RAKNUS SELU TRAIL DAY 3 via DU’NAN HISTORIC TRAIL (樟之細路D3A)

/ taiwantrailsandtales
RSA12 – RSA15 + RSA19

On the final day of the long Lunar New Year holidays, Teresa and I set off to complete another section of the Ranknus Selu Trail (RST). The previous month, we’d walked from Sankeng to Hengshan Township via Guanxi, but there was a second route from Guanxi that we hadn’t finished. So after miraculously minimal faffing, we found ourselves on the 8am bus to Guanxi, ready to get going.

RAKNUS SELU STAMPS: RSA17: Located at Hualong Village Assembly Hall (華龍村集會所) – although at the time we visited, the hall was closed, so we had to wander around uthe village asking people until we located it. We didn’t actually collect this stamp on this occasion because we’d already passed it once before.

DISTANCE: 15.3 km

TIME: 5-7 hours – It took us a little over 6 hours at a very slow pace.

TOTAL ASCENT: About 450 metres.

DIFFICULTY (REGULAR TAIWAN HIKERS): 2/10 – Only the length and constant climbing/descent on hard surfaces were tiring.

DIFFICULTY (NEW HIKERS): 4/10 – Since this route follows roads, it’s very easy, but you can still expect to have sore legs by the end of the day.

FOOD, DRINKS & PIT STOPS: There are convenience stores and restaurants at both the start and end of the trail (although the options are more varied at the start). If you’ve got a refillable bottle, you can top it up at Guanxi Taihe Temple before you get started. We carried about a litre each and took lunch with us.

TRAIL SURFACES: Almost all rural roads, with the exception of a brief section of agricultural track.

SHADE: Mostly unshaded. I survived on a sunny, but low UV day (in January), but I should have at least used suncream, and in summer, I would have been hidden under an umbrella.

MOBILE NETWORK: Weirdly poor. There was very weak phone reception most of the way from Guanxi until we crested the ridge. As soon as we started the descent into Hengshan Township, things got a bit better.

SOLO HIKE-ABILITY: As long as you’re confident sizing up to dogs, you’ll be fine. We passed quite a lot of noisy dogs. Some were leashed, others weren’t, but none of them were genuinely threatening. If you look foreign, prepare to be the subject of much staring. I get the impression that people are not used to seeing foreigners on these roads. I walked this with Teresa, but I think I might have found the level of staring (as in drivers slowing down to get a good look) a little intimidating if I were by myself.

OTHER: Wear soft-soled shoes if you want to help your feet.

SECTIONS COVERED:

  • RSA12: Guanxi Town Centre → Shidianzi Old Street → Duchuantou Bridge → Du’nan Historic Trail (關西市區→石店子老街→渡船頭橋→渡南古道)
  • RSA13: Du’nan Historic Trail (渡南古道)
  • RSA14: Du’nan Historic Trail → Luowu Academy → Nanshan Water Conservation Building → Xianbo Temple (渡南古道→ 羅屋書院→南山水保屋→ 顯伯公)
  • RSA15: Xianbo Temple → Hsinchu District Road 25 → Jiliaokeng Junction (顯伯公→竹25 →雞寮坑叉路口)
  • RSA19: County Highway 120 → Provincial Highway 3 → Jiuzantou TRA Station (縣道120→台3線→九讚頭車站)

Jump to the bottom of this post for a trail map, GPX file and all the other practicalities.

DETAILS & DIRECTIONS:

Numbers by photos refer to the GPS coordinates at the end of the post.

It was about 9:30 when the bus dropped us off, and Guanxi was full of life. It was far busier than it had been the last time we were in the area. The market street was full of scooters and pedestrians, and I regretted having prepared a packed lunch-there were so many choices.

Before we set off, we decided to check out a few of the town’s historic spots that we’d missed the first time around. One of those was Guanxi Taihe Temple (關西太和宮). Wedged somewhat wonkily in amongst the surrounding buildings, Taihe Temple (also called Sanjie Temple), is dedicated to a triumvirate of deities known as the Officials of Earth, Heaven and Water.

