To give visitors a chance to get to know the forerunner of the Central Cross-Island Highway, at the end of the summer the Taroko National Park Headquarters staged some special trips to explore the Old Hohuan Trail.
Down in the plains the heat of summer is still intense, but 3,000 meters up in the mountains it is cooler by over 10°C. As we set off to explore the old trail, a pale sun struggles to break through the clouds, drizzle and mist.
The section of the Old Hohuan Trail from Tayuling to Sungyuan has not been disturbed by human feet for over 40 years, and is covered in layer upon layer of fallen pine needles from Formosa pine (Pinus taiwanensis) and David's pine (Pinus armandii var. masteriana). We breathe in pure, sweet, fresh mountain air while strolling lightly on the soft carpet of pine needles. How often in a lifetime does one get the chance to experience such a feeling?
Along the trail our fingers are tempted by the pearl-white berries of Gaultheria itoana, glistening bright against the deep-green background of the shrub's leaves and branches. On trying a few of the fruits, a mild spearmint flavor lightly twangs the taste buds-as refreshing as the old trail itself.
From time to time we glimpse alpine accentors, vinaceous rosefinch or Taiwan laughing thrush, and are often greeted by Yushan rose (Rosa transmorrisonensis), Taiwan oregano (Origanum vulgare var. formosanum) and Salix fulvopubescens (a type of willow).
From the Wuling section of the trail one can see in the distance the site of the former Sekimon Japanese police station (now Hohuan Hostel). The star attraction of this part of the trail is the profusion of colorful alpine wildflowers-purple, white, yellow, red, green-displaying the glory of the summer flowering season amid the cool breezes. Pearly everlasting, goldenrod, Yushan ladybell (Adenophora morrisonensis), Nepalese crane's-bill (Geranium nepalense thunbergii), Alishan gentian (Gentiana arisanensis), and the orchid Platanthera angustata are all memories to be entered in the notebook. Climbing up and up along the trail, as well as seeing the beauty of Taroko at close quarters, from the traces of human activity to be seen all along the way one can understand the various stages of the trail's historical development.
A road for hunters and soldiers
Taroko National Park straddles three counties-Hualien, Taichung and Nantou. Within its boundaries lie the Taroko Gorge, part of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the many peaks of Mt. Hohuan, Mt. Chilai and Mt. Nanhu, Central Range Point, Chingshui Cliff, and the Liwu River system. The park's total area is 92,000 hectares. It includes areas of metamorphic rock created and uplifted by intense orogenic movements, where continuous upward movement of the earth's crust combined with the downward cutting action of the rivers has produced a terrain of many sheer gorges.
Around 250-300 years ago, hunters of the Atayal tribe, who previously lived along the upper reaches of the Choshui River, discovered a broad area of open country on the eastern side of the Central Range. From that time on the Atayal began to cross the mountains and settle in the Liwu Valley. Because in those early years the Atayal were the area's only inhabitants, the mountain trails here are mostly routes originally opened up by them in order to move to new settlements, attack their enemies or clear land for farming.
Back then, the trails which later became the Hohuan Trail were paths linking Atayal villages, or hunting trails. Along the banks of the Liwu River and its tributaries, there were once 97 aboriginal villages, whose inhabitants were referred to by the Japanese as the Taroko and Outer Taroko savages. There were frequent contacts between villages, and sometimes wars. Until the early 20th century, the Hohuan Trail was an assortment of village tracks and hunting paths.
On 23 May 1914, to gain access to the rich forestry and mineral resources of eastern Taiwan, the Japanese launched a military expedition into Taroko to subdue the local aborigines. A force of over 10,000 Japanese police and soldiers, aboriginal soldiers and Han Chinese coolies entered the mountains. This marked the beginning of the Hohuan Trail's life as a military road. As well as having to fight, the Japanese army and police were also assigned the task of cutting roads to transport cannon, and they widened many trails to at least a meter broad. During this period they built the first Shanyue suspension bridge, cut a road between Patakang and Mt. Haishu, and also completed a route to Mt. Sanchiaochui.
