Xinliao Fude Temple

This small stone shrine to Tudigong (土地公), the Earth God, stands on Xinliao Old Street (新寮老街) in Lugu, Nantou, a short walk from the Lugu Ritual Paper Incinerator. Beside it stand two Qing dynasty stelae tied to the Batongguan Old Trail, which passed through Xinliao on its way into the mountains. The first, an 1875 notice “lifting the ban on entering the mountains” (私入番境撤禁告示碑), announced the end of restrictions on migration from the mainland and on entering Taiwanese Indigenous territory. The second, a monument “virtue throughout the mountain reaches” (德遍山陬碑), was erected in 1876 by local gentry and residents to thank General Wu Guangliang (吳光亮) for opening the trail’s central route.