Yanping

Yánpíng (延平), known in Bunun as Pasikau, is a mountainous township in western Taitung. It is situated almost entirely within the Central Mountain Range and home predominantly to the Bunun Indigenous people, who migrated here from the mountains of Nantou in the early 19th century. During the Japanese colonial period the interior was administered through a network of police garrisons along mountain trails, among them the Kotobuki Garrison (1926) on the Neibenlu Yueling Historic Trail (內本鹿越嶺古道). In 1941 the colonial government forcibly relocated Bunun communities from these highlands to lowland settlements. The township is also known as the home of the Hongye Little League (紅葉少棒隊), whose 1968 victory over a Japanese all-star team is widely credited with igniting Taiwan’s national passion for baseball.