Trailing the Past

In the 21st century the Taiwan Semiconductor Manu­facturing Company, whose products play a crucial role in global industry, has been nicknamed “the sacred mountain that protects the nation” by the people of Taiwan. In the 19th century, in response to international demand, tea, cane sugar, and camphor became Taiwan’s three most important exports and were called the “three treasures of Taiwan.” They earned large amounts of foreign exchange for Taiwan and were the “sacred mountains that protected the nation” back in the day.

Feng Fong-long, a retired professor from the Department of Forestry at National Chung Hsing University, explains that camphor wood has multiple uses, as medicine, insect repellent, building material, or material for sculpting, and can be processed into camphor. With the invention of cordite (smokeless gunpowder) and celluloid, demand for camphor, which was used in the manufacture of both, skyrocketed, making Taiwan into the “camphor kingdom” for half a century. It was only with the advent of synthetic camphor that the natural camphor industry went into decline.

Lin Man-houng, an adjunct research fellow in the Institute of Modern History at the Academia Sinica, noted in her book The Tea, Sugar, and Camphor Industries and Socio­economic Change in Taiwan (1860-1895) that in those days tea plants in Taiwan were mainly distributed in hilly country from Shimen in today’s New Taipei City to Changhua, while camphor trees grew deep in the mountains from Yilan to Chiayi. Tea and distilled camphor were carried on shoulder poles or transported on bamboo rafts to the ports from which they were exported. Because tea and camphor were such valuable commodities, their production was a powerful driver of development in mountainous areas of Taiwan.

The Raknus Selu Trail

In recent years, a partnership between the Hakka Affairs Council (HAC) and the Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association has led to the restoration of old mountain pathways once used to transport tea and camphor, and the linking of these with farm roads and other commercial access roads to create the 380-kilometer Raknus Selu Trail, which runs from Taoyuan through Hsinchu and Miaoli to Taichung. Their goal has been to draw attention to Taiwan’s glorious history as a tea and camphor kingdom a century ago. In 2019 the Raknus Selu Trail became a Friendship Trail of the Jeju Olle Trail in Korea, and in December 2022 the Fourth Asia Trails Conference will be held in Taiwan.

Why is it that 100 years ago tea and camphor production was mainly concentrated in areas that today are still Hakka communities? Wu Wen-hsing, professor emeritus in the Department of History at National Taiwan Normal University, explains that Hakka immigrants to Taiwan tended to live in hilly regions on the Chinese mainland, and after coming to Taiwan they settled in similar areas. There were many tea plants and camphor trees around them, so they became active in tea harvesting and camphor distilling.

The HAC has selected seven sections of historic trails along the Raknus Selu Trail and combined them with historic scenic spots connected with tea and camphor to create six national tourism itineraries. These include the Xiao­cu­keng Historic Trail in Taoyuan; the Dunan, Feifeng, and Shi’en (a.k.a. Shiyingzi) trails in Hsinchu; and the Ming­feng, Laoguanlu, and Chuguan trails in Miaoli. They have been graded into three categories based on trail conditions: family-­friendly, challenging, and healthful hiking. The HAC also commissioned the AXN network to produce and broadcast the program Secrets of the Raknus Selu Trail, to encourage more people to explore these historic trails.

Along the Dunan Historic Trail, you can see many interesting sights, including the large-leaf Assam tea plants introduced by the Japanese, the Formosa Tea Industry and Culture Gallery, and the Lo House, a well-preserved three-sided courtyard residence that is a century old. If you walk the Shi’en Historic Trail, you can see the Chiang A-Hsin Mansion, which was featured in the TV drama Gold Leaf. Leaving the trails to visit nearby Hakka communities, you can taste classic Hakka dishes such as flat noodles, crystal dumplings, and steamed vegetable buns, or try out some innovative Hakka cuisine.

Sickle in hand, Peng Hung Yuan clears fallen bamboo from the trail after heavy rain.

An old house in the mountains built using traditional Taiwanese-style wattle and daub construction.