The action against the aborigines finished on 6 August 1914, but the Japanese army left behind three companies of troops to continue widening the roads in Inner Taroko. An article published in 1932 by the Association for Promoting Taiwan's Scenic Beauty describes the rigors of the road building task. In places the rock was very hard and highly fragmented, making it unsuitable for blasting with gunpowder. "Police squad leader Shibata tied a thick rope around his body and had himself lowered down the mountainside like a bottle on a string. First he cut a foothold wide enough to stand on with one foot, and then gradually enlarged it."
The eight wonders of Taiwan
In 1927, the Taroko Gorge was voted by readers in Japanese-ruled Korea and Taiwan, and Japan itself, as one of the eight scenic wonders of Taiwan, second only to Oluanpi. In 1935, when setting up a national park, the Japanese built a new trail from Yuanfeng to Kalapao. After the work was finished, for a time this brand new Hohuan Trail became a tremendously popular hiking route, and enabled many people to fulfil their life's dream of walking along mighty cliffs and gazing out over the Central Range.
For example, according to the records of the Taichung aboriginal affairs department, in the month of July 1935 alone 12 groups from schools such as Taipei Senior High School, Taipei Senior Vocational High School, Taipei Second Girls Senior High School, Taichung Second High School and Taichung Normal School applied to walk the trail, and a total of 109 people received mountain passes. Every summer vacation, groups of students flocked to the trail.
For the next decade, the trail from the Taroko Gorge to Wushe remained a very popular hiking and sightseeing route. Many hiking groups traveled into the Taroko Gorge to Tienhsiang and then prepared to make the grand journey on foot across the Central Range to Mt. Hohuan.
The bigger places along the route such as Kalapao, Kupaiyang and Patakang all had mountain hostels to provide overnight accommodation. At that time, the park authorities also sold accommodation coupons. One of the hostels, Patakang Club, was a purely Japanese style building constructed of cypress wood, with five to six rooms and space for 20 people. In December 1936, the Taiwan Nichi Nichi Shinpo newspaper published a distance chart for the Hualien area which set out the distances between the various points along the Hohuan Trail.
When construction of the Central Cross-Island Highway began in 1956, much of it followed the route of the Old Hohuan Trail. Except for the Chuilu Cliff Trail from Patakang to Laohsi Creek, the Liwu River Trail from Tienhsiang to Pilu Giant Tree, and side branches of the Hohuan Trail such as those from Holiu to Lienhua Pool and from Huitouwan to Meiyuan, the rest of the trail became part of today's Central Cross-Island Highway. In 1993, Associate Professor Lee Jui-tsung of the general education center at Tsu-Chi College of Medicine and Humanities began researching the Old Hohuan Trail. He discovered that in fact the majority of the old trail lies within a distance of 50 meters above or below the Cross-Island Highway. But after the highway was built, the old trail fell into disuse and gradually faded back into the undergrowth, forgotten.
A trail is reborn
Lee Jui-tsung was the most influential figure in the "unearthing" of the Old Hohuan Trail. During the two years he spent gathering information about the trail at the request of Taroko National Park Headquarters, section after section of it "came back to life."
For Lee, the beauty of a trail includes such elements as the places and communities it passes through, its flora and fauna, and the personalities and stories associated with it. These were the things he worked hardest to discover in order to "revive" the Old Hohuan Trail.
Lee's "Red Hill Studio" is filled with piles of Japanese-language documents such as adventurers' diaries, official aboriginal affairs files and land contracts, along with 1:50,000-scale topographical maps of Taiwan's aboriginal areas based on surveys ordered by the aboriginal affairs office of the Japanese colonial Governor-General's office, and many books. Oral history interviews, dusty, yellowed photographs, and his own charts and drawings-from all these records Lee gradually pieced together a picture of the old trail's history.
Lee made visit after visit to seek out the trail along its course as he inferred it from the documents. But often the trail petered out, and the choice as to whether to search upwards or downwards depended entirely on his instincts. Lee has all the makings of a modern-day adventurer-cum-detective who relishes the challenge of a treasure hunt.
Lee, who to date has made over a dozen visits to the trail, describes it as having been as busy in its heyday as Tokyo's Ginza, with a constant stream of people passing along it. But before it was completed, for ordinary people the idea of going into Taroko and crossing the Central Range seemed as unlikely-and as exciting-as taking a trip into space for people today.
