Xianren Canal Bogong Temple

A land god shrine (伯公祠) at the head of Xianren Canal (仙人圳) in Liugui, Kaohsiung, where the channel takes water from the Laonong River (荖濃溪) to irrigate three Hakka villages on the terrace downstream. Tradition credits the 5.5 kilometer canal to Huang Xianren (黃仙人), an old man in patched clothes who rode in on a red ox in 1853 and proposed a plan for building the canal. He disappeared once the work was done, leaving a stone that has been venerated as the land god of the canal ever since. Widening of Highway 27A took most of the old shrine, and after twenty-eight failed divination throws rejected a replacement site away from the water, residents raised funds to rebuild here in 2014, adding statues of Huang and his ox carved from Laonong River sandstone.