Laoguanlu highlights trees and forest

The Laoguanlu Historic Trail, located in Miaoli’s Dahu Township, is about 9.2 km in length and runs along ridgelines to the east of Highway 3, from the 133.6 km mark to the 141.1 km mark of the highway. The longest of the six national tourism itineraries along the Raknus Selu Trail, it was once a mountain pathway used for transporting camphor, tea, and household goods. To the east of the Laoguanlu Trail hikers can see Mt. Manabang, one of Taiwan’s “Small 100 Peaks,” which is a sacred mountain to the Atayal indigenous people, as well as Mt. Dake; while to the west there is the 889-meter-tall Mt. Guandao. The beautiful mountain vistas and secluded bamboo forests are the main attractions, while all along the route there are trees, woods, and fruit orchards. If you get tired you can just follow one of the turn-offs to get back to Highway 3.

Peng Hung Yuan was previously director of the Forestry Division at National Miao-Li Agricultural and Industrial Vocational High School. The winner of a National Excellent Teacher Award in 2010, while still at his job he took part in a survey of shrines to the Earth God (known to Hakkas as Bo Gong) throughout the Dahu area. Shortly after he retired the HAC set out its plan for the Raknus Selu Trail, and he felt duty bound to join in the work of researching the Laoguanlu section.

Indian gooseberry, a fruit with an astringent mouthfeel but a sweet aftertaste, is a niche product that farmers in Miaoli are growing with guidance from agricultural agencies.

There is authentic Hakka cuisine to be had all along the Raknus Selu Trail. The photo shows the ingredients for Hakka leicha (mashed tea). (courtesy of KC Global Media AXN Asia)

Stories of Dahu

“I often walked along the Laoguanlu Trail when I was small, but several decades later I could no longer find it.” Peng recalls how he invited a couple of friends to scout out the path with him: “The three of us carried sickles, and entered the trail from the entrance at Nanhu. We spent about half a day there hacking away, but still couldn’t find the route.” This illustrates the difficult challenge of restoring historic trails. Later on, surveyors from the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau spent 17 days mapping out the route, after which Peng joined in the work of restoring the trail by hand.

Peng says that the Laoguanlu Trail was originally a military trail opened up between Dahu and Zhuolan at the request of two major camphor processors back in 1883. It was the only road available for anyone active in the area, including frontier guards, postal workers, government officials, businesspeople, and porters. After Provincial Highway 3 was opened to traffic in the mid-1930s, it was much more convenient to use the new road and nature reclaimed the old one.

Farmers cultivate ‘Baodao Ganlu,’ an Asian pear variety that was developed in Taiwan. The large, juicy fruit is popular as a gift item.

Bamboo forest

On an early autumn day not long after a typhoon, Peng takes us on a hike along the Laoguanlu Historic Trail. We climb the steps from a sign reading “Shuitou Fude Shrine” that is hung on a camphor tree at the north entrance. The wild grasses and fallen leaves below the rock walls are sprinkled with the fallen blossoms of mu-oil trees (Vernicia montana), while seed pods hang from endemic Formosa lily plants (Lilium formosanum) and to one side of the trail a farmer is weeding her strawberry field. There is no traffic in this hilly area, only the tranquility of the countryside.

As we climb higher, the trail is increasingly under the sway of nature. The water-soaked soil nurtures a wide variety of plants, while vines and silvergrass grow across the path. All along the way Peng uses a sickle to cut away the vegetation, and clears away fallen bamboo culms. He is unbothered by the cuts and scrapes he gets from the silvergrass and tree branches, saying, “This is just the usual.”

A kilometer along the trail we enter a large stretch of bamboo forest. Sunlight filters through the foliage high overhead. Just like strolling through the famous Arashiyama Bamboo Forest in Kyoto, Japan, there is a refreshing and mind-cleansing coolness in this place, and the air is filled with phytoncides. Soon we reach a broad platform which offers expansive views, while down in the valley there lies a hamlet beside a stream, and you can imagine the tranquil contentment of life in such a rural community, aloof from the world and its strife. Along the trail, the earth covered with vegetation seems soft and gentle, while tree roots twist to form steps. Wherever there are breaks in the path, hand-built sections of wooden railroad ties or stone blocks are laid out to link the trail together.

Peng Hung Yuan introduces a Bo Gong (Hakka Earth God) shrine.

