Daxi Lianzuoshan Guanyin Temple

A Guanyin temple perched atop Lianzuo Mountain (蓮座山), an outcrop on the east bank of the Dahan River in Daxi, Taoyuan. Founded around 1798 in a defensive frontier village that once guarded the camphor and timber routes running up into the hills, the temple has passed through at least four major renovations across the 19th and early 20th centuries, with the current layout mostly laid down by 1934. It is reached by climbing a flight of 147 steps known as the Hundred-Step Cloud Ladder (百步雲梯) and was once a way station for Hakka porters hauling produce overnight from the Hsinchu hills to the Daxi morning markets. A roughly three-meter sacred words incinerator (敬聖亭) stands to one side of the temple, its upper vent now converted into a shrine to Kuixing (魁星). The temple was designated a municipal monument in 1985.