Qianshan First City Stone Tablet Introduction
At the top of Jiujiu Kan, there is a pavilion called "Jingyi Pavilion" which is inscribed with "Yunlin County Jingyi Pavilion Record." A stone tablet is erected with the words "First City of Qianshan," meaning that this county town is the most important town on the west side of Taiwan. (The original stone tablet has disappeared, and the current one is a replica.) It is located on the hillside near the intersection of Section 1, Qianshan Road, where the Jiujiu Kan stone steps lie on the slope, accompanied by a large white stone engraved with the words "Jiujiu Kan" and a line of smaller text stating "Starting point of Batongguan Ancient Trail." The Batongguan Ancient Trail was built in the first year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1875) by General Wu Guangliang, who led about 2,000 troops to construct the road, originally named "Zhonglu." It had two starting points: one at Jiujiu Kan and the other in the vicinity of Shaliao Village in this town. The two roads meet in Luguhu and then cross Batongguan, traversing the Central Mountain Range to Yuli in Hualien, with a total length of 265 miles (about 154 kilometers), completed in just eleven months, serving as a transportation corridor between the eastern and western parts of Taiwan. For over three hundred years, ancestors crossed the Qing Shui River from Linnei Township, directly reached here via the riverside, and took the Qianshan Road, climbing up the hillside to Linqipu (present-day Zhushan). To make the slope easier to ascend, the early settlers built ninety-nine stone steps here, known as Jiujiu Kan. Later, with the construction of a new road, this area fell into disrepair, and the original Jiujiu Kan stone steps were completely destroyed. The current Jiujiu Kan stone steps were restored by the Zhushan Township Office in collaboration with the National Arts Festival. Not only does it provide a place for townspeople to climb and exercise, but it also evokes a sense of nostalgia among the people of Zhushan. Climbing halfway up the Jiujiu Kan stone steps makes one gasp for breath and sweat profusely, reminiscing about the ancestors who relied solely on their feet, and having to carry luggage or heavy burdens while climbing the slope of Jiujiu Kan is truly a hard endeavor.