All the more so because Mt. Hohuan is the best place to get a view of the whole Central Range. "In those days, the Central Range was a geographical name, but not something which could be seen." For many people in the regions under Japanese rule, to have a chance once in their lives to get even a far-off view of the Central Range was a lifelong dream. Lee Jui-tsung quotes an article by Murakoso Masaru entitled "Record of a Journey through Inner Taroko," which was published in Taiwan Nojiho ("Taiwan Farming News") in 1918: "Before long we reached Lao Creek No. 1 Police Post. Today we must feast our eyes on the mighty peaks of the Central Range, for a memory to last a lifetime."
Breathtaking Pilu Cliff
The most thrilling and dangerous section of the whole Old Hohuan Trail was the Pilu Cliff section, which is below Chinma Tunnel on today's Cross-Island Highway. The old trail at this point is half buried under stones brought down when the new road was being built above it. The park authorities do not encourage visitors to walk along this section, but a number of photojournalists taking part in the Old Trail outing nonetheless cautiously clambered across to it. The rest of the group watched as they worked their way along, sometimes hanging on to roots and branches, sometimes clinging to rocks. The reward for their efforts was to be able to capture some amazing images of the river gorge and its sheer rock walls.
Another part of the enjoyment of walking the old trail is looking for traces of human activity left behind from the past. Telephone wire insulators nailed into pine trees, old Japanese sake bottles by the wayside, a large area of level ground, a neatly-built wall of shale fragments, and scars left behind by cuts made to harvest pine resin, were all key clues in rediscovering the trail.
Walking along the old trail, seeing the magnificence of Mt. Hohuan's main peak and eastern peak, one cannot help drawing a deep breath. According to historical records, at one time a herd of 140 cattle were put out to graze on top of Mt. Hohuan. In summer, when the Yushan cane (Yushania niitakayamensis) sprouted new leaves, the herders would drive their cattle up Mt. Hohuan to feed on them. To stand there today, looking out across the verdant slopes and thinking of those bygone days, is not only a rare experience, but is also the best classroom for learning about Taiwan.
More than just a blur
The information about culture, historical relics, flora and fauna gathered by Lee Jui-tsung on expeditions plagued by typhoons, running out of water and other perils, can allow future travelers on the Central Cross-Island Highway to leave the road and follow the various routes high and low towards the ridges, cliffs and gorges, to see Taroko and the Central Range from many different perspectives and get in tune with the pulse of nature.
"When we move at a speed of 20 kilometers a day, we can observe the scenery all along the way. But when we move at 200 kilometers a day, everything just becomes a blur." The special quality of the Old Hohuan Trail which Lee Jui-tsung stresses is the serenity of this precipitous, winding track which remained hidden among the mountains and forests after being abandoned for half a century.
Lee also reminds future visitors to concentrate on observing and experiencing the beauty of nature along the way, and to savor every aspect of the trail in depth.
Long-distance walking can help one to completely escape the all-pervasive stresses of modern life. Lee also hopes that one day there will be a popular movement to rediscover Taiwan's network of old trails, so that even more people who like to hike can refresh their spirits amid the island's beautiful mountains and forests.
Old Hohuan Trail Travel Information
Because plans to restore the Old Hohuan Trail are still being formulated, the Taroko National Park authorities suggests that visitors wishing walk the trail should visit sections of it at places along the Central Cross-Island Highway such as the Pilu Great Tree, Tayuling and Kunyang. Also, because parts of the highway are still undergoing emergency repairs due to earthquake and typhoon damage, and bus services are running at reduced levels, the National Park authorities suggest that visitors drive to the following locations to visit the trail.
1. Follow Provincial Highway 8 to the car park at Pilu Great Tree. Walk past the visitor center, and continue as far as the zip line at Kalapao. The end of the trail at the zip line is the site of the former Kalapao Japanese police station.
2. Follow Provincial Highway 8 to Tayuling. After going down the steps from the Tayuling Pavilion, one can walk as far as Sungyuan Farm.
3. Follow Provincial Highway 14A to Wuling. From there one can walk along the side of the highway or along the mountain track as far as Kunyang. Kunyang is the site of the former Mt. Hohuan Japanese police station.
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The view from Mt. Shihmen towards the east and main peaks of Mt. Hohuan. In former times, the hollow between the two peaks was used as a camp by the Japanese army. Today, it serves as an army winter training ground.
