Figuring out how to get to Taroko Gorge by train is one of the hardest travel transportation feats I have accomplished.
Train tickets can be bought on line two weeks out. Tickets sell out quickly, especially during the summer and on the weekends.
You can’t see all of the information from one menu and you have to know what you want when you go to purchase. Before buying your tickets, do some prep work to figure out the route, train, and time you would like to travel.
I heard from someone that by 9 am (two weeks out) tickets were getting slim, so I got up early to buy them as soon as they went on sale.
You are only allowed to buy 6 tickets a day per passport number.
There is an option for round trip tickets but I never figured out how to actually book and pay, so I did two one way trips. I heard you have to book the same train/route each way or you can’t book round trip.
http://railway.hinet.net/Foreign/US/index.html
Make sure you “Print the Ticket Pick Up Form for credit card payment to complete the purchase”.
My tickets (and other items I had read on line) said I could print my tickets at a local convenience store. I thought I did this but the machine was in Chinese and even after I got through the machine successfully, it turns out I didn’t do it correctly. Good thing we got to the station with enough time to visit the window to print our tickets (has to be more than 30 minutes prior).
Once on the train, it was smooth sailing!
Life Kinetic Travel Research 