For centuries, only aboriginal tribesmen knew how to scale the snow-clad mountain peaks and make a footpath across the mountain range through gorges, ravines and chasms. For centuries, it has been man's ambition to conquer the mountains. The mountains defied him successfully. The Japanese occupiers of Taiwan started the venture to build a road into the mountains, but they gave up after a bad start. Today thousands of energetic Chinese engineers and retired war veterans are bringing man's dream to reality. They are nearing success in carving out a highway through the mountains linking up the west and east portions of Taiwan.
These engineers and veterans have not called on the aid of modern machines. They use their bare hands most of the time. The United States has also thrown in its economic aid to help conquer the defiant mountain range.
By the middle of next year, a l20-mile long two-lane highway in the middle portion of the mountain range will connect up the east 'and west coast. Natural beauties, so long out of reach of human beings, are to be put at the doorstep of Taiwan residents and tourists. Civilization will move inland. A national park will be created. Resettlement centers for retired servicemen will come to reside along both sides of the highway. The numerous natural resources will have a chance to be explored and exploited.
In time of war when ocean shipping is out of question, the highway will be the artery on which military supplies and soldiers will move from one coast to the other. Transportation today requires days but half a day in the mountains will be enough to send regiments of men, artillery pieces and ammunition from Hualien to Taichung, or vice versa.
The Highway Idea
The idea of building a highway through the Central Mountain Range is nothing new. During the Japanese occupation, a group pf engineers first made a survey and then planned a highway from Taichung in the west to Hualien on the Pacific coast. The Japanese, once the blueprint was ready, started to build the highway. They had succeeded in completing the sections between Hualien and Tungmen, today the site of an underground power station, and, in the west, the section linking up Taichung and Wusheh, another great power generating center.
But the Pacific war came. The Japanese had to stop construction work. The blueprints were buried in archives.
When the Chinese government liberated Taiwan after the war, it too toyed with the idea of completing the highway. A few years ago, it decided that to speed up Taiwan's economic deve1opment, this highway was urgently needed.
The Japanese blueprints were taken out. Chinese engineers studied them minutely. Then Chinese survey teams went into the mountains. They had no maps about the terrain but they had the determination. The old saying "Follow the river" enabled the surveyors reach the east coast from the west crossing the mountains. They found out that if they went upstream along the Tachia River in the West they soon would discover the origin of the Liwu River of the east.
The surveyors did not stop at one single trip. They made three trips. In one of these trips, they were joined by a husky man, Lieutenant General Chiang Ching-kuo who, as chief of the commission devoted to resettlement of war veterans, became highly interested in the mountains.
New Blueprints
Among the surveyors there were geologists, construction engineers and other experts. Each time they emerged from the mountains scratched and bruised all over, they brought out definite information about the treacherous mountains.
But they were beaten by another group of hardy Chinese. Engineers and workers of the Taiwan Power Company ordered to conquer the mountain range, spent two years in the mountains and established an east-west tieline which links up the power supply systems on both coasts. The completion of the tieline was hailed as a success difficult to be surpassed.
Now it was up to the highway experts to surpass the tieline feat. These experts, sitting down beside the Japanese blueprints once again, soon decided that geological changes and new economic circumstances had made the Taichung-Wusheh-Tungmen-Hualie line impracticable. They must have a new route. Mindful of the great benefits the highway could bring to their respective cities, the residents of Hualien and Yilan in the east entered strong pleas for the highway to end in their territories. Political interests were brought in to play. But the experts were able to finalize a plan which not only satisfied the desires of the east coast residents but also corrected the Japanese blueprints. Another outstanding virtue of the new plan was that roads already built on both ends would be used to the maximum so that efforts could be concentrated in the central portion.
In its finalized version the highway would start from Tungshih in Taichung Hsien. Tungshih is already connected with Taichung city by a good highway. From Tungshih the route is to follow the Tachia River to reach Tachien where a high dam is built to prepare for construction of a huge power plant. From Tachien eastward, the route picks up altitude until it reaches the origin of the river at the Hohuan Pass which is deep in the Central Mountain Range.
The trunk line of the highway then goes down from the Hohuan Pass eastward along the Liwu River toward Kupaiyan and Pilu, points on the map seen only from the air before. From Kupaiyan, in Hualien Hsien already, the path moves further east until it reaches the scenic spot called Tienhsiang. Tienhsiang, also known as Tapeitou, was a secluded mountain-clad spa loved and visited by the Japanese. The gorgeous gorges of East Taiwan start at Tienhsiang. The highway follows the gorges to the east and passes through danger-packed Tsuilu and Patakong until it emerges from the mountains at the famed Taroko Gorge on the Pacific coast. The whole length of the highway is 120 miles.
Taroko Gorge, in addition to its breathtaking beauty is also strategically located. It is the point where the famous Hualien-Suao highway starts. It is also only half an hour's drive from Hualien city. Today, at Taroko, there is a cemetery where the remains of 30 veterans who died in building the highway were interned.
The Branch Routes
At the Hohuan Pass, a branch line starts toward the northeast. It finds the origin of the Yilan River and then runs down grade for 72 miles toward Yilan. The branch line is easier to build since the section between Yilan and Tsailien has already been paved with asphalt.
