Alishan Forest Railway Garage Park: Travel Guide (4.3★)

How this guide was made: Editor-reviewed, AI-assisted. Facts are pulled from live Google Places data; images are licensed or public domain. See our editorial policy.

Why go

You come here for rusted iron and quiet green space, not mountain scenery. The Garage Park sits right beside Chiayi Station, the historic starting point of the Alishan Forest Railway line that once hauled cypress logs down from the mountains.

Retired Shay steam locomotives, diesel engines, freight wagons and old passenger cars sit parked under trees and repair sheds. Some are roped off for viewing, others you can climb around and photograph up close.

Getting there

The park is a short walk from Chiayi Station’s back exit, at No. 2, Linsen W. Road, Beimen Village, East District. If you’re coming by train, take a westbound service to Chiayi on the Taiwan Railway main line, then follow signs toward Beimen.

Many visitors combine it with a ride on the narrow-gauge forest railway itself, since the old Beimen Station and workshop buildings sit right alongside the yard. It’s flat, shaded in parts, and easy to cover on foot in under an hour.

What to see

The main draw is the open-air collection of retired locomotives, some dating back to the Japanese colonial era when the line was built for logging. Look for the old wooden-bodied passenger cars, the rail turntable, and the corrugated-iron garage sheds that give the park its name.

A few engines still have their original paint and number plates, faded but legible. Information boards nearby explain each locomotive’s model and service history, though descriptions are mixed English and Chinese.

Beyond the rolling stock, the surrounding grounds have grassy lawns, old brick buildings repurposed as small exhibition spaces, and shaded benches. It’s a pleasant, unhurried green pocket in an otherwise dense city district.

When to go

The park keeps the same hours every day of the week, 8am to 6pm, so there’s no need to plan around a closing day. Foot traffic data shows it’s quietest between 8am and 9am on both weekdays and weekends — arrive right at opening for empty walkways and better light for photos.

Weekends get busy from 11am straight through to closing, so if you’re visiting Saturday or Sunday, try to get there before 11am. Weekday mornings are your best bet for a calmer visit overall.

Because much of the park is outdoors with limited shade over the tracks, midday in summer can be uncomfortably hot. An early morning or late-afternoon visit is more comfortable and less crowded.

How to visit like a local

This is a well-visited stop for both domestic and international travelers, so the goal is timing, not secrecy.

• Go right at 8am opening — the quietest hour on any day of the week.
• Avoid 11am to closing on weekends, when the site is busiest.
• Entry is generally free and unticketed, so there’s no booking or queue system to navigate — just walk in.
• Pair it with a walk to the nearby old Beimen Station platform, a five-minute stroll away, to see where the forest railway’s restored trains still depart.
• Wear shoes you don’t mind getting dusty; gravel and old ballast stone cover much of the yard.
• Bring water in warmer months — shade is limited around the locomotive displays.

The most common visitor mistake is treating this as the mountain town of Alishan itself. It isn’t — you’re in Chiayi City, at the railway’s historic base, not up in the highland forests. If you want the alpine scenery, that’s a separate trip further up the line. Budget 45 minutes to an hour here, more if you’re a rail enthusiast who wants to read every placard and photograph every engine.