Portuguese seamen sailing along Taiwan's east coast in the 16th century are said to have exclaimed, "Ilha Formosa!" ("beautiful island") at the sight of the island. According to some, their excitement stemmed from their quest for fabled gold. In fact, the Portuguese of the day named a gold producing area near the mouth of Hualien's Liwu River the Rio d'Ouro ("gold river").

In the 17th century, the Dutch and Spanish established trading posts on Taiwan, with the Dutch building a fort in the south at An-ping and the Spanish building forts in the north between Kee-lung and Dan-shui. Both the Spanish and the Dutch wrote accounts of their search for gold.

Established in 1920, the Taiyang Mining Corporation mined gold in the Ruifang-Jiufen area until it folded in 1971. The photo shows company founder Yan Yunnian's younger brother Yan Guonian (front row, second from right) standing in front of the Ruifang No. 1 Mine with miners and Japanese technical advisors.

Jacinto Esquivel, a Spanish missionary, mentioned productive gold mines in the vicinity of Su'ao, Tu-ro-boan (the stretch of coast between Yi-lan and Hua-lien), and Rui-sui in the letters and memoranda he wrote in those times. In fact, remains of panning and smelting tools left behind by Spanish prospectors have been found along the east coast.

De Dagregisters van het Kasteel Zeelandia ("Journals of Fort Zeelandia") records that the Dutch undertook numerous gold prospecting expeditions, sending soldiers in junks as far south as Heng-chun. When they rounded Taiwan's southern tip and sailed up the east coast, they encountered indigenous people wearing gold ornaments and learned that gold was being produced along the Da-nau River, north of Bei-nan. The actual location of the Da-nau remains uncertain. Some say it refers to the -Liwu River in northern Hua--lien. Others say it refers to the Yi--lan coast, or even the Xiao-cu-keng River near Rui-fang.

While the Europeans searched in vain, the indigenous peoples of the east coast not only knew where to find gold, but were already using gold dust in "silent trade" with other tribes. Tribespeople wishing to trade would place gold nuggets and dust in a certain location, then leave. Others would see it and themselves place clothing or other trade goods at the site for the provider of gold to take, completing the transaction.

Limited by geography, the balance of power, and a lack of information, the Spanish and Dutch hunt for Taiwan's gold mines bore little fruit and their dream of a treasure island in the East withered on the vine.

Once the Qing Dynasty extended its ambitions to Taiwan, it began to document Taiwan's gold producing areas, but there was no real breakthrough until the 19th century.

Taiwan did in fact take part in the global gold rush of that era. In 1890, Liu Ming-chuan, then Taiwan's governor, began constructing the Badu railway bridge over the Kee-lung River as part of his effort to build a railway from Tai-pei to Kee--lung. One of the railway workers, a Cantonese man who had experience panning for gold in the US, discovered gold dust while panning some gravel for fun in a bowl he was washing. The news spread quickly, kicking off Taiwan's own gold rush.

Ethnic Chinese laborers with prospecting experience and dreams of wealth came pouring in from as far afield as the US and Australia to join the local panners. Virtually overnight, more than 3,000 panners were at work at sites including Rui-fang, Nuan-nuan, Si-jiao-ting, Liudu, Qidu, and Shuangxi.

In 1892, provincial governor Shao You-lian took action to deal with the hordes of prospectors, creating a central "gold dust bureau" in Kee-lung with branches in other locations, and assigning officials to oversee prospecting matters. The daily licensing fee the prospectors were required to pay became a substantial source of provincial government revenue.

The following year, a laborer from Chao-zhou who had prospected in California discovered the Big Jin-gua and Little Jin-gua Summit deposits, beginning the Jin-gua-shi-Jiu-fen area's century-long association with gold mining.

During the Japanese era, the Japanese also operated a "gold dust bureau" to manage gold production, and implemented mining guidelines that split the Jin-gua-shi-Jiu-fen area mining rights along a line running north to south from the summit of Mt. Kee-lung. Japan's Fujita Group acquired the license to operate the Rui-fang Mining District (present-day Jiu-fen) west of the mountain. The Ta-naka Group developed the Jing-ua-shi Mining District east of the mountain.

Following the intensive extraction of the late Qing and the Japanese era, the Jiu-fen mines began to play out. In 1914, the Fu-jita Group, which was losing money on the expensive and difficult-to-manage mines, leased them to a Taiwanese man named Yan Yun-nian. Yan had been a prospector and had a clearer idea how to run the business: he divided the mountain into smaller plots that he sublet to others. In 1920, Yan formed the Tai-yang Mining Corporation and acquired the rights to all the Rui-fang mines. Tai-yang continued to operate the Jiu-fen mines until the company's closure in 1971.

Unlike Fu-jita, the Ta-naka Group imported advanced smelting techniques and equipment and carefully managed the development of its mine. For five consecutive years, the Jinguashi site produced nearly 36,000 ounces per year, earning a reputation as Japan's top gold mine. In 1938, its gold production soared to a peak of nearly 84,000 ounces, a peak that marked the summit of Jin-gua-shi's gold mining days and made it the top mine in Asia. Wealth poured into the area, creating a bustling boomtown where the lights stayed on all night.

Lin Chao-chi and Tan Li-ping, former professors in National Taiwan University's Department of Geosciences, have estimated that the Jin-gua-shi-Jiu-fen area possesses East Asia's largest gold bed and has produced 500-600 tons of gold ore to date. Numerous geologists and foreign mining companies believe that several hundred to several thousand tons of gold remain in the area.

But there has been no mining here for more than 30 years in spite of its potential value. Most locals oppose restarting it out of concern that it would create pollution and negatively affect tourism.

From the Age of Sail's hunt for an East Asian treasure island, to the 19th-century gold rush, to the 20th-century boom and bust of Taiwanese gold mining, Taiwan's "golden years" have a place all their own in the annals of humanity's centuries-long search for gold.