The trip of your life by train

Taiwan now has three well-packaged train routes for tourists so that, finally, train lovers can enjoy the relaxed pace of a rail journey round the island.

Mr. Hsieh lives in Kaohsiung. Before now, if he wanted to take his family for a trip to Taitung, he drove on the Cross-Island Highway, which is a road with beautiful scenery yet precipitous cliffs.

Last Friday he and his family took the Southern Link Star (南迴之星), a tourism express train and had a relaxed trip, enjoying hotsprings and the idyllic life of Aboriginal villages.

"In the future I will take this train instead of driving. It takes too much concentration to drive and you miss the scenery so easily," Hsieh said.

Southern Link Star, a specially designed tourism express train officially launched its new service on Aug. 15, and is the third such tourism express train. Starting from Kaohsiung at 8:50am, the train arrived at Taitung station at 11:44am, a good time to begin a weekend journey.

On the inaugural train journey were Lin Ling-san (林陵三), the minister of transportation and communications and Hsu Ching-yuan (徐慶元), Taitung County magistrate. Lin officially announced the service as the third tourist line, after the Kenting Star (墾丁之星) route in the west coast and the Hotspring Princess (溫泉公主號) route in the north east. All three lines link up to form a route around Taiwan.

"Taiwanese tourists usually sleep on buses or trains. But on this Southern Link Star, the scenery along the route will be so beautiful that you won't have time to sleep," said Taitung County magistrate Hsu Ching-yuan.

The Southern Link railway route features mountain scenery. The train passes through the southern part of the Central Range (中央山脈), which features deep valleys and mountains over 3000m high. There are 70 long bridges, 118 short bridges and 35 tunnels on the route. The central tunnel, at 8,070m, is the longest train tunnel in Taiwan.

But from Tawu (大武) to Taitung station one sees an entirely different view: the east coast and the Pacific Ocean, featuring its rocky and cliffy coast.

Of course, the around-Taiwan rail route is not something new. It is the same Taiwan Rail southern link route that was completed in1983. So what's the difference with the new tourist service?

Firstly, seating is more like business class in an airplane, with comfy arms and pillows and can be rotated. There are hidden radio headphones in the pillow of the seats. The windows are larger than ordinary trains and the outside of the train is specially decorated and designed.

Tourism trains are basically tailor-made cars, distinct from TaiRail trains, said Hsiao Kuan-chun (蕭冠群), senior manager of on-line travel agent EZ Travel (易遊網). The agent takes charge of packaging and marketing for the tourism trains.

It is not only the facilities that are well packaged, so are the staff. On the Southern Link Star staff wear a uniform with exotic Aboriginal patterns and it is said that most of them are Amis or Puyuma Aborigines. On the Kenting Star tourist train, which goes from Taipei to Fangliao (the nearest train station to Kenting), the train clerks wear tropical-style sarongs because the train's destination is Taiwan's famous seaside resort.

Tea, coffee and fruit are served and as for the food, local specialities are on the menu. On the Kenting Star one can enjoy fish cakes from Pingtung. On the Hotspring Princess, which goes from Taipei via Hualien to Taitung's hotspring resort of Chihpen (知本), lunch is served using Hualien's famous pottery bowls. And you can take the bowl home as a souvenir.