Caoling ancient road

Caoling ancient road

Caoling ancient road is a trail connecting yuanwangkeng, Gongliao District, Xinbei City, Taiwan with Dali mountain area, Toucheng Town, Ilan County. It is a part of the ancient tanlan road and one of the only remaining sections (the road between Wanhua and Yilan, which was opened up by Taiwan aborigines). The name "Caoling" comes from the roadside mountains, where Miscanthus is flourishing and almost no other tree species exist. The ancient road is about 8.5 km long. It is surrounded by mountains on one side and sea on three sides. There are monuments such as Huzi stele and Manyan stele in Xiongzhen. The sea view is expected to see Guishan Island. After the ancient road lost its transportation use, it has become a popular scenic spot. It is managed by the Northeast Coast National Scenic Spot of the Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of communications.

Historical evolution

The view Pavilion near the Huzi stele on the ancient Caoling road and the view of the mountain covered with Miscanthus

It is said that the ancient Caoling road was gradually built by the Pingpu People of Taiwan in ancient times, which is convenient for connecting the traffic on both sides of the tail ridge of the snow mountain.

Before Qing Dynasty

According to the general annals of Taiwan Province, the brandy family of Pingpu, an aborigine in Taiwan, first built the mountain road between Xinbei and Ilan. Later people followed this route to travel between the two places. This is the ancient Danlan road which was first seen in literature. Fresh water is fresh water hall. It starts from Kau (now Wanhua District of Taipei City). Lanze is the garmalan Hall (today's Ilan County). The road connecting the mountain area is called "Danlan ancient road". To get to gamalan from Kaga, you have to pass through two mountains, sandiaoling and Caoling. Therefore, the ancient Danlan road can be divided into "sandiaoling road" and "Caoling road". It is also said that the tanlan ancient road was opened by Yang Tingli, the governor of Taiwan, in 1807.

the Qing dynasty

During the reign of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, Liu Mingdeng, who was transferred to Taiwan in the 5th year of Tongzhi, took office one year later. On the ancient tanlan road he passed, he left the stele with gold characters, Manyan stele in Xiongzhen and Huzi stele. Although Liu Mingdeng did not make much contribution to Taiwan at that time, he was also recorded by history because of these monuments.

Around 1881, the Danlan ancient road was the only official road recognized by the Qing government. Along the way, there were ailiao (collecting strong men to protect travel safety, similar to today's bodyguards), delivery shop (the transfer station for delivering letters and goods), and post station, which were very convenient and safe. Therefore, when Taiwan's ancestors came to Yilan for reclamation, they mostly passed through the ancient tanlan Road, and the frequent official inspection and traffic also created many historic sites on the ancient tanlan road.

On October 8, 1897, Japanese cultural anthropologist Yi Neng Jiaju saw the Huzi stele and wrote the following words: "when approaching the top of the ridge, the new road and the old road meet. Here is a big stone, about six feet long, with smooth surface. It is engraved with tiger characters in cursive script style. On the right side, it is engraved with the winter of the sixth year of Tongzhi, and on the left side, it is also engraved with several characters, such as the book of Liu Mingdeng, the envoy of Taizhen. This is a historical monument built during the restoration of Yueling road from Taipei to Ilan. Not far away is Lingding, the boundary between Keelung and Ilan

modern

The construction of the Yilan line began in 1917. On March 24, 1919, the line between Yilan and su'ao, located in the plain, was opened to traffic first. On May 5 of the same year, the section between Badu and Ruifang was also completed. However, due to the construction of Caoling tunnel is still in progress, this section can not be directly connected to Yilan line, which is temporarily called "Ruifang line".

Before the Yilan line was opened to traffic, the ancient Caoling road was still the main road between the two places. Passengers need to get off at nearby stations and change their straw sandals to cross the mountain on foot. It was not until the completion of the tunnel in 1924 that the train was able to run directly that it gradually declined.

After 130 years of evolution, the function of the ancient road around Caoling has already declined. Today, there are only three sections of "sandiaoling ancient road", "Caoling ancient road" and "Longling ancient road". The rest of the sections have been replaced by railways and highways.

Main landscape

Caoling ancient road is located at the junction of Ilan County and Xinbei City, with a total length of about 8.5 km. It is an important traffic channel from danshuiting (caoga) to gamalanting (Ilan) in the Qing Dynasty. It is one of the sections of Danlan ancient road, and it is also one of the only ancient roads left by the former Qing Dynasty in Taiwan. Caoling ancient road lies between yuanwangkeng, Gongliao District, Xinbei city and Dali, Toucheng Town, Yilan County The boundary mountain of one city and one county is "Caoling", which is full of Miscanthus on both sides, so it is called "Caoling ancient road" because there are no other tree species. The ancient road is the most popular hiking route of the Northeast Coast National Trail, with the fragrance of wild ginger flowers in summer and Miscanthus flowers in autumn.

