Taroko Archway Audio Guide

Taroko Archway: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Entrance Arch Gate Taroko

   Welcome to Entrance Arch Gate Taroko, known locally as 太魯閣牌樓. You are standing at one of the most recognizable thresholds in eastern Taiwan. It sits in Xiulin Township, in Hualien County, at the southern end of Jinwen Bridge, right where the road meets the start of the Central Cross-Island Highway. This gate is also known as the East-West Cross-Island Highway Archway, and the name tells you what it is for. It was built to mark the entrance to Taiwan's first east-west cross-island road. Its surroundings are a story of their own. The gate stands at an elevation of 60 meters, on a spot that is both the highway's front door and the way into Taroko Gorge. Over the next few minutes we will look at why this gate was built, how its palace-style design works, and how it ended up at the center of a traffic crossroads. Keep your eyes on the golden roof tiles, the red pillars and the rock face beside the road. All three have something to tell you.

2. 02

   Entrance Arch Gate Taroko: Front Door of the Cross-Island Highway

   To understand this gate, start with the road behind it. The government of the Republic of China wanted a monument to mark Taiwan's first east-west cross-island highway, and the result was this archway. That is why it carries six characters meaning East-West Cross-Island Highway. The highway opened to traffic on the ninth of May, 1960, and from then on, drivers heading in could see this palace-style gate rising at the entrance. The spot is precisely located. The gate stands where the Central Cross-Island Highway meets the road at the south end of Jinwen Bridge. On the highway's markers, that is the 187.5 kilometer point of Provincial Highway 8, and the 2.720 kilometer point of County Road 2. Look beside the road and you will find four large characters carved into the rock wall, reading Lu Ge Chang Chun, which can be understood as an everlasting spring in Taroko. A viewing platform near the gate gives visitors a place to pause and take in the scene. The larger landscape has deep roots too. As early as 1937, the Japanese colonial government of Taiwan intended to make this area a national park, then called Tsugitaka-Taroko National Park, among the earliest in Taiwan. It was an important homeland of the Taroko people, and the name Taroko comes from their name.

3. 03

   Entrance Arch Gate Taroko: Reading the Palace-Style Design

   Now let's look closely at the gate itself. It follows a classic form described as three bays, four pillars and three tiers. Four pillars create three openings, left, center and right, and each opening has its own small roof tier. Those three eaves are not just decoration. They also serve to drain rainwater. The roofs are single-eave hip roofs, covered in golden glazed tiles. Years of sun and rain have changed the tiles' color, so what you see today is a little different from the original shine. The pillars are painted vermilion red, a bold color that stands out strongly against the green mountains behind. Cast your eyes up to the main tier. The two great lintels are painted with a pair of dragons chasing a pearl, a favorite motif in Chinese tradition. Between the lintels stand six black plaques with gold lettering, one character on each. Read from right to left, they say East, West, Cross, Through, Public, Road. Put together, that is the East-West Cross-Island Highway. It is a whole announcement, written in six characters, for anyone driving through.

4. 04

   Entrance Arch Gate Taroko: A Crossroads Worth Protecting

   This gate has always stood at a busy junction. It is where the Central Cross-Island Highway heads into Taroko Gorge, and Jinwen Bridge beside it was the only bridge carrying the Suhua Highway across the Liwu River. That meant traffic on the Suhua road also had to pass right by the gate, and the two streams of vehicles piled up. To ease the jams, the Highway Bureau began building Taroko Bridge in February 1999, straightening the Suhua Highway's winding course. It opened in July 2002. The Suhua Highway no longer passes the gate, but Jinwen Bridge and the old road still remain, and that stretch was later renumbered as County Road 2. The gate's value as a memorial was recognized too. On the twenty-ninth of March, 2005, the Council for Cultural Affairs registered it as a historic building under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, honoring the memory of the people who carved out the Central Cross-Island Highway. When the structure had weathered with age, Taroko National Park Headquarters restored it in time for the fiftieth anniversary events of the highway, on the ninth of May, 2010.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Today the gate is still the marker that says you are entering the Central Cross-Island Highway, and it is a favorite photo stop for travelers on the way to Taroko Gorge. It has also faced real-life hazards. On the fourth of November, 2024, a construction vehicle passed through and its boom struck a crossbeam, damaging the structure. Taroko National Park Headquarters then notified the Hualien County Cultural Affairs Bureau, so that a repair plan could be put forward quickly. That is worth keeping in mind as you look up at it. A gate that has watched generations of travelers pass beneath is still a living piece of the road, and it still needs care. Before you move on, try matching what you have heard with what you can see. Find the six plaques, trace the three small roofs, and look for the carved characters on the rock wall beside the road. Then let the road lead you onward into the gorge, where the story of this place keeps unfolding.