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The delicate beauty and fragrance of alpine flowers is easily missed by motorized travelers.
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A group led by Associate Professor Lee Rui-tsung prepares to set off from Wuling to walk the Old Hohuan Trail and experience the same sense of wonder as those who traveled it a century ago.
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For the first organized outing along the Old Hohuan Trail, the National Park authorities specially renovated some sections, adding ropes and ladders for safety.
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Many parts of the Pilu Cliff section of the Old Hohuan Trail are nowadays only passable by clinging to bushes and scrambling over rocks. This is not a journey for the faint-hearted.
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Every summer, Adenophora uehatae (1) (family Campanulaceae) blooms profusely in crevices in the rocks. Pearly everlasting (3) (Anaphalis margaritacea, family Asteraceae) grows in clumps on areas of broken rock. The round, white flowers it produces in summer and autumn look like the swirling dresses of tiny dancers. The purple, tubular flowers of the azami thistle (5) (Cirsium japonicum) and the elegant shape of the orchid species Platanthera angustata (4) growing beside the trail are both very eye-catching. Gaultheria itoana (7) (family Ericaceae) bears masses of thirst-quenching juicy berries. The white-blossomed Formosan elder (8) (Sambucus formosanum) has orange cup-like nectar glands amongst its flowers which attract bees and butterflies. Bright yellow goldenrod (9) (Solidago virgo-aurea var. leiocarpa) is a common sight among the bamboo grassland. Anaphalis nepalensis (11) (family Asteraceae)is a typical Taiwanese alpine plant. It has a short stem, and the whole plant is covered in fluffy hairs and papery round flowers which give it excellent protection against the cold. Gentiana scabrida (12) favours sunny spots. It flowers throughout spring, summer and autumn. The low-flying alpine accentor (2), vinaceous rosefinch (6) and Taiwan laughing thrush (10) often appear suddenly darting about above the bare rocks and grasslands. They were a focus of attention throughout the Old Trail trip.
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Standing on this little ledge at Pilu Cliff, looking up at the lofty peaks towering so near, makes for an unforgettable experience.
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A century ago, to be able to view the majestic heights of Mt. Pingfeng from Kuanyun Hostel was a lifelong dream for many people.
The delicate beauty and fragrance of alpine flowers is easily missed by motorized travelers.
A group led by Associate Professor Lee Rui-tsung prepares to set off from Wuling to walk the Old Hohuan Trail and experience the same sense of wonder as those who traveled it a century ago.
For the first organized outing along the Old Hohuan Trail, the National Park authorities specially renovated some sections, adding ropes and ladders for safety.
Many parts of the Pilu Cliff section of the Old Hohuan Trail are nowadays only passable by clinging to bushes and scrambling over rocks. This is not a journey for the faint-hearted.
Every summer, Adenophora uehatae （1）
favours sunny spots. It flowers throughout spring, summer and autumn. The low-flying alpine accentor （2）,.
blooms profusely in crevices in the rocks. Pearly everlasting （3） （Anaphalis margaritacea, family Asteraceae） grows in clumps on areas of broken rock.
and the elegant shape of the orchid species Platanthera angustata （4）
The round, white flowers it produces in summer and autumn look like the swirling dresses of tiny dancers. The purple, tubular flowers of the azami thistle （5）
growing beside the trail are both very eye-catching. Gaultheria itoana （7.
bears masses of thirst-quenching juicy berries. The white-blossomed Formosan elder （8） （.
has orange cup-like nectar glands amongst its flowers which attract bees and butterflies. Bright yellow goldenrod （9）
Taiwan laughing thrush （10） often appear suddenly darting about above the bare rocks and grasslands. They were a focus of attention throughout the Old Trail trip.
is a common sight among the bamboo grassland. Anaphalis nepalensis （11）
is a typical Taiwanese alpine plant. It has a short stem, and the whole plant is covered in fluffy hairs and papery round flowers which give it excellent protection against the cold. Gentiana scabrida （12）
Standing on this little ledge at Pilu Cliff, looking up at the lofty peaks towering so near, makes for an unforgettable experience.
A century ago, to be able to view the majestic heights of Mt. Pingfeng from Kuanyun Hostel was a lifelong dream for many people.
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