A startled muntjac

Beside the trail there is an abandoned old homestead built using traditional Taiwanese-style wattle and daub construction. Here there are the remains of a house, a pigsty and a cowshed. The rear wall of the house has been broken down by wind and weather. When we peek inside, a Reeves’ muntjac emits a short bark as if reprimanding uninvited guests, and we hurry on our way. In front of the house, to its right, stands a beautifully proportioned Wulai tanoak (Castanopsis uraiana), and as we walk on we notice beneath our feet the remnants of a water channel made of stone masonry.

Increasing immigration from China in past centuries and the expansion of Han Chinese communities into mountain areas led to conflict with Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. Beside the Laoguanlu Trail there is still a stone pillar that marked the boundary patrolled by police officials in the era of Japanese colonial rule, as well as stone tablets commemorating historical events that occurred along this demarcation line. There is also an old armory building, on top of which there is now an observation platform with views of Mt. Guandao and the broad Liyu­tan Reservoir in the distance.

Must-see Hakka architecture

In the local Hakka communities visitors should not miss the Bo Gong (Earth God) culture. Every such place of worship is a work of art, be it in the form of a simple “spirit stone,” a small shrine, or a “shrine within a temple,” and whether located outside a house, under a tree, at the roadside or in the middle of a field.

“There are a total of 238 shrines, with 340 Bo Gong statues.” These are the numbers from Peng Hung Yuan’s survey of Dahu Township. Along the “Bo Gong Road” at Dawo in Daliao Village, near the north entrance to the Laoguanlu Trail, there are ten Bo Gong shrines in just four kilo­meters. Dawo’s Fude Temple is an old shrine that has been upgraded into “shrine within a temple” by being raised up onto a platform inside a newer temple built of reinforced concrete. Another Bo Gong temple in the same neighborhood, located under a chinaberry tree (Melia azedarach), is designed with great simplicity, with a slightly upturned swallowtail roof ridge, stone block walls, and a stone slab altar.

The Guishan Fude Shrine, also in Daliao Village, is more elaborate. Under a banyan tree, the shrine has a niche with a memorial tablet dedicated to Bo Gong. There are decorative bas-relief carvings on the swallowtail roof ridge and on the front, while the roof and eaves have features such as guidai (embellished smaller ridges that extend out from the main ridge), semi-cylindrical tiles, ornamental eave tiles, and “rain curtains.” The stone slab altar has an ancient feel, while the kneeling stones really test the knees of believers.

Within a one-kilometer radius of the Sanliangsan parking lot one can visit the old home of Tu Min-heng (writer of the classic Hakka folk song “Kejia Bense,” meaning “The Character of the Hakka”), take a look at traditional three-sided Hakka residential compounds or some newly created land art, and explore one of Taiwan’s few well-preserved irrigation channels built by our ancestors out of hewn stone.

Dahu in is an agricultural township, famous throughout Taiwan for its strawberries and Asian pears. In recent years farmers have been growing the local ‘Baodao Ganlu’ Asian pear variety by grafting, and these large, round, juicy fruits, harvested in summer and autumn, make excellent gifts at Mid-Autumn Festival. Meanwhile, agricultural agencies are also encouraging farmers to grow Indian gooseberry (Phyllanthus emblica).

A traditional three-sided Hakka residential compound.

Keeping the trails clear

A Hakka proverb has it that “When people work hard the earth produces treasure; when they are lazy it produces weeds.” After the resurrection of the Laoguanlu Historic Trail, some people said caustically that no-one would come and hike there. Fearing the trail would be reclaimed by nature, besides acting as a guide Peng Hung Yuan also began working with volunteers to clear away wild vegetation and keep the trail intact, as a way of sincerely welcoming visitors to their beloved hometown.

“There’s a limit to what I can do, but after all it’s better to do something than to do nothing.” Recording an area’s history and culture is a race against time, and his passion for the land where he grew up drives him to act as a “one-man team,” visiting elderly residents to gather stories of the Laoguanlu Trail’s past.

As an expert in forestry, Peng is well aware that if no one walks the trail it will return to nature. He also believes that the purpose of studying history is not just to reminisce and lament the past. He hopes that with the restoration of the historic trail, both visiting hikers and former residents returning home to found businesses can bring new prosperity to this Hakka mountain community. 

Emerging from the forest, walkers are treated to an expansive view of the mountains in the valley below.