The temple has existed since 1812, although it has only occupied its current position since the time of Japanese occupation. Inside it feels oddly spacious compared to many Taipei temples, and when we visited, the air was so thick with incense that shafts of light cut through it like headlights through fog.

We also took a minute to wander around the newly renovated police dormitories. A woman working there said that within a month or two, they’ll be opening tea and coffee shops there, and people will be able to wander around inside to enjoy the work of famed Taiwanese woodcarver, Chang Guang-bo (張光伯).

Finally, out of options to keep dallying, we set off, retracing our steps down Guanxi Old Street, all the way down to Duchuantou Bridge.

We parted ways with our former selves at the far end of the bridge. Previously, we’d followed the road straight, but the RSA13 takes a right turn and heads along a narrow lane beside the river.

On the far bank, the buildings of downtown Guanxi huddled together.

After the lane turns left around a bend, it seems to disappear into a knot of private driveways. However, after walking a little further, we found that the trail just heads straight on. A RST diamond logo attached to a brick wall leads you away from the houses and into the trees.

This section is Du’nan Historic Trail, however, from the feel of the trail, and from how it looks on the map, I am pretty sure that it is not so much a preserved historic trail, as a functioning footpath between communities. The two points are also linked by a road, but the distance is almost double. The trail is shady with tall stems of bamboo creaking in the breeze, and look out for the bizarre concrete elephant guarding a grave.

After cutting around a stream, the trail heads back out though some type of orchard to emerge in a village.

Follow the lane down to join a wider road. The RST goes left here, but after taking a look at the nearby Fude Temple…

…we spotted a pavilion piled high with drying greens, and after going to take a look at that, we noticed another diversion to look at some water wheels.

A demonstration wheel made wholly of bamboo sits on the river flood wall, but down by the farm plots, there are five still functioning wheels made of metal and piping. Our detour cost us about ten minutes, but after that, we were back on our way.

I may only be a few days into my Raknus Selu journey, but it’s already evident that it takes walkers right through some of the corners of Taiwan that rarely, if ever get put in the spotlight. It passes through villages and farming communities where life probably hasn’t changed a whole lot over the past decades. We’ve seen people hand washing clothes and vegetables outside, cutting wood, tending to chickens. Maybe it’s just because I spent the first twenty years of my life in a village, but I really enjoy walking through these places. They feel homely.

Opposite a few bright-coloured frames tacked onto the wall, a red-brick archway leads to Luowu Academy (羅屋書院). Actually, Luowu Academy is a recent name which came from the fact that it was funded and constructed by diverse members of the local Luo family as a place for the wider Luo clan to gather and promote education. The area’s earlier residents called it by the far more sensible (if a little wordy) name of “That New House Under the Big Tree Beside the River” (河背大樹下新屋).

The Luo family descents are numerous in the Guanxi region after prospering from cultivating tea and extracting limestone for use in the cement industry.

We found the stamp for RSA13 housed in the shelter of the gated entrance. The design of this one depicts a typical sanheyuan (three-sided house) with a central courtyard and semi-open front gate. I think Luowu Academy is sometimes open for visitors, and I’ve heard somewhere that it’s occasionally possible to book to stay the night, but at the time we visited, it was very definitely closed.

We kept following the road until it forked around a (defunct) water pump and a garden made up of an assortment of random stone building panels. The RST takes the left-hand road, follows it for a short distance, then turns sharply left uphill, following the course of a stream.

This next section was a bit dull. It was mostly just trudging uphill with very few views. There were however, quite a lot of birds to admire, and a couple of dogs for Teresa to make friends with.

Shortly after passing a flag-decorated temple, we found ourselves at this junction. Here the RST takes a sharp left. I think there must be some type of livestock kept in one of the farms here because as we walked, we could hear something which sounded halfway between a dinosaur and a chainsaw. (I think it was probably a pig.)