Work started simultaneously at Taroko Gorge, Tsailien, Tungshih and the Hohuan Pass; at the last named place the Army Engineering Corps had been called in to help. The corps, the only group with big machines was withdrawn by the end of 1957 but work did not stop. To supply the workers at the Hohuan Pass, a supply line was needed. Therefore, the planners found the old Japaness route handy.
The plan calls for construction of a supply route from Wusheh in the southwest to the Hohuan Pass running 27 miles. Picking up where the Japanese left, the supply route was completed in early February of 1958. It became the first line in the cross-island highway to be completed.
Size of Job
A mere glance at the plan convinces one of the giganticness of the undertaking. It should also be borne in mind that the work is being done, not with modern machinery, but with human hands aided by crude instruments.
Other statistical figures may help tell the story more clearly. The whole project calls for the spending of NT$344,960,000 plus US$1,500,000. The road has to pass through 14,000 feet of tunnels, all of which to be blasted through solid limestone or marble rocks of the Central Mountain Range. Big bridges capable of sustaining 20 tons of weight number 26 and have a total length of 18,000 feet. And 2.3 million cubic feet of rocks have to be removed to hew out the road.
Most of the bridges which link up two cliffs with waters running abou 2,000 feet down below and tunnels are in the eastern sector of the highway. Near Kupaiyan, the plans called for the construction of a 2,000-foot tunnel. To avoid doing that, the engineers again sent three survey teams to the spot, trying to find a route atop the mountains.
The highest point of the highway and the lowest point have an altitude difference of 8,000 feet.
Progress Report
Construction work of the cross-island highway officially started on July 7, 1956. From that day onward, work has been in full swing. The scheduled date on which the whole highway is completed is in the middle of 1959.
On the western end, the Wusheh-Hohuan Pass supply line has been completed. The main road has progressed well beyond Tachien in February, highway buses and tourist vehicles began to run between Taichung, Tungshih, Tachien and Kukuan, another scenic hot spring in central Taiwan.
Along the eastern section, the Tienhsiang-Taroko part is scheduled to be opened for traffic in early March.
The parts now opened to traffic will vividly remind the travelers of the heroism of the road builders. Landslides, earthquakes and slippery paths have killed many engineers and workers. When the other parts of Taiwan were having a mild winter, the summits in the Central Mountain Range were all robed with snow. Driving on the half finished highway is a danger in itself.
But the workers' main worry is the earthquake, especially in the east section where the earth tremors are many and strong. Mountain rocks rolled down one night during a quake and crushed workers' tents, killing about a dozen. Engineer Chin Heng led a group of four workers to a half-finished bridge the morning after an earthquake. The bridge crumbled. Chin and his men fell 2,000 feet to their death. One engineer speaks of the Patakong Pass: "This place is painted red with blood. "
The Veteran
General Chiang Ching-kuo became interested in the highway project for many reasons. The principal one was that he saw in the construction project a good chance to resettle many of the soldiers to be retired from active service.
As a result, his Vocational Advisory Commission for Retired Servicemen took an active part in the road construction. The commission applied for United States Aid. The commission recruited retired servicemen for work on the highway. It looks after the welfare of the veteran-workers and is marking ambitious plans to resettle more along the highway after its completion. Up to now, 5,100 veterans have joined in the road building. The wages are high, higher than that paid to the ordinary worker on the plains. In general, if a veteran works more than 20 days a month, he gets from NT$1,200 to NT$1,500. Simple living in the mountains cuts down their expenses to the barest minimum. Many veterans have piled up savings exceeding NT$20,000. The poorest among them have in the postal bank more than NT$5,000.
But the resettlement project does not stop with the 5,100 veterans. General Chiang's commission envisages the establishment of huge resettlement centers along the highway after its completion so that 70,000 old war veterans could in future be invited to the mountains to make a new living. Industry will move inland, utilizing the natural resources there. And job chances for the veterans will not be lacking, the commission so thinks.
The Park Plan
Already being promoted is the idea that some of the scenic places en route could be converted into a national park. The mountains, steep and dangerously beautiful, have grandeur only to be found in classical Chinese painting. The gorges ravines and chasms en route are so attractive that the whole road is a panorama or breathtaking beauty. The waters in the rivers and the cascades hanging down from cliffs are seldom matched in grandeur.
In addition, there are many plants not found in subtropical Taiwan. The underwater hot springs at Tienhsiang and the spectacular dam of Tachien offer soothing sights to tourists. Taroko Gorge has attracted millions of travelers but the scenery beyond Taroko are considered far better.
The Taiwan Tourist Association has been interested in the project. The Tienhsiang station has an ambitious plan which calls for the construction of a big tourist hotel, several small hotels, a helicopter landing field, and many other such conveniences for tourists.
Only the future will see if the optimistic planners are not talking about something beyond their means.
Hidden Riches
The economic value of the cross-island highway often has been underestimated. Available data already show that the riches in the mountains will benefit the nation for years to come.
There are iron, gold and copper ores. There are crystal, marble and mica deposits. There are two million cubic meters of timber in 170,000 hectares of virgin forests. There are also 2,400 hectares of land which can be later put to farming or cattle raising. There are peach and other fruit trees so far denied to people living in the plains.
These data are not complete and final. When more survey teams explore both flanks of the highway in future, more concrete information will be brought forth. For the moment, it is already known that the mica and marble caches can more than meet the demand of Taiwan.
Another natural development is power generation. The dam at Tachien is being built to harness the river water for electricity generation. But the opening up of the highway will make more points available for power development.