The Jinshuiying Historic Trail Bears Witness to the Trade History Between the East and West Coasts of Southern Taiwan

The Jinshuiying Historic Trail runs from Fangliao in Pingtung in the west to Dawu in Taitung in the east, stretching 47 kilometers in total and carrying 500 years of Taiwan's history. The Puyuma, the Paiwan, the Dutch, the Pingpu, the Han Chinese and the Japanese traded, drove cattle, visited relatives, prospected for gold, launched punitive expeditions and fled from danger along this old trail.

Hsu Ju-lin and Yang Nan-chun, who have long studied Taiwan's historic trails, recently published "The Jinshuiying Historic Trail," telling the story of this old road. Of all the footpaths crossing the Central Mountain Range, this trail was once the most heavily used, had the lowest mountain pass, and remained in use the longest; it was also abandoned and forgotten for more than 20 years, with no one walking it.