The narrow road went on and on. We passed several small hamlets, all of which had a noisy dog or two.

There are a few junctions along the way. In most cases, each one has an RST sign somewhere nearby. At both of the junctions in the above photos, just take the more straight ahead of the two options.

Along this meandering road through rice fields, we met another pair of hikers coming in the opposite direction. They asked if we were also walking the Raknus Selu Trail which makes them the first fellow RST walkers that we’ve (knowingly encountered).

After a brief moment of flat respite, we began climbing once more. So, so, so much of the day was spent walking uphill on asphalt. I delighted in the minor distractions, like the bright flashes of the many kingfishers we spotted, or the looming presence of this land god temple and its guardian tree.

We kept following the road up and round, round and up, until eventually, we came to a junction with an orange farm and a small fishpond. There were workers out picking the oranges, and the proprietor came over to see where we were hiking to. He said the views from the temple at the top were pretty good. The RST takes the track running up just to the right of the pond.

The track looks like it’s probably used by farmers as a shortcut but probably not by anyone else. It was surfaced at some time in the past, but the material has long since started to crumble. I was just glad to have some respite from all the roads. At one point, a short spur trail on the right leads up to a pavilion, but after going to check it out, I can tell you that there’s no view or anything else to make it worth expending your energy, so feel free to just keep walking.

The track dips down to join a single-lane road much like the ones we’d been following earlier. Turn right onto it and continue climbing uphill. (This is almost the end of the day’s climbing.)

After ten minutes, we arrived at the first (and newer) of two land god temples. Handily, there are toilets and plenty of seating here so we were able to wash our hands before sitting down to enjoy a packed lunch.

Teresa–being the queen of seeking comfort–pulled up a seat to enjoy the view. We had cheese and chutney sandwiches (or in her case, ham, cheese and chutney), a little back-home luxury that I have been enjoying ever since I remembered that I could make my own chutneys.

The view really was an enjoyable one. On the left we could see Mount Shimen and the hills we’d crossed to get here, in the middle were Mount Shiniu and Mount Kabao, then on the right were some of the peaks of Fuxing District, like Mount Najie.

Hunger somewhat sated, we went over to have a look at the other temple. It actually turned out to be a temple and a shrine of some kind. The shrine looked interesting to me.

It was a little tin and frosted plastic hut housing a female deity, and like all of the temples we’d passed, it had been given a generous offering of oranges. The second land god temple was similar to the first, although here his wife is placed by his right hand (she’s on the opposite side in the first temple). In fact, the temples are more than just similar; they are meant to be the same. The one we’d had lunch at was the newer of the two, and was built by the landowner to rehome the deities in the older temple just on the other side of the hill. However, doing so would mean moving the gods from one district to another, and despite religious advisors stating that the gods’ jurisdiction would extend to villagers in both regions wherever the gods resided, the villagers whose land housed the original temple refused to let their gods move out. So now there are two.

This spot is one of two points where the RST intersects with Fei-Sha Long Trail (飛沙縱走). It emerges from the back of the older temple and heads back into the row of cherry trees to the side of the newer temple.

One day I’ll come back to walk this, but on this occasion we turned downhill to follow the RST as it heads down through more orange farms into the valley.

We spent a good part of the descent bickering about the pronunciation of the word “normal”, because why not? Which at some point for a reason I cannot remember, segued into Teresa singing a Buddhist chant. It was as she did this that we passed an orange garden with several fruit pickers who just stared at her, nonplussed.

After a while, the road runs down to join a dirty creek. (Seriously, you’d think that people who live so close to the land would be a little more fastidious about keeping it clean, but it seems not.)

A little further down, we passed Sanyuan Temple. The deities enshrined in the central position were the same as those of Guanxi Taihe Temple, the three Officials of Earth, Heaven and Water. Big piles of oranges plated up in front of each altar, and a rotund cat sunned itself in the courtyard out front.

