Sanyi Township 三義鄉

Setting and landscape

The township sits on hilly ground between Huoyan Mountain (火炎山) in the west and the Guandao Mountain (關刀山) range in the east, at an average height of about 400 metres; only a tenth of the land is plain. Huoyan Mountain, 602 metres high, has badland slopes on the Da'an River side whose oxidised gravel turns red, gold and brown in evening light. Guandao Mountain rises to 888 metres.

From November to March a fog season settles over the hills, which is why the township office calls Sanyi the "fog capital of Taiwan". The southern village of Liyutan (鯉魚潭) is one to two degrees warmer than the north. The Liyutan Reservoir (鯉魚潭水庫), whose first phase was finished in June 1992, stands on the Jingshan River (景山溪) at the south-eastern end of Liyutan village.

History

The old name Sanchahe (三叉河), "three-forked river", comes from the point where two streams meet to form the Xihu River (西湖溪). In 1842 Li Tenghua (李藤華) and others opened the settlement and laid out its street, naming it Sanchahe village. The township took its present name in 1953 because the character cha (叉), meaning "fork", was thought inelegant. On 21 April 1935 an earthquake centred near Guandao Mountain killed 96 people here and flattened most houses in several villages.

What to see

Shengxing Station (勝興車站) on the disused Old Mountain Line (舊山線) sits at 402 metres, the highest point of Taiwan's West Coast main line. The Longteng Broken Bridge (龍騰斷橋) is a railway bridge wrecked by the 1935 earthquake and never repaired; the 1999 earthquake damaged it again. Shuimei Street (水美街), also called Carving Street, on Provincial Highway 13 is lined with wood-carving shops, and the Sanyi Wood Sculpture Museum (三義木雕博物館) stands on the hillside above it, next to the Siyuexue Trail (四月雪小徑).

Food and local products

Wood carving grew into the township's trade from the Japanese period, originally from its camphor forests; local camphor has since been used up and wood now comes from southern Taiwan. Farm products named by the township office include grass jelly (仙草), the sweetest of the field crops, boiled in water and drunk as tea, and wendan pomelo (文旦柚), the main orchard crop.

Highlights

• Shengxing Station 勝興車站: Station on the Old Mountain Line at 402 metres, the highest point of the West Coast main line.
• Longteng Broken Bridge 龍騰斷橋: Railway bridge destroyed in the 1935 Guandao Mountain earthquake and left unrepaired.
• Sanyi Wood Sculpture Museum 三義木雕博物館: Museum on the hillside above the wood-carving street.
• Huoyan Mountain 火炎山: 602-metre peak with red and gold badland slopes above the Da'an River.