The Story

The Luodong Zhen'an Temple was founded in 1837 (the 17th year of the Daoguang reign); by tradition a wandering monk carried its deity image from the ancestral temple on Meizhou, making it the oldest Mazu temple in Luodong. In 1867 (the sixth year of the Tongzhi reign) a typhoon wrecked the temple, and a military-examination graduate named Huang Yongzai raised funds to rebuild it with front, middle, and rear halls; the 'One in Merit with Heaven' plaque hanging in the main hall is said to have been bestowed by the Guangxu Emperor. After the great earthquake of 1922 left it in ruins, it was rebuilt and named Zhen'an — 'peace after the quake.' For Taipingshan, welcoming Mazu each year is like inviting her home to her mother's house.

The Luodong Sheng'an Temple, popularly called the 'Chiayi Temple,' was funded by timber merchants from Chiayi and Yunlin — and when it was built, its orientation was set to face straight toward Taipingshan.

The Caohu Yuzun Temple grew from a Jade Emperor devotional association founded in 1940. In 1945, a devotee named Chen Acai carried the Jade Emperor's image from place to place in search of a temple site, choosing the present one by casting the divination blocks — the blocks have always been the way people speak with the gods.

Jiuzhize's springs were already developed into a bathhouse in the Japanese colonial era, the water seeping down through cracks in the rock at the mountain's foot. This weakly alkaline sodium bicarbonate spring leaves the skin smooth and silky, like a natural lotion — earning it the nickname 'Beauty Spring'; tinted pale blue and milky white, it is praised as 'the sapphire of the hot springs,' and it is said that even the Japanese emperor once admired its fame. The spring was renamed 'Renze' after the war, only later reverting to Jiuzhize.

The Cuifeng Lake Loop Trail was certified by Quiet Parks International in 2022, becoming the world's first internationally certified Quiet Trail. The moss works like natural sound-proofing; at its quietest, the sound level falls below 25 decibels — a natural recording studio.

Its formal name is the 'mountain timber-transport railcar,' once used mainly to haul logs. The 'bong-bong' nickname comes, by one account, from the early wooden carriages jolting and swaying up and down the slopes with that sound; by another, it was the noise of the wheels crossing the rail joints. In 1991, the timber cars were converted to carry passengers, becoming today's Bonbon Train.

Maoxing Station was once known as 'Wandan Station,' named for a yield of three thousand cubic metres of timber per hectare — wood from here once built Japan's shrines and palaces. The tracks that once carried timber for those shrines now carry the gods.

Up the two hundred–odd steps to the Bonbon Train station, the crew hold the deity images against their chests, one step, one stair at a time. 'Even if it's hard, we feel it's worth it.'

In the forestry era, at the start of each Lunar New Year the manager would lead the whole staff to Zhen'an Temple to pay their respects — greeting the mountain's host before a year's work began.