The Suhua Highway (), also called the Suao-Hualien Highway, is a section of the Provincial Highway 9 in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, starting at Su'ao Township, Yilan County and ending at

Hualien City Hualien City (; Wade-Giles: Hua¹-lien² Shih⁴; Hokkien POJ: ''Hoa-lian-chhī'' or ''Hoa-liân-chhī'') is a county-administered city and the county seat of Hualien County, Taiwan. It is located on the east coast of Taiwan on the Pacific Oce ...

, Hualien County. With a portion built alongside very steep cliffs high above the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, it is considered to be one of Taiwan's most dangerous but also most scenic drives. Famous stops along the way include the

Qingshui Cliff Qingshui Cliff () is a 21 kilometer length of coastal cliffs averaging 800 meters above sea level in Xiulin Township, Hualien County, Taiwan. The tallest peak, Qingshui Mountain, rises 2408 meters directly from the Pacific Ocean. The cliff is loc ...

s and

Taroko Gorge Taroko National Park () is one of the nine national parks in Taiwan and was named after the Taroko Gorge, the landmark gorge of the park carved by the Liwu River. The park spans Taichung Municipality, Nantou County, and Hualien County and is lo ...

, located at the southern end of the highway.

History

A footpath between Su'ao and Hualien was first built by the Qing Dynasty government between 1874 and 1876, as part of a program to assert its sovereignty over eastern Taiwan – hitherto inhabited mostly by

Taiwanese aborigine Taiwanese indigenous peoples (formerly Taiwanese aborigines), also known as Formosan people, Austronesian Taiwanese, Yuanzhumin or Gaoshan people, are the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, with the nationally recognized subgroups numbering about 5 ...

s – after the

Taiwan Expedition of 1874 The Japanese punitive expedition to Taiwan in 1874, referred to in Japan as the and in Taiwan and Mainland China as the Mudan incident (), was a punitive expedition launched by the Japanese in retaliation for the murder of 54 Ryukyuan sailo ...

by Japan. The narrowness of the footpath, dictated by the extreme cliffside topography, meant that its military value far outweighed its economic benefit, and it was subsequently abandoned and rebuilt several times. Eventually it was widened by the

Japanese colonial government The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

; with 9 bridges built, 14 tunnels constructed, and road surface covered with gravel, the highway was opened to vehicular traffic in May 1932. Nonetheless, the northern portion of the highway, between Su-ao and Taroko, was just in width, permitting only one-way traffic at a time. Vehicles were required to travel in convoys, controlled by six turnouts along the route. With no

guard rail Guard rail, guardrails, or protective guarding, in general, are a boundary feature and may be a means to prevent or deter access to dangerous or off-limits areas while allowing light and visibility in a greater way than a fence. Common shapes ...

s to speak of and falling rocks a constant threat, the cliffside Suhua Highway was regarded as one of the most dangerous in the world. Nonetheless, it remained the main transport link between eastern and northern

, until the completion of the

North-Link Line The North-Link Line () is the central section of the Eastern Line of the Taiwan Railways Administration. The length of its mainline is 79.2 km, and there is a 7.4 km long branch between Beipu and Hualien Port. History The high mountai ...

railway in 1980. In the 1980s the northern portion of the highway was widened again to facilitate two-way traffic; construction was completed in 1990. Calls for improvements of the dangerous highway gained urgency in 2010 after over 20 people traveling along the road were killed by landslides caused by Typhoon Megi. The Suhua Highway Improvement Project, which was completed in 2020, bypassed three sections of the highway that were vulnerable to landslides.

Memorials

Along the highway, there are many memorials dedicated to those that lost their lives on the highway.

Kailu Xianfengye Temple Kailu Xianfengye Temple ( zh, t=開路先鋒爺廟, p=Kāilù Xiānfēngyé Miào), alternatively known as Qing'an Shrine ( zh, t=慶安堂, p=Qìng'ān Táng), is a martyr's shrine located in Su'ao Township, Yilan County, Taiwan. The shrine is ...

, located between Su'ao and Dong'ao, is dedicated to thirteen construction workers that perished.

References

Highways in Taiwan Transportation in Hualien County Transportation in Yilan County, Taiwan {{taiwan-road-stub

History

Memorials

See also

References