Three tunnels along an abandoned road on Shibaluohanshan (Eighteen Arhats Mountain, 十八羅漢山) in Kaohsiung that was once a key route for the camphor oil trade are now popular tourist attractions, and are expected to draw a lot of visitors over the Lunar New Year holiday.
One of the Liouguei Tunnels (六龜隧道) in Liouguei District (六龜) is inhabited by hundreds of Taiwanese leaf-nosed bats, while another is home to a large number of Pacific swallows, all of whom took up residence in the tunnels after 1992, when the road through them that was built in 1936 was replaced by one that bypasses the mountain.
Liouguei District is between the Pingtung Plain and the Central Mountain Range, and its forests, at 800m above sea level, were perfect for camphor trees, said local tour guide Chang Yun-cheng (張運正), whose family has lived in the area for several generations.
Photo: CNA
During the Japanese colonial era from 1895 to 1945, Liouguei was known for its output of camphor oil, which was a key ingredient in insect repellents as well as smokeless powder used in the production of bullets and artillery shells, Chang said.
The lucrativeness of the camphor trade led the Japanese colonial government to construct a route through Shibaluohanshan in the 1930s to facilitate the transport of camphor and logs.
The Japanese drilled six tunnels with a total length of 792m along the route, Chang said.
However, the importance of the tunnels as an economic and strategic lifeline gradually faded after Japan withdrew from Taiwan in 1945.
However, the increase in traffic in the 1980s, with a heavy volume of vehicles carrying visitors to Shibaluohanshan and other forested sites in Liouguei and neighboring Meinong District (美濃) led to the construction of Taiwan Provincial Highway 27A, which opened in 1992. At the same time, Shibaluohanshan was designated as part of a nature reserve, which left the tunnels to wildlife.
The Forestry Bureau reopened three of the tunnels to visitors in September last year, and hired guides to provide tours of their ecological and cultural features.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS