Dayuling (, el. 2565 m), formerly Hehuan Pass (), is a

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

transversing 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. It acts as a barrier between the east and west coasts, hindering travel. The tallest peak of the range is ...

between

Hehuanshan Mount Hehuan (; also called Joy Mountain) is a mountain in Central Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between ...

and Mt. Bilu (畢祿山), within

Taroko National Park Taroko National Park () is one of the nine wonders 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 located ...

. Administratively, it is located in Xiulin,

Hualien County Hualien () is a County (Taiwan), county on the east coast of Taiwan. It is Taiwan's largest county by area, yet due to its mountainous terrain, has one of the lowest populations in the country. The county seat and largest city is Hualien City. Hu ...

, near the border with

Nantou County Nantou is the second largest County (Taiwan), county of Taiwan by area, located in the central part of the country. It is also the only non-coastal county in Taiwan. Its name derives from the Hoanya people, Hoanya Taiwanese aborigines, Taiwanese ...

Description

Dayuling is located at the intersection of

Central Cross-Island Highway The Central Cross-Island Highway () or Provincial Highway 8 is one of three highway systems that connect the west coast with the east of Taiwan. Construction The construction of the Central Cross-Island Highway began on July 7, 1956 and was ...

and Provincial Highway 14A. As the highest point of the Central Cross-Island Highway, Dayuling is typically considered as the dividing point of the highway into its west and east sections. To the west, the highway passes through a short one-way tunnel known as the Hehuanshan Tunnel (合歡山隧道) before descending to Lishan. To the east, the highway passes through Tianxiang before dropping into Taroko Gorge. Meanwhile, Highway 14A branches away to the south, climbing to its peak at Wuling. Dayuling's surrounding area is known for its high-altitude agriculture, producing

high-mountain tea High-mountain tea or ''gaoshan'' tea (; pronounced ) refers to several varieties of Oolong tea grown in the mountains of central Taiwan. It is grown at altitudes higher than above sea level, and includes varieties such as Alishan Range, Alisha ...

, apples, and peaches.

History

Originally, a trail was built by the

Atayal people The Atayal (Atayal language, Atayal: Tayal), also known as the Tayal and the Tayan, are a Taiwanese indigenous peoples, Taiwanese indigenous people. The Atayal people number around 90,000, approximately 15.9% of Taiwan's total indigenous popula ...

passed near Dayuling. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, the Governor-General of Taiwan, Sakuma Samata, ordered the construction of a road through the same trail as part of the

five years plan to governing aborigines Five-year plan for governing aborigines, or the Five Year Plan to Subdue the Savages, was a program aimed to use military force to suppress the aborigine populations in Taiwan during the early years of the Japanese rule. It was enacted by the f ...

to better transport supplies in the

Truku War The Truku War (, Truku language: ''Tnegjyalan Truku'') was a series of events that happened between May and August 1914, involving the Truku people, Truku indigenous group in an Rebellion, uprising against colonial Empire of Japan, Japanese force ...

. After the change of power to the Kuomintang, the

Nationalist government The Nationalist government, officially the National Government of the Republic of China, refers to the government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China from 1 July 1925 to 20 May 1948, led by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT ...

began building the Central Cross-Island Highway between 1956 and 1960. Chiang Kai-shek visited the pass in 1958, renaming the site as "Dayuling" after the story of Great Flood of Gun-Yu (Gun-Yu is alternatively known as Dayu) as a reference to the difficult construction.

Geology

Dayuling is located within a

stratum In geology and related fields, a stratum (: strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ...

known as the Dayuling Formation (大禹嶺層), a subset of the Bilu Formation (畢祿山層). The stratum was first identified by geologist Zhaoxia Chen (陳肇夏) in 1979. The 2,200 meter thick layer is composed of

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

phyllite Phyllite ( ) is a type of foliation (geology), foliated metamorphic rock formed from slate that is further metamorphosed so that very fine grained white mica achieves a preferred orientation.Stephen Marshak ''Essentials of Geology'', 3rd ed. I ...

, and

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock that was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tecton ...

. Nummulite fossils were found near Dayuling, the first in Taiwan. Due to the

foliation In mathematics (differential geometry), a foliation is an equivalence relation on an topological manifold, ''n''-manifold, the equivalence classes being connected, injective function, injectively immersed submanifolds, all of the same dimension ...

of the rock, the construction of Hehuanshan Tunnel at Dayuling proved to be difficult and prone to collapse.

References

{{reflist Mountain passes of Taiwan Landforms of Hualien County