Aboriginal ruins in Taitung County’s Dawu Township (大武) are to be preserved in accordance with famed mountaineer Yang Nan-chun’s (楊南郡) last wish, Forestry Bureau Director-General Lin Hua-ching (林華慶) said yesterday.
Yang, who was the nation’s leading expert on ancient mountain trails and spent years researching Aboriginal trails, was born in 1931 and died of cancer on Aug. 27 last year at age 86.
“The bureau in 2001 began to map mountain trails nationwide, 700km of which we have indexed to date. Without Yang’s contributions, the trails would simply be skeletons devoid of life,” Lin told a seminar in Taipei that was held to commemorate the legendary mountain climber and researcher on the first anniversary of his death.
Photo courtesy of the Forestry Bureau
Preserving the ruins in Dawu was Yang’s last wish and the bureau has been collecting information on the site since last year, Lin added.
Yang and his wife, Hsu Ju-lin (徐如林), were inseparable as they researched the island’s mountain trails.
During the seminar, Hsu presented her new book titled The Footprint of Taiwan Mountains — Legendary Life of Yang Nan-chun.
It documents Yang’s childhood in Tainan during the Japanese colonial period, his work at the then-US embassy in Taipei — and their adventures in the mountains.
Yang’s hiking career was inspired by some US soldiers during the 1960s, Hsu said.
Yang had told her that a group of US soldiers hiking the Nenggao National Trail (能高越嶺道) had shared their experiences with him, she said.
They asked Yang why he did not try to explore the nation’s beautiful mountains instead of staying in the narrow and crowded plains, Hsu said, adding that these remarks inspired Yang to embark on his adventures in the mountains.
His friends said Yang’s greatest contribution to trail research came from his translations and publication of materials written in Japanese, which he spoke fluently.
Hsu would take Yang’s findings and turn them into academic reports, preserving accounts of culturally historic events that occurred on the trails.
The couple’s published research includes works on the Nenggao National Trail, the Jinshueiying Ancient Trail (浸水營古道), the Hehuan National Trail (合歡越嶺道) and the Batongguan Ancient Trail (八通關古道) that were commissioned by the Forestry Bureau and Council of Agriculture, as well the migration history of the Aborigines.
In light of the current debate over traditional Aboriginal land rights, Yang would not have agreed with the people who say that “Aborigines cannot clearly define their land,” Control Yuan Vice President Sun Ta-chuan (孫大川), a lifelong friend of Yang, said at the seminar.
“The problem is whether authorities are willing to take Aboriginal history and geography seriously,” Sun said, adding that Yang’s writing compels readers to reflect on “the roots of Taiwan.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation