Qianshan First City Stone Tablet Introduction
On top of Jiujiu Keng, there is the "Jingyi Pavilion," which has the inscription "Yunlin County Jingyi Pavilion Record" carved inside. A stone tablet stands there, inscribed with "First Castle of the Front Mountain," meaning that this county town is the most important town on the western 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 of Qianshan Road, where the Jiujiu Keng stone steps lie on the slope, along with a large white stone that has the characters "Jiujiu Keng" inscribed on it. Below, there is a small inscription stating "Starting point of the Batongguan Ancient Trail." The Batongguan Ancient Trail was constructed in the first year of the Guangxu era (1875) under the leadership of General Wu Guangliang, with about two thousand troops. At that time, it was called the "Middle Route," with two starting points: one at Jiujiu Keng and the other near the Long'en Canal in Sheliao Village of the township. After merging in Lugoo, the routes passed through Xinyi over Batongguan, crossing 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 a vital transportation artery between the east and west of Taiwan. For more than three hundred years, ancestors crossed the Qing Shui River from Linnei Township, traveling directly along Qianshan Road to climb the slope to Linkipu (now known as Zhushan). To make the slope easier to climb, the ancestors built ninety-nine stone steps here, called Jiujiu Keng. Later, with the establishment of a new road, the original stone steps fell into disrepair, and all of the Jiujiu Keng stone steps were destroyed. The current Jiujiu Keng stone steps have been restored by the Zhushan Township Office as part of the National Arts and Culture Season, making them available for townspeople to climb for exercise and also stimulating the nostalgic sentiments of the people of Zhushan. Climbing halfway up the Jiujiu Keng stone steps is enough to leave one breathless and sweating profusely, reflecting on how their ancestors relied solely on their feet, while also carrying luggage or heavy burdens up the slope of Jiujiu Keng—truly a strenuous endeavor.
