Fantasy Train
The newly-built High Speed Rail bullet train (and supplied with Shinkansen know-how) is now operating outside Japan, and I took a ride on it the other day, along with throngs of Lunar New Year sightseers, too — family groups, kids, grandparents, the whole shebang for holiday trips — and it was a marvelous, fantastic experience. I’ve ridden the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagano and loved the speed there, too.
The HSR [台灣高速鐵路] is not going as fast as the Shinkansen up north, but it speeds along pretty nicely here too.
The most fantastic part of the trip, from Chiayi station to Taichung station, is the best portion of the route and maybe a first in all of bullet train experiences — because — while most Shinkansen bullet train tracks around the world are straight and on flat land, more or less, with just a few gentle curves and hills to navigate, this route from Taichung to Chiayi, center of the island, goes through rugged mountain area, and while one second you are on the flat plains zooming along in normal bullet train status, suddenly, you start zipping UP (or DOWN in the other direction, south) in a banked curve into rugged mountain passes, with tunnels helping the train through and not only is the view staggering, from the highlands looking down at the plains below.
But the trip south from Taichung down to Chiayi puts the train on a curving J-shaped theme park rollercoaster-like sloping curve as the train exits from the last mountain tunnel in the Bagua Mountain range and begins a two-minute curvaceous descent at high speed, the likes of which I have never experienced in a train before, and looking out the righthand side of the train windows, you can actually see the curving, sloping track ahead of you as the train gains speed and zooms down the loop de loop.
I still can’t get over it.
If there is one reason to ride the HSR here, that is it. Just buy a ticket from Taichung to Chiayi, and you will come back a different person. I swear I am not making this up. It’s that good a ride.
The rest of the route is normal flatland bullet train fare. Comfortable, smooth, well done. But that 2-minute banking plunge down the chute part, south of Taichung, is something to experience once in your life.
Poor Mari….she’s my favorite. If I ever become a j-pop singer and part of the...
Shes definitely at the top of my hot list.
perfeckt 10:10
Btw, there is a sign posted in Chinese and English in the male and female toilets of the bullet train stations in Taiwan that reads: “Please do not stand on the toilet seat!” For those international travellers not familiar with some aspects of Taiwanese bathroom etiquette, some people are known to stand on top of toilets in publuc restrooms across the country, and to do their thing from that position, leaving foot marks, sole marks, on the toilet seats. I guess this sign is to discourage this style of ”water closet” behavior.
Also of note: Each bullet train station along the route is designed in a unique and eye-pleasing way, with the station at Hsinchu standing out for its cool architecture. However, two of the stations, one in Chiayi and one in Tainan, both used the same architect, and both stations, about 18 minutes apart on the bullet train line, feature the exact same building design, down to the exact location of doors, counters, stores, stairs and ticket offices. The similarity is puzzling, since the two stations are 99.9 percent the same design-wise. One must wonder how this came to be…
February 22nd, 2007 at 1:48 pmAt least they are assuming that the people in Taiwan can read.
When I first got to Japan they communicated the same information to toilet users but here they used stickman drawings instead of text.
February 22nd, 2007 at 2:26 pmThat explains it… When I worked in a school in London, I was always baffled by the footprints on the toilet seats (among the general squalor in there already). Half our students were Chinese. Now I know.
February 22nd, 2007 at 3:18 pmThis is a ticket for the high speed rail (bullet train) in Taiwan, and passengers can keep them as a souvenir after they leave the station. But there is one thing missing on the ticket? Can you spot the inexplicable omission, which hopefully will soon be fixed?
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:42 pmAnswer: the name of the issuer — “Taiwan High Speed Rail”. No logo, not even one mention of the company that put the train on the tracks….
February 22nd, 2007 at 8:44 pmOh boy, that sounds really exciting! This post demands a video to show off the rollercoaster ride! Unfortunately, I only found 5 videos on youtube – http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E9%AB%98%E9%80%9F%E9%90%B5%E8%B7%AF&search=Search
February 23rd, 2007 at 2:12 am