Qianshan First City Stone Sculpture Introduction
At the top of Jiujiumen, there is the "Jingyi Pavilion," which is inscribed with "Yunlin County Jingyi Pavilion Record." A stone tablet stands there, carved with "The First City in Front Mountain," signifying that this county seat is the most important town on the west side of Taiwan. (The original stone tablet has disappeared and is now a replica.) It is located on the hillside near the intersection of Section 1 of Qianshan Road, where the Jiujiumen stone steps lie on the slope, accompanied by a large white stone inscribed with the words "Jiujiumen" and a small line below that reads "Starting Point of the Batongguan Ancient Road." The Batongguan Ancient Road was built in the first year of the Guangxu era (1875) by General Wu Guangliang, leading about two thousand soldiers to construct the road, which was originally called "Zhonglu." There were two starting points: one at Jiujiumen and the other at the area of Sheliao in this town, along the Long'en Canal. The two roads met at Lugud and crossed Batongguan through Xinyi, traversing the Central Mountain Range to Yuli in Hualien, with a total length of 265 li (approximately 154 kilometers), completed in just eleven months, serving as the transportation route between eastern and western Taiwan. For over three hundred years, ancestors from Linnei Township crossed the Qingshui River and walked through Qianshan Road, climbing up the hillside to Linqipu (now known as Zhushan). To make the slope easier to climb, the early inhabitants built ninety-nine stone steps here, named Jiujiumen. Later, with the construction of a new road, this area fell into disrepair, and the Jiujiumen stone steps were entirely destroyed. The current Jiujiumen stone steps have been reconstructed by the Zhushan Township Office in cooperation with the National Arts Festival, providing a venue for local residents to exercise and also stirring the nostalgic sentiments of the people of Zhushan. Climbing halfway up the Jiujiumen stone steps leaves one panting and sweating profusely, reflecting on the hardships faced by ancestors who relied solely on their feet while carrying luggage or heavy loads up the steep slope, which is indeed a tough endeavor.
