When I went to Wulai, I took a ride on that small train that drops people off near the waterfall. Question: What is the origin of this railway? Based on how narrow the track is, I’m guessing it started off as one of the push car railways built during the Japanese era.
Isn’t it just a toy for kiddy tourists? It’s got to be one of the least exhilarating train rides of any kind anywhere in the world. It doesn’t even give passengers a view of any beautiful scenery – you can see more walking along the road that runs beside it, and far better still if you follow that road beyond the cable car and waterfall area. As it is less than two kilometres long, and the ride from one end to the other takes less than five minutes, I can hardly see the point of it at all.
That’s a pretty fancy kiddy toy, considering they had dynamite the mountain to make tunnels for it. By the way, I just came across an article titled “Push Car Railways and Taiwan’s Development.” I’ll go over it this weekend and see if it has anything about that Wulai line.