also entirely covered with black nets, preventing them from photosynthesizing in order to stimulate their natural reproductive instincts, encouraging them to blossom and bear fruit.