Nan'ao Township () is a mountain indigenous township in the southern part of Yilan County,

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 no ...

. It is the largest township in the county.

History

The township was formerly the "Aboriginal Area" of Suō District,

Taihoku Prefecture Taihoku Prefecture (台北州; ''Taihoku-shū'') was an administrative division of Taiwan created in 1920, during Japanese rule. The prefecture consisted of modern-day Keelung, New Taipei City, Taipei and Yilan County. Its government office, ...

during Japanese rule. It was the site of the Sayun incident made famous through the movie ''

Sayon's Bell is a 1943 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Shimizu and based on the true story of a 17-year-old Atayal girl called Sayun Hayun from Nan'ao village, Giran district, Taihoku Prefecture, Taiwan, who went missing and was thought ...

''.

Geography

The population consists mainly of the

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

Atayal people The Atayal (), also known as the Tayal and the Tayan, are a Taiwanese indigenous people. The Atayal people number around 90,000, approximately 15.9% of Taiwan's total indigenous population, making them the third-largest indigenous group. The pre ...

. Many residents of Aohua Village still speak the Japanese language in daily life. Nan'ao Township contains part of the mountainous terrain of the

Central Mountain Range The Central Mountain Range is the principal mountain range on the island of Taiwan. It runs from the north of the island to the south. Due to this separation, connecting between the west and east is not very convenient. The tallest peak of th ...

. *

Area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an op ...

: 740.65 km² *

Population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction usi ...

: 6,147 people in 1902 households (December 2014)

Administrative divisions

Nanao is divided into seven villages (from north to south): * Dongyue * Nan'ao * Biho * Jinyue * Wuta * Jinyang * Aohua

Tourist attractions

Cueifong Lake Cueifong Lake () is a lake in Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area, Nan'ao Township, Yilan County, Taiwan. Geography The lake is the largest alpine lake in Taiwan, located at an altitude of 1,900 meters. The lake covers an area of 2 ...

Transportation

Nan'ao is served by the North-Link Line of

Taiwan Railway Administration Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) is a railway operator in Taiwan. It is an agency of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, responsible for managing, maintaining, and running conventional passenger and freight railway services ...

at three stations: Dong'ao Station, Hanben Station, and Wuta Station. Taiwan Highway 9 passes through Nan'ao. Between

Su'ao Su'ao Township (), alternately romanized as Su-ao, is located in southern Yilan County, Taiwan, is an urban township that is famous for its seafood restaurants and cold springs. It is a terminus of National Highway No. 5, the Su'ao-Hualien ...

and

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 Oc ...

, to the south, this road is known as the Suhua Highway (蘇花公路), and it features some of the most dramatic oceanside scenery in Taiwan.

Notable natives

Laha Mebow Laha Mebow (; born 5 December 1975) is a Taiwanese Atayal film director, screenwriter and television producer. She is notable for directing the film ''Hang in There, Kids!'' for which she won two awards at the Taipei Film Festival. She is the ...

, writer, producer and director

References

External links

* {{Coord, 24, 28, N, 121, 48, E, region:TW_type:city, display=title Townships in Yilan County, Taiwan