Fushan
We pick up Daphne at the subway station at 7:00 AM under stormy skies.
The police at the check point in Xinxian 信賢
cannot issue us a mountain permit to enter the Fushan 福山 area
because Taiwan island is still under a Typhoon alert
as typhoon Molave 颱風莫拉菲 passes south of Taiwan.
We wait at the police station as an impatient mob grows.
At 8:30 the typhoon warning is lifted
and all mountain permits are issued.
Fushan village is located in the
Hapen Nature Reserve 哈盆自然保留區
and the Takuanshan Forest Reserve 達觀山自然保護區.
It located at the confluence of the
Daluolan stream 大羅蘭溪, Zhakong stream 札孔溪 and Nanshih 南勢溪
and hosts the trailheads to
Hapen trail 哈盆古道 or Kalamoji 卡拉莫基,
FuBa trail (Fushan to Baling pass) 巴福越嶺
and the trail to
North ChaTian Mountain 北插天山.
The Atayal chieftain Yatai Bunadai 亞維．布納帶
founded the village Sha-ya-kong 札亞孔
in the late 18th century
in this place where the fish of the steams where plentiful
and the animals of the forest abundant.
The Japanese colonists
called the place a fortunate mountain 一座有福氣的山
for its rich camphor stands
and the name was simplified to Fushan 福山.
We park at the higher trail at the head of the stairs and
hike east toward Hapen 舊哈盆部落 following the Nanshixi 南勢溪 stream
from the Fushan 福山 Atayal settlement of Kalamoji 卡拉莫基 (qlang krmut).
There see only a few fisher folk on the river,
likely dissuaded by the threatening storm.
The water level is still low.
This short two-hour section turns out to be a short, easy and beautiful stretch.
