The Fenqihu Railway Lunchbox

Fenqihu is a village at around fourteen hundred metres on the forest railway built to bring cypress down from Alishan, and it was the point where trains stopped long enough for passengers to eat. What they ate was the biandang: a box of rice with a fried pork chop laid over it, a soy-braised egg, a piece of sausage and some pickled and stewed vegetables, the whole thing warm, heavy and designed to be eaten on a knee. The boxes are still made and still sold along the village's short covered street, together with aiyu jelly, and the railway lunchbox has since become a national institution sold on platforms all over the island.

What you actually see

• The lunchbox itself - rice, fried pork chop, braised egg and stewed vegetables.
• The old street - a narrow covered lane of food shops through the village.
• The forest railway - the narrow-gauge line that climbs from Chiayi through the cloud.
• Aiyu jelly - a cold set jelly made from the seeds of a climbing fig.

When to go

October to April for clearer weather, since the mountain sits in cloud most summer afternoons. Come at lunchtime, which is what the village is set up for, and expect the street to be at its fullest between eleven and two. Services on the forest railway have been interrupted for long periods by typhoon damage in the past, so check what is actually running.

Honest expectations

The village is small and the visit is essentially a meal and a fifteen-minute walk. Every shop sells the same lunchbox at much the same price and the quality is ordinary rather than remarkable. Coach groups arrive together and the lane becomes impassable. The road up from Chiayi is winding and takes over an hour, and the buses fill early in the morning.

Nearby

Alishan's forest area is further up the same road and railway.