Another 30 metres down from the temple, the RST takes a left turn. Then in another five minutes, we found ourselves rejoining Hsinchu District Road 25 and retracing the route we’d passed while walking the alternative day three route. Turn right here and keep on heading downhill.

Since this is covering ground already covered elsewhere, I won’t go into too much detail. If you haven’t walked any of the route yet, but plan on collecting the passport stamps, then it’s worth pointing out that one of them is kept in one of the houses close to the husband and wife stones. We collected on our last visit, but it took quite a bit of backwards-and-forwardsing to figure out who currently had it (its official home is temporarily closed).

Approaching Count Highway 120, we turned left, the same as we’d done a month earlier. However, rather than heading straight until we arrived at the train station, we took a right turn onto an unnamed road just after passing a yard filled with trucks.

The unnamed road took us through farmland which looked rather glorious in the late afternoon sun.

Then after about 500 metres, we turned left onto another unnamed road and followed it until it joined Provincial Highway No.3. This is where Teresa and I parted ways for the day. She was headed back to Taipei, and took a bus from the side of the road that we’d arrived on. However, I still had one more day of walking, so I crossed over and waited for a bus on the far side of the road that would take me to Neiwan.

Actually, I’d hoped to find somewhere on the route, but accommodation options in this part of Taiwan are scant. Luckily, it’s just a fifteen-minute bus ride to Neiwan, and once there, you have a huge amount of food options to choose from.

…at least you do if you’re not vegetarian like me. There’s a vegetarian shop, but it’s the sort which caters to groups rather than lone travellers, so I made do with a couple of ginger rice and mushroom dumplings and some stinky tofu. Food needs sorted, it was time to pick up a beer from the 7-Eleven and find my bed for the night. I had booked into a very basic B&B behind the elementary school. The bed was hard, and the walls thin, but the wood-paneled cabins and big windows felt like a cozy place to shelter from the cold. Had I visited a little later, maybe in April or May, I would have gone firefly hunting along the backroads, but as it was, I was just about able to stay awake long enough to hear that Teresa had arrived home safely.

GETTING THERE

Public transport:

  • Getting to Guanxi – The 1820 or 1820A bus service leaving Taipei Bus Stationbound for Leofoo Village will take you directly to Guanxi. At the time of writing, buses leave from the fourth floor every 30 minutes. The journey takes about 80 minutes and costs about $115.
  • Getting back from Hengshan – Trains leave Jiuzantou Station heading back towards Hsinchu every 40 to 60 minutes. There is no through-service from here to Taipei (except on weekends), so you’ll have to transfer at least twice, once from the Neiwan branch line to the Liujia branch, then once more to the main network at Hsinchu.
  • Getting from Hengshan to Neiwan – Since I was planning on walking the next day, I decided to spend the night in Neiwan. To get here, you can either take the train from Jiuzantou Station and alight at Neiwan, or you can take one of the buses from Xiuti bus stop to Neiwan Bridge. Either way, you’re likely to be waiting for your transport to arrive than actually travelling.

Accommodation:

Staying in Guanxi – We spent the night at a hostel on Guanxi’s Old Street, right on the course of the RST. It cost about $1200 for the pair of us.

  • Name in Chinese: 67老街客棧
  • Address: 新竹縣關西鎮中正路67號
  • Contact: 0963-321329
  • Cost: $1200 for two (I think, although AirBnB lists it as being less)

Staying in Hengshan – There are some basic campsites in the area, but if you want a hotel, you’re probably going to have to head into Neiwan. On this visit to the area, I caught a bus into Neiwan and stayed in one called Mountain House B&B.

RAKNUS SELU DAY 3 TRAIL MAP

GPX file available here on Outdoor Active. (Account needed, but the free one works just fine.)

Come and say hi on social media:

If you enjoy what I write and would like to help me pay for the cost of running this site or train tickets to the next trailhead, then feel free to throw a few dollars my way. You can find me on PayPal, Buy Me a Coffee or Ko-fi, (and if you’re curious about the difference between the three you can check my about page).

Leave a comment