There are pavilions, guide boards and public toilets along the ancient road. There is a tourist service center at Dali end of the ancient road to provide rest and services for tourists along the ancient road. If there is no rest in the way, the trail (yuanwangkeng → Dali station) can be completed in about 2-3 hours according to the foot strength.

Ancient road

Manyan stele in Xiongzhen is listed as a third class historic site in Taiwan.

In 1867, Liu Mingdeng, the chief soldier of Taiwan Town, tried to suppress the mountain demons. The monument is located on the hillside of the ancient Caoling road. It is 336 cm wide and 119 cm high. Each character is 55 cm wide and 70 cm high. Later generations have a poem praising the Manyan stele of Xiongzhen: "the danger of Xiongzhen dominates its Mao star," the town forces the dragon to hold more heart, "the Manyan is full of Qi, the Dragon absorbs the rain," and the smoke swallows the wind. " The Huzi stele is one of the three level monuments in Taiwan.

The "Huzi stele" near the highest place of the ancient road is about 330 meters above sea level. In 1867, Liu Mingdeng's road was blocked by a storm, so he took the meaning of "cloud from the dragon, wind from the tiger" in the book of changes, and took manghua as the pen to brush on the spot. Its characters are 40 cm wide and 1 m high, written in cursive script.

Lu house

It used to be called "Dali inn". Because there were no houses around it, it used to be an important Inn on the road. It was also a resting place for business travelers on the rugged ancient road in the Qing Dynasty. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, because the owner of Lu's house died, and the traffic use of the ancient road in Caoling became smaller, the descendants no longer provided business accommodation. Later, they were renovated by outsiders for home use until the 1970s and 1980s Because the last residents moved to other places, this "old inn" has been abandoned to this day, leaving only a fence for future generations.

Yakou square

The so-called "Yakou" is a natural depression at the intersection of the two mountains, which is also known as the "saddle" in geography. The terrain of Anbu is often windy, which has a great relationship with the terrain. Facing the strong northeast monsoon in Northern Taiwan, coupled with the blocking of snow mountains and mountains, the monsoon surges up along the valley, making the wind stronger all year round. Because of the strong wind, it is difficult for tall trees to grow, and only the lower Miscanthus and ground cover plants can survive. So here you see a landscape of Miscanthus. Every year, from September and October, Miscanthus wil pull out its spikes on time. At the beginning, the whole cluster of spikes is purplish red, and then turn to yellowish brown or gray white when it matures. It is one of the most beautiful scenery in autumn and winter in Taiwan.

Caolingding

Caoling is a good place to enjoy awns in autumn, but Caoling is not born like this. Looking around, there are still trees growing near the top of the mountain, which can still form trees. It is obvious that the comprehensive influence of environmental factors here does not restrict the growth of trees. Once upon a time, there was a forest fire, which destroyed a large area of forest. With the passing of years, the forest is trying to recover from the valley to the top of the mountain. However, due to the relatively bad environment and slow succession rate of the top of the mountain, it is still in the state of grassland, so it is called "Caoling".

White backed awn

White backed awn is a variety of Chinese awn. It is named by Dr. Li Ruizong. White backed awn is widely distributed and has a large number in the whole province. Most people mistakenly think it is Miscanthus pentaphyllus. But in fact, there is a big difference between the two. The biggest characteristic of white backed awn is that its leaf is silvery white with white powder, while the leaf back of Miscanthus pentaphyllus is green, which is the best way to distinguish the two It is also called white backed awn because the leaf back of white backed awn is silvery white. Miscanthus can be used as flower material and binding as broom when it is mature; the leaves can be woven into children's play and build roofs; the stems of Miscanthus can be used to mix soil to make earth house walls, and the top is tender and edible.

Ford Temple

Located at Yakou, the temple is a small earth temple built of stone with a simple form. In front of the temple, there are boundary markers of Beiyi and Beiyi counties. It is quite rare that the temple worships both the earth God and the earth woman. The Xiaofu temple, which has spanned two counties for a hundred years, was built after the opening of the railway tunnel. At that time, there were fewer and fewer travelers walking along the ancient road, and there was a sense of insecurity along the mountain road. Therefore, this small temple was built to protect the safety of travelers.

Earth Grandmother

In Taiwan's folk land God temples, in addition to offering sacrifices to the land God temples, some also offer sacrifices to the land God; but in the folk land God temples, they seldom offer sacrifices to the land God. This is because the common people think that the landlady is mean and narrow, so they are not willing to invite her into their homes to worship. Some temples worship the landlady because they are afraid that the landlady is old and helpless, so they invite a landlady to accompany them.

It is said that the Jade Emperor sent Ford to govern the people's sufferings. Because the earth God was loyal, sincere and loving, he saw that the poor people were living in great hardship, so he planned to distribute their wealth equally to human beings, but the earth woman stopped him. He thought that there should be a distinction between the rich and the poor in this world, and said that if everyone was rich, who would carry the sedan chair for his daughter in the future? The landlords were speechless, so they gave up this ambition, and there was a gap between the rich and the poor among the people, so the poor hated the land very much

Chinese PinYin : Cao Ling Gu Dao