Qianshan First City Stone Sculpture Introduction
At the top of Jiujin Keng (九十九崁), there is a pavilion called Jingyi Pavilion (旌義亭), which has an inscription reading "Yunlin County Jingyi Pavilion Record." A stone tablet stands there, inscribed with "The First Fortress of the Front Mountain," indicating that this county town is the most important town on the western side of Taiwan. (The original stone monument has disappeared, and the current one is a replica.) Located near the intersection of Section 1 of Qianshan Road, there lie the Jiujin Keng stone steps on the hillside, along with a large white stone engraved with the words "Jiujin Keng" and a smaller line underneath saying "Starting Point of the Batongguan Old Trail." The Batongguan Old Trail was constructed in the first year of the Guangxu era of the Qing Dynasty (1875) by General Wu Guangliang, who led about two thousand soldiers to build the road, originally named "Zhonglu." There are two starting points: one at Jiujin Keng and the other in the Long'en creek area of Sheliao Village. The two roads converge in Lugu and then cross the Batongguan, passing through the Central Mountain Range to Yuli in Hualien, with a total length of 265 miles (approximately 154 kilometers), completed in just eleven months, making it a crucial transportation route between eastern and western Taiwan. For over three hundred years, ancestors crossed the Qing Shui Creek from Linnei Township, directly walking along Qianshan Road, climbing the hillside to Linqipu (now known as Zhushan). To make the slope easier to climb, the early settlers built ninety-nine steps out of stone, called Jiujin Keng. Later, a new road was opened, leading to the deterioration of these steps, which were completely destroyed over time. The current Jiujin Keng stone steps were restored with the assistance of the Zhushan Township Office as part of the National Arts Season, allowing residents to climb for exercise and to evoke a sense of nostalgia. Climbing halfway up the Jiujin Keng stone steps can leave one breathless and sweating profusely, reflecting on ancestors who relied solely on their feet and carried heavy loads while ascending the steep slopes of Jiujin Keng, which is truly a tough endeavor.
