With the advent of autumn, the Kinmen County Government is stepping up promotion of an ancient trail on Taiwu Mountain (太武山), the highest in the county, as part of ongoing efforts to boost tourism.
Dotted with numerous granite steps, the Caicuo Ancient Trail (蔡厝古道) is a path that used to connect Shamei (沙美) and Shanwei (山外) villages, which are separated by Taiwu Mountain in the eastern part of Kinmen Island, the county government said in a press release.
In earlier times, traders carried baskets loaded with tofu and fresh vegetables on a stick over their shoulder along the trail to sell their wares.
Photo: CNA
That explains its other name, Tofu Ancient Trail (豆腐古道), the county said.
Kinmen started promoting the Taiwu Mountain hiking tour along the Tofu Ancient Trail last year, Kinmen Tourism Department officials said.
With the Caicuo Old Trail as its main feature, the tour is designed to attract hikers and ancient trail fans from Taiwan and China, giving them a glimpse into rarely seen natural and cultural landscapes in Kinmen, the officials said.
The trail has already been featured on the popular television travel program Made In Taiwan (MIT台灣誌) on China Television, which visited Kinmen for five days in August to document it, county officials said.
Former county government resident artist Tsou Chia-che (鄒佳哲) was commissioned by the county government to paint a mural featuring the Tofu Ancient Trail at the Caicuo tourist center last year and returned to lead a group of reporters and hikers along the trail earlier this month.
On the three-hour walk from the trail entrance to the peak of Taiwu Mountain, the group visited cultural spots from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as more modern attractions.
At the top of the mountain, Tsou once again sketched the beauty of the trail and a wonderful bird’s-eye view of Jinsha Township (金沙), the department said.
A bilateral relations fact sheet on Taiwan-US relations published on the US Department of State Web site was recently updated to remove statements saying that it acknowledged Beijing’s “one China” position, and that the US does not support Taiwanese independence. The fact sheet is produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. A previous version of the document opened with the statement: “The United States and Taiwan enjoy a robust unofficial relationship.” It said the US acknowledged “the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China,” and said that the US “does
INDIRECT MESSAGE? Chinese planes might have entered Taiwan’s ADIZ to take part in drills with a carrier group that was about 500km off the east coast, an analyst said The Chinese military yesterday said it had conducted live-fire drills in waters and airspace off Taiwan’s eastern and southwestern coasts from Friday to Sunday to test and upgrade its joint combat capabilities. The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) posted the news on Chinese messaging platform WeChat. Over the past few days, authorities in Taiwan and Japan have observed deployments of Chinese planes and ships near Taiwan from a PLA carrier group of five destroyers, a frigate and a resupply ship led by the Liaoning aircraft carrier. The Japanese Ministry of Defense first announced on Monday last week that
China appears to have built mockups of a port in northeastern Taiwan and a military vessel docked there, with the aim of using them as targets to test its ballistic missiles, a retired naval officer said yesterday. Lu Li-shih (呂禮詩), a former lieutenant commander in Taiwan’s navy, wrote on Facebook that satellite images appeared to show simulated targets in a desert in China’s Xinjiang region that resemble the Suao naval base in Yilan County and a Kidd-class destroyer that usually docks there. Lu said he compared the mockup port to US naval bases in Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan, and in Subic Bay
Police are investigating the death of a Formosan black bear discovered on Tuesday buried near an industrial road in Nantou County, with initial evidence indicating that it was shot accidentally by a hunter. The bear had been caught in wildlife traps at least five times before, three times since 2020. Codenamed No. 711, the bear received extensive media coverage last year after it was discovered trapped twice in less than two months in the Taichung mountains. After its most recent ensnarement last month, the bear was released in the Dandashan (丹大山) area in Nantou County’s Sinyi Township (信義). However, officials became concerned after the