Qianshan First City Stone Tablet Introduction
At the top of Jiuzhiqian, there is a pavilion named "Jingyi Pavilion" which is inscribed with "Yunlin County Jingyi Pavilion Record" and has a stone tablet that reads "First City of Qianshan," indicating that this county town is the most important town on Taiwan's west side. (The original stone tablet has vanished, and the current one is a replica.) It is located near the intersection of Section 1 of Qianshan Road on a slope where the Jiuzhiqian stone steps lie. There is also a large white stone engraved with the words "Jiuzhiqian," below which is a line of small text stating "Starting point of the Batongguan Ancient Trail." The Batongguan Ancient Trail was constructed in the first year of Guangxu during the Qing Dynasty (1875) under the leadership of General Wu Guangliang and approximately two thousand soldiers, originally named "Zhonglu." There were two starting points, one in Jiuzhiqian and the other in the vicinity of the Long'en Canal in Sheliao Village. After the two roads converge in Lugu, they pass over the Batongguan and traverse the Central Mountain Range to reach Yuli in Hualien, with a total length of 265 miles (approximately 154 kilometers), completed in just eleven months, serving as a vital transportation route between eastern and western Taiwan. For over three hundred years, ancestors traversed the Qingshui River from Linnei Township, directly coming through here along Qianshan Road, climbing up the slope to Linqipu (now known as Zhushan). To make the slope easier to ascend, the pioneers built ninety-nine steps with stones, which became known as Jiuzhiqian. Later, with the construction of a new road, this area fell into disrepair, and the original Jiuzhiqian stone steps were all destroyed. The current Jiuzhiqian stone steps were reconstructed by the Zhushan Township Office in collaboration with the National Arts Festival, providing not only a place for townspeople to exercise but also evoking a sense of nostalgia among the residents of Zhushan. Climbing halfway up the Jiuzhiqian stone steps can leave one breathless and sweating profusely, reflecting on how ancestors relied solely on their feet to carry loads and climb the slope of Jiuzhiqian, which is indeed a great hardship.
