Zhushan

Zhúshān (竹山), formerly Linpipu (林圯埔), is a township in southwestern Nantou. It was one of the earliest areas of Han settlement in the county, dating to the Ming-Zheng period in the 1660s. It later served as the Yunlin county seat from 1886 to 1893, earning the nickname “First City Before the Mountains” (前山第一城); relics of that administrative era survive at Lianxing Temple in the old town center. The name Zhushan means “Bamboo Mountain”, and bamboo remains central to the local economy alongside tea and other crops grown in the surrounding hills. The Zinan Temple, one of Taiwan’s most important Taoist pilgrimage sites, draws millions of visitors annually, while the Zhushan Shinto Shrine remnants and the trails of Wangyou Forest reflect other layers of the township’s history.