Faded mementos
Before embarking on an old trail, it's a good idea to know its history.
The Nan'ao Historic Trail was a trafficway 200-plus years ago for the Atayal people, who hunted and farmed the land along the trail. Indigenous people also had their own fishing grounds staked out along the river, and used the trail to get to the Nan'ao Plain to collect salt.
The routes chosen by the indigenous people of an earlier time would be inconceivable to us today; they would simply take the shortest distance between two points-a straight line! That made for a lot of vertical ascents and descents.
Just as depicted in the movie Seediq Bale, indigenous people have a knack for bounding from boulder to boulder and tree to tree when hunting wild game or engaging in warfare. With their skill in finding shortcuts, they could easily overtake a less mountain-savvy army.
The Nan'ao Historic Trail of today is, of course, nowhere near as challenging as it once was. During the Japanese colonial period, the Japanese converted some of the Atayal trails into police access roads.
The biggest difference between the police access roads and the old trails is the relatively level grade of the police roads. The police roads of an earlier day led to the village of Siji in Datong Township, as well as Luodong and Nan'ao, thus forming a relatively large-scale "Greater Nan'ao transportation system." The Japanese used their extensive network of police roads to force the indigenous peoples out of their original villages and into the Nan'ao Plain. The story of their coerced migration is one of untold suffering and misery.
Green trail of the Atayal
In addition to built structures, the mountain flora also offer clues about life here in times past. Here the sugar palms, elephant's ear, pinstripe ginger, and China grass grow to sizes never seen in the hills near a big city. The same holds true for the Formosa begonia. The flourishing giant plants make for a very impressive sight.
All of these plants played important roles in the daily lives of Taiwan's indigenous peoples, so it would seem reasonable to assume that the Atayal people of an earlier time would have picked and made use of them as they made their way along the trail.
The Atayal typically harvested the sugar palm and fashioned its tough fibers into rope, or dried them out in the sun and wove them into straw hats, brooms, or roofing material. Pinstripe ginger fibers, once dried in the sun, could be worked into strings, or woven into mats, baskets, or infant cradles. And the gray-colored seeds of pinstripe ginger have long been a key ingredient in herbal stomach medicine and Jintan (a Japanese patent medicine).
Beating the heat
Setting aside the bitter conflict that once took place here between the Japanese and indigenous inhabitants, today's Nan'ao Historic Trail is an excellent place to escape the summer heat, as the trail winds its entire length though a leafy forest along the South Nan'ao River.
Once you're well into the trail, it's a special treat to savor each step, and feel the springiness of the dirt beneath your feet. Where the trail ascends a relatively steep slope, stones spaced at ergonomically chosen intervals make the walking go smoothly.
The forest is thick and green. Few people pass this way, so it is a fully developed multi-layered habitat that greets the eye. The canopy layer is formed of tall trees such as Anguilla marmorata, Elaeocarpus, and Engelhardtia formosana. In the understory are found the Taiwan mountain longan, dwarf umbrella trees, and Chinese apea earring. On the forest floor, one will find pinstripe ginger, tuba root, palm grass, green foxtail, and chain fern.
Walking further, it begins to feel as if the entire world is a sun-dappled green, and eventually one enters a Zen-like state -a light sense of ease gradually pervades the inner being. We stroll slowly up to the hanging bridge and, while making our wobbly way across it, look down to the rushing creek below. The beauty of the boulders and water is intoxicating, inferior in no way to that of Taroko Gorge. Here, one forgets all mundane cares, and simply soaks in the unadorned charm of the place.
When hiking an old trail, there are no street signs or any of the other things we use in the city to navigate our way around. Instead, we must be alert with all five senses. And if you can, it is best to go barefoot to really appreciate the wordless speech of the ancient trail.
Nan'ao Historic Trail Fact File
Administered by: Luodong Forest District Office, Forestry Bureau
Location: Jinyang Village, Nan'ao Township, Yilan County
Length: 3 km
Level of difficulty: Gently sloping, easy to walk
Points of interest: South Nan'ao River; site of former suspension bridge
How to get there: From Su'ao, take Provincial Highway 9 to Jinyang Village in Nan'ao Township. Then take Yilan County Highway 57 west to a fork in the road where one option is to head for Shenmi Lake. Follow the down slope on the forest road traveling along the South Nan'ao River, and continue 11 kilometers to the trailhead.