見返坂隧道群

August 9th, 2024

Three generations of railway tunnels on the Old Mountain Line (舊山線) coexist here in the hills of Zaoqiao, Miaoli. The oldest is the original Jianhuiban Tunnel (見返坂隧道), which entered into service in 1903. It was renamed Xikengwei Tunnel (西坑尾隧道) in the post-war era, and was replaced by the second-generation Zaoqiao Tunnel (造橋隧道) in 1976. This, in turn, was superseded in 1996 by the Fengfu Tunnel (豐富隧道), which is still in use today.

Lost in the jungle, the entrance to a railway tunnel more than a century old.

The earlier two tunnels have both been designated heritage sites but little has been undertaken to clean them up for public access. The southern terminus of both tunnels is difficult to reach from the roadside, and only the northern entrance of the original Jianhuiban Tunnel is readily accessible from an overgrown stairway. An informational plaque can be found near the entrance but it feels like hardly anyone visits this historic site for months at a time.

An informational plaque detailing the history of the site can still be found near the entrance.

One interesting feature of the oldest tunnel is the pair of inscriptions over each entrance; in the south it reads “cloudburst” (噴雲), and in the north “moon piercer” (穿月). The latter inscription was also the name of Chuanyue Ecological Park (穿月生態園區), organized by civil society groups in the late 2000s but seemingly abandoned by the early 2010s. I could discern no sign of it while visiting in 2024.