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the forest roads can be traced back to categories
established during Japanese forest reorganization,
such as
“
reserved forests
”
and
“
non-reserved
forests.
”
Group relocation policies moved mountain
communities to foothills and plains, reshaping kinship
and inter-community networks. What are now
considered traditional territories may already be
homelands formed after relocation.
Forestry planning and governance policies reshaped
the surrounding landscape and living spaces.
Wanrong today is no longer primarily a forestry area,
but the forest roads remain, continuing to support
everyday life. Motorcycles delivering newspapers
to hillside settlements, blue trucks loaded with betel
nuts
—
industries change, policies shift, but the roads
are still used. Work sheds line the route. From the
main road, smaller paths branch off: routes marked
by water pipes, by Dioscorea cirrhosa plants favored
by wild boar and used for dyeing cloth. Further
away, traces of muntjac feeding and antler rubbing
appear. After the forestry era, these plants and
animals draw people back into the forest, returning
with game, or a basket of eggs, or bundles of
fiddlehead shoots. At this moment, the forest road is
just one of many
“
paths into the mountains.
”
At this
moment, the forest road is just one of many routes
into the mountains. Often it serves only as a point of
departure, while the branching trails carry their own
purposes, histories, and narratives.
In 2015, the Xilin Community Development
Association and youth from Ciyakang Tribe created
a tribal map, slowly reclaiming Indigenous place
names tied to mountains and everyday life. Seen
from afar along the Ciyakang River, the mountain
Krumuhan marks a battleground; Takaday Plateau
was formed by a giant
’
s footprint; Sibaw (Mount
were constructed. The Wanrong Forest Road and
the forests around what is now the Lintianshan
Forestry Cultural Park were developed later,
after the company shifted its focus to the Mugua
Mountain district. In 1938, as war loomed closer,
Taiwan Industrial Company submitted logging
applications. After Japan
’
s defeat, Lintianshan
Forestry was successively managed by Taiwan Pulp
and Paper Company, then Taiwan Chung Hsing
Paper Corporation, and in 1973 taken over by the
Forestry Bureau. Over decades, human movement
and forest growth became intertwined.
Beyond forestry, mining and electricity added
further layers. The evolution of multiple industrial
layers has jointly shaped the contemporary
landscape of Wanrong. A branch road near the
entrance to Xilin Forest Road leads to a Veterans
Affairs Council mining area, transporting dolomite
downhill. The Wanrong Forest Road played a key
role in Taipower
’
s New East-West Transmission Line
project completed in 1998, delivering electricity from
Nantou
’
s Mingtan Power Plant and Daguan No.
2 Power Plant to the Fenglin Substation. Here, the
forest road became a lifeline for power. The Ruisui
Forest Road also functions as a mining road, with
branches leading to terraced serpentine mining
sites.
Today
’
s landscape is the result of multiple layers
operating at once. Yet these layers are not empty
—
different communities and lives have long inhabited
this place.
Paths That Branch Off, Following One's Own
Map
The Indigenous lands along the early sections of
Wanrong Township
36