The railway leading to Alishan is 72 km in total. It starts from the space 30 meters above sea level and rises up to 2450 meters above sea level, the gradient of which is so big that is rare in the world. From the mountain foot to the peak, train ascends as if it were travelling spirally along “winding staircase”. Circling mountain and warming itself into tunnels, striding valley, with birds hovering below the train wheels. Along the route of ascending in a few hours, one can enjoy the scenery of vegetation of four categories in tropical, sub-tropical, temperate and frigid zones. Those rare and grotesque trees form the “green sea” on the Alishan. When the mountain wind blows hard, the mountain forest, like terrifying waves, makes big loud thunder, which is the famous soughing in the forest trees of vast area in Alishan.

Every tourist for Alishan is interested in witnessing the majestic view of “Mystical Tree of Alishan”. On the east side of the Mystical Tree Railway Station of the main Peak of Alishan, there stands a sturdy towering tree slightly slant. Although the main trunk is broken, yet the branches on the top are green and verdant. The tree is about 52 meters high and the diameter is about 23 meters, which needs ten more people to jointly embrace it. It is estimated that its high age is 3000 odd years, a king tree in Asia.

The oriental cherry all over the slopes of Alishan is also a wonder. During spring, red and white oriental cherry blossoms up hill and down dale, crowding together gorgeously. They mingles with the verdant forest, as if the peaks of Alishan had been splendidly attired in green clothes dotted with red flowers, making one intoxicated.

In the evening, there appears often the magnificent sea of clouds in Alishan. Reaching the terrace at the peak, when one looks far into the distance, he can see the white clouds emerging form valleys and hovering with wind. Sometimes it looks like a vast expense of water drowning mountains and peaks, making pinnacles and tops of trees above turn out like floating islets. Sometimes it looks like waves breaking and foaming with tides high and low. Sometimes it looks like earth covered with cotton, and you feel a vast expanse of whiteness under you feet. When it is fine day, the verdant sunset-bathed sea of cloud glitters in different colors, dark-brown, apricot pink, sapphire blue, bright red and dark green, all changeable without end, it appears more mystical and attractive.

There is a beautiful sun observation tower on the terrace of the famous Zhu Mountain peak of Alishan. At the crack of dawn, if you ascend the tower in the midst of freshness of air, you can see the grey outline of Yu Mountain far away would suddenly be edged with golden glow when radiance, increases all of a sudden. At the very moment, the sun as if jumps out off the top of Yu Mountain, shining with boundless radiance to all sides, myriads of golden rays burst one after another from blue mountain and verdant valley, a scene majestic in all its variety.

Visitors can enjoy a refreshing cup of tea at the museum’s tea house.
“Pinglin has over a century of experience producing tea,” says Mayor Huang Ming-feng, whose family has planted tea in the area for five generations. Paochung teaan aromatic, sweet-tasting brew is the type of tea most commonly grown around Pinglin. “The quality of our paochung tea has steadily improved,” continues Huang. “It is the most fragrant tea available.”

The Pinglin Tea Industry Museum has a pleasant Chinese-style garden.
Just an hour from the hustle and bustle of Taipei, the museum overlooks one of Taiwan’s cleanest waterways. Peishih Stream is the source of Taipei’s drinking water, so environmental responsibility is of the greatest concern in Pinglin. The town is surrounded by forested hills, and is so small that one main road accounts for most of its commerce. The road is lined with workshops where tea is fermented, dried, and packaged. These small tea factories must be kept extremely clean and well-ventilated to ensure that none of the rich fragrance is lost. Between them nestle numerous tea shops, which provide visitors with opportunities to sample Pinglin’s famous paochung tea.

The museum displays traditional tea producing equipment.(left) Exhibits show China’s many varieties of tea and how they are processed.(right)

A Cup of Fragrant Tea
As with more common Chinese teas like oolong, paochung tea is partially fermented by exposing the tea leaves to light and air for several hours after picking. This fermentation process eliminates the grassy aroma of (unfermented) green teas, which is caused by chlorophyll. If the tea were allowed to ferment in this way for three days, the result would be black tea. Paochung is only about 20-30% fermented, however, which preserves the sweetness of the leaf.

Pinglin’s merchants are always happy to welcome visitors with a cup of paochung tea and to show off the various grades, none of which ranks among Taiwan’s most expensive teas. While you are browsing the tea shops, you’ll no doubt notice quite a few tea products, such as tea candy, a chewy Japanese sweetmeat known as moji flavored with different kinds of tea, and tea oil. The oil is worth its price (a 600 ml. bottle costs NT$800) for the rich and subtle flavor it imparts to special dishes.
These shops also feature all manner of tea-making utensils and accessories, from fancy teapots, cups, and pitchers to special self-draining tables. Westerners are often bewildered by the number of specialized implements used in the gentle art of tea brewing. And tea time would not be complete, it seems, without an assortment of dainty snacks such as dried fruit, pine nuts, and sesame cookies.

The museum incorporates three-dimensional simulations of traditional tea processing.

A History of Tea
To find out why such a fuss is made over a simple cup of tea, head up to the museum, where 2.7 hectares of exhibits should make things clear. Displays recount the more than one-thousand-year history of tea. A thorough exposition is given of the various processes used throughout the ages to make different types of tea. In the eighth century, for instance (when Lu Yu), an ancient Chinese scholar, wrote the Book of Tea), leaves were mashed into a paste and dried as tea bricks. During the Sung dynasty (960-1279) dried leaves were powdered and whisked with hot water in a bowl. Only during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) did the use of teapots become common.

Modern tea processing in Pinglin–from the picking of the leaves to the packaging of the product–is explained in pictures and three-dimensional simulations. The visitor can also watch live demonstrations of various techniques. Exhibits are housed in a spacious modern facility that was inspired by the traditional gardens of the Southern Fujian gentry.
Naturally, tea is served at the museum. It has two tea houses, one of which can accommodate parties of up to 120 guests. Three tea pavilions offer visitors the chance, weather permitting, to sip paochung tea outside while admiring the view over the stream.

Spring Tea in Pinglin
Around the end of March, Pinglin begins picking the famous ’spring tea’. This tea, picked just after the cold of winter has departed, possesses a particularly fine flavor that is hard to achieve in other seasons. During this time, and through the early part of April, the whole town is busy producing its specialty–the world-famous Wenshan paochung tea. The heavenly aroma of fermenting leaves fills the air, and some producers welcome visitors for a peek at the operation.

A trip to the world’s largest tea museum offers more than an introduction to a famous tea variety. It is a trip into the rural countryside of Taiwan, where the environment comes first and people have time to enjoy a cup of sweet paochung tea with friends and visitors. Because the area is so charming, campgrounds near Pinglin have become popular in summer, creating a second industry.
“We’ve just begun to beautify our town,” says Mayor Huang. “In the near future, over three kilometers of land along this stream will be protected. We’re building parks with broad walkways by the stream-side.” And for a centerpiece, Huang continues, “There will be a big fountain in the center of the stream, near the museum.”

A shuttle bus from Taipei is also planned for the future. For now, there’s a public bus (the Hsintien Bus Company, tel: 666-7611) leaving every half hour from the Public Insurance Building on Taipei’s Kungyuan Rd. (¤½¶é¸ô) near the Hilton Hotel. A one-way ticket costs only NT$82.

It comes from both oxidation and the baking process. And again these little kernels when you brew this tea they’ll be much darker then this, but they’ll open up into a full tea leaf so you know when you make this tea you want to use a little bit less. This oolong here was actually a fall harvest and typically the winter and spring harvest are the most sought after oolongs. But with a fall harvest you can actually get a really high grade tea at a little bit lower price. So that’s one reason that you know people will drink some of the fall oolong or summer teas but we will talk about that later.

Dong Ding has a interesting history because Dong Ding is an area, the mountain is called Dong Ding, it’s in Nantou, Lugu area in Taiwan and this Dong Ding is a play on words because Dong Ding means frozen summit which refers to the mountain, and it’s very cold, but also to the fact that when people go harvest this tea and they would get numb finger and toes because the, it’s so cold so that was the frozen tips, was the finger tips and the ends of their toes.

The first tea plant planted on Dong Ding mountain was in eighteen fifty five and so they’ve been producing oolong there since then and Dong Ding is one of the most famous teas exported from Taiwan. And with this baked well oxidized oolong you are going to have a more full mouth and a full body flavor to the tea. And again it will also be very aromatic.

One thing that baking oolong does is it brings out a lot of, instead of a floral it’s going to be more of a really ripe, ripe fruit of aroma and flavor sort of like a extremely ripe pear. So this is a tea that people like to drink if they drink a lot of tea and they want something that’s going to give them more of a full mouth flavor. Dong Ding is a good choice for those, those tea drinkers. So once again that’s a little bit about baked Dong Ding Oolong from Taiwan.