Written in stone

A champion of the underprivileged, writing on the topic helped Gu as much as it did Chianshi. "By making the effort, I improved my writing and broadened my horizons," he said.

One of the more recent works to be immortalized on the rocks is by writer and TV host Lin Wen-yi (林文義). Lin had been interested in Taiwan's Aboriginal communities ever since his early days as a newspaper reporter. The Taipei resident was growing sick of the island's formerly pleasant but now ruined tourist destinations such as Tamsui and Jeoufen, until he discovered the pristine beauty of Chianshi three years ago while working on a TV show about Aboriginal culture for Bada television (八大電視).

Lin was angered by the way his station sought to stereotype the Atayals, and the condescending way in which it treated them. "Many Atayals are very resilient. Their long history of being underprivileged has conditioned them to take this exploitation for granted, but that's not the way it should be," said Lin, who has made many Atayal friends in Chianshi and got to see things from their perspective.

Lin fears the effects of Han Chinese cultural influence on the Atayal. "I don't feel like I deserve having my writings inscribed on a stone by the Atayals. Hopefully it won't intrude on the Aboriginal culture," Lin said.

Every now and then, whenever he feels depressed or stressed-out from work, Lin drives from his home in Taipei all the way to the town to "bathe in the primitive nature" of Chianshi. "I owe the nature and nice people in Chianshi a lot," Lin said.

Seeing an increasing number of tourists -- in the thousands -- attracted to the opening ceremony of the literary trail and the accompanying two-day tribal festival, Commissioner Yun was confident about the tourism prospects for Chianshi. "Hopefully the words about Chianshi's pristine beauty inscribed on the stones will always serve as a reminder to the Atayals of the natural treasure they have been given," Yun said.