Qing Historic Routes

Dashuiku Hut
大水窟山屋

The far ridgeline in the picture is Dashuiku, which is located in south of Mount Dashuiku, south of Mount Jianshan, and north of Mount Jianshan and North-faced Mountain, on the main ridge of the Central Mountain Range. 

Nearby is a bamboo grassland with a good outlook and a natural pond. The Qing soldiers were once stationed here in the Qing period and named the camp Shuiku. Today, the pottery fragments left by the life of the people at that time can be found on site. Furthermore, this area was the prefectural boundary for Taichung and Hualien during the Japanese occupation period, and a checkpoint was set up. Currently, there are still traces of the stacked stone foundation. There are also semi-circular iron pipes on site, which were left from the Japanese occupation period when the water source of the Dashuiku was drawn from the pond in the north.

Dashuiku
影像為大水窟池東北方的高處俯瞰大水窟山屋與日越嶺道。

Dashuiku has been a traffic hub since the Qing Dynasty. The Batongguan Historic Trail from the Qing period was completed in the first year of Guangxu (1875). Since then, a camp was set up on the east side of the Dashuiku pond, and today there are remaining ceramic fragments on site that after being studied by archaeologists, they are products of Fujian Dehua kilns during the Xianfeng and Tongzhi reigns of the Qing Dynasty. The Batongguan Traversing Trail was completed in the 10th year of Taisho (1921). The Japanese set up the prefectural boundary on the roadside on the southwest side of the Dashuiku pond, at an altitude of about 3240 meters, and built a pavilion above it for travelers to rest.
In the 1970s, the Forestry Bureau built a tin and iron mountaineering hut in the south of the pond, but it was destroyed by strong winds and snow. Yushan National Park Management Office built a mountain house with solar power supply, rainwater collection tank and simple toilet on the original site, which can accommodate 24 people.

Historic trail stairs of the Qing period
影像為調查人員於八通關山前峰南稜所找到的石階,約有20多階2.4公尺的石階,成弧形修築,十分壯觀,階梯上鋪滿二葉松針,保存狀況良好,清八通關古道大多沿稜而行,與日治時期越嶺道沿山腰繞,有所差異,影像調查人員以山刀清除古道階梯上方的植物。

The Batongguan trail of the Qing period begins from the Batongguan campsite of the Qing period, crossing the upper reaches of the Laonong River, along the southern edge of the front peak of the Batongguan to the northern edge of Mount Zhizhu, where it intersected with the traversing historic trail from the Japanese occupation period. Continue climbing along the edge and you will reach the Dujuan saddle.

Former Site of the Prefectural Boundary
調查人員於州廳界遺址的臺階上合影

The former site of the Prefectural Boundary is located on the Batongguan Traversing Historic Trail of the Japanese Occupation period. It is mainly located on the southwestern side of the Dashuiku Pond at an altitude of about 3,240 meters.  It is a stone foundation with four 4.3 meters wide steps.  The stairs were the dividing line between Taichu State (now Taichung City) and Karenkou Prefecture (now Hualien County) during the Japanese occupation. In the past, the Governor-General in Taiwan once built a pavilion on the foundation to provide a resting place for travelers, and erected a wooden boundary marker in front of it. After the war, the Forestry Bureau built an iron hut in the 1970s that was later destroyed by strong winds and snow.

Today, the Yushan National Park Management Office rebuilt a hut with solar power and a rainwater tank on the original site.

 

 

Dashuiku Pond
大水窟池後方的山腰道路為八通關古道

Dashuiku Pond is a high mountain pond that does not dry up all year round. It is located on the eastern section of the Batongguan Traversing Historic Trail, which was built in the Qing Dynasty period. The water source depends on rainfall and snowmelt. The Bunun people refer to the pond as Oniyap, which means pool. Since the Qing period, this area has always been a traffic hub. Dashuiku Pond was an important drinking water source on the main edge of the Central Mountain Range that provided daily water for the Dashuiku Camp. The water source, as recorded in the "Taiwan Map '' compiled at the end of the Qing Dynasty period or "Taiwan General History'', referred to Dashuiku pond.

Today, a large number of ceramic fragments from the Dehua kiln in Fujian from the Qing period can still be found behind the house in Dashuiku.