Alishan No. 28 Giant Tree (28號巨木)

For most of a century this cypress was overlooked in favour of a neighbour that the newest dating makes about five centuries younger. No. 28 has been known since Japanese rule, yet it was passed over because the better-known Sianglin cypress stands a few hundred metres away. Today it is one of Alishan's official New Eight Sights, reached by footpath and boardwalk to a viewing platform in the forest below Shouzhen Temple. Like many of the giants here, it is a merged tree: several red cypress stems grown into one mass. The official figure, from the Forestry Bureau's survey, dates its largest trunk to between 1,087 and 1,103 years. That puts it in rare company. When National Chiayi University cored 43 of Alishan's red cypresses in 2022, most came out under 800 years, far younger than the legends attached to them, so a thousand-year trunk is the exception on this mountain rather than the rule. The measurements depend on who held the tape. Chinese Wikipedia gives 14.7 metres round the fused mass at chest height; the park's own page gives a diameter of 4 metres, which works out nearer 12.6. The park puts its height at 45 metres. One naming trap: an article on Alishan's giants also gives No. 28 the Sianglin name, which belongs to the elected cypress by Ciyun Temple, dated in 2022 at about 626 years. They are two different trees, and this is the older one.