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| 武山煤礦コークス窯跡 Remains of Coke Ovens, Wushan coal mine |
台灣は、過去かなりの石炭を産出していた。もちろん国内需要が中心だが、最終的に1990年代ほぼ全部が閉山されるまでは、重要な産業であった。苗栗以北の台湾北部に多く炭坑が存在し、良質な石炭が採掘されていた。そのうちの一つ雙溪は、山を越えて反対側の平溪や石碇などと同じく、炭鉱が存在し地方の主要な産業であった。ほかの炭坑と同じく、安全対策やその他コスト上昇で、新エネルギー石油や海外石炭との競争力を失い、次々と閉山していった。今回訪れた武山煤礦は、1919年に武丹炭礦として採掘権を取得、1924年に雙溪駅まで運搬のための軽便鉄道が敷設された。とれた石炭をそのままでなく近くの窯でコークスにして供給し、特に戦後の台湾製鉄などの重要産業に貢献したようだ。1970年半ばになるとコスト的に引き合わなくなり、最終的に廃棄された。
今回は、1月初めに草刈りなどがされて整理された武山煤礦を訪れた。特にコークス窯の規模はとても大きく、当時の繁栄がうかがえた。その後、炭鉱事務所や従業員宿舎など関連施設、またその近くの土地公祠を訪れた。その後は、さらに奥にある坑道口に立ち寄った。そこから大平林山を越えて平溪側の幼坑山へと歩を進め、最後に三貂嶺駅へと下った。歩いた山道は、先月訪れた紙坑古道などを含む雙溪側の山谷の道を整備した聯合艦隊ボランティアと、平溪側はつい最近幼坑山南稜とその東側の谷を行く道を整理したボラティアによってきれいにされたので、訪れることに決めたわけだ。ただ、幼坑山と大平林山との間の鞍部から大平林山までの短いセクションは、整備されていないので、踏み跡もほとんどない状態であった。それは出発前に織り込みであったから鎌は持って行った。12年前に歩いた時と、ほぼ同じような状態だった。
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| Trek from south to north |
Taiwan once produced enough coal to feed its industry and domestic needs. Its modern coal industry can be traced back to the late Chin reign when the government of the time brought machinery mining to Badouzi, Jilong (基隆八斗子) in 1876, the second oldest case of such mining in the East Asia. Under the Japanese reign the industry greatly expanded and many new mines were opened in the northern Taiwan. After the World War II, the industry further expanded to satisfy the need of its economic reconstruction. At its zenith the annual production reached 5 million metric tons in 1966. Alas just like other countries like Japan, under the competition with oil and cheap overseas coal, the industry gradually declined and ceased in 1990's altogether.
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| Array of large coke oven mounds |
On this hike we visited one of such abandoned mines, Wushan mine (武山煤礦). Among several coal mines of Shuangxi (雙溪) region, this was one of its important mines. The mine's history started in 1919 when the mining right was granted and opened under the name of Butan Tanko (武丹炭礦). A light railway was built from the mine to Shuanxi train station in 1924 for transportation of the commodity. After the World War II the mine kept supplying not only coal but coke that was produced at its coke ovens in the mine area. The scale of the ovens was the biggest among coal facilities in the region. As the time went by, it also faced same problems and closed its operation in the mid 1970's. The whole facilities were left unused and forgotten in the reclaiming nature over decades. Recently a group of volunteers cleaned dense vegetation hiding the ruins. Now those coke ovens, office and other buildings and mine portal are again for easy access. The whole size of the mine operation is pretty large and impressive.
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| At Dapinglin-shan summit |
The first destination of our hike was the remains of Wushan Coal Mine, including coke ovens, adjacent facilities, Tudigong (土地公) shrine and mine portal. We then proceeded to climb Mt. Dapinglin-shan (大平林山) and over it to the other side. We went down to the ridge bottom between Dapinglin-shan and Mt. Youkeng-shan (幼坑山), and followed its recently maintained ridge trail to the peak. We finally walked down to Sandiaoling (三貂嶺) train station.
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| #731 bus leaving Fanzikeng bus stop |
Just like
our hike to Shuangxi last month, we left Taipei by #4008 local express train that left at 6:25 and came to our starting pint, Fanzikeng (番子坑) by #731 bus via Shuangxi station a few minutes to 8:00. It rained last evening. Now the gray sky droops over but drops no rain. The weather forecast says it would turn better later on the day. Eleven of us walked along a wet road towards Houfanzikeng (后番子坑) valley. During our walk along the road, two heavily loaded tracks passed by us.
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| Houfanzikeng valley and Mt. Dapinglin-shan behind |
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| Beautiful green banks along a small stream |
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| Crossing stream with help eachother |
Down a little to a bridge over a tributary of Pinglin-xi river (平林溪) we went and came to a open and clean grass banks of the steam. This area is designated as an ecological field and a board of explanation stands by the road. At 8:51 saw a new sign showing the direction of Wushan mine and we stepped onto a dirt path that would lead to a stream crossing point. The stream looked more water than usual but still easy to cross. A few minutes walk on the wide trail on the right bank brought us to a large area of coke ovens. Huge mounds with open holes at their side for coke processing stand one after another. It was very impressive and suggested the scale of operation at that time.
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| Flat trail, Former wagon light rail bed |
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| First oven mound of the area |
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| Passing gap |
Next to the oven area showed up ruins of stone walls. Beyond a big gap on the path that had been caused by water for the past decades continued a series of discarded houses, including an office building. Besides the office opens a path leading up to a Tudigong shrine on a hill top. We went up to take a look at it. It is of course longer worshiped but it must have played an important spiritual role as people prayed for safe operation of the mine.
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| Abandoned house |
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| Office house, only walls remain, the path right leads to Tudigong |
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| Tudingong shrine |
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| Another steam crossing |
At the end of a few more houses along the path showed up a stream to cross. Up on the side of the bank across the stream stands a mine portal. Its opening was rather small and covered with a roof. A concrete base for machinery stands under the roof. It suggests that coal was transported down to the opposite side of stream where wagons were waiting for carrying out. The portal was the end of the mine area.
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| Mine portal on the mountain slope |
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| Mine portal under the roof |
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| Walking along the stream |
We walked up along the stream to enter remains of terrace paddies that showed up one after another. At 10:16 saw a sign of Houfanzikeng-shan (后番子坑山, elevation 190m) and a triangular marker stone. This does not look like a summit at all but just a flat little space with the marker. We kept climbing and a hit a junction at 10:21. The left path would lead to Pinghu trails (平湖步道). We took the right path to go along
Houfanzikeng historical trail (后番子坑古道). The trail goes through abandoned terrace paddies and then alongside the mountain slope for a while. At 10:43 a junction came up after a little downhill. We had a little rest before a long ascent.
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| Going up through abandoned terrace paddies |
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| Going on terraces |
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| At Houfanzikeng-shan |
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| Sing at junction for Houfankeng trail |
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| Good trail |
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| Rest at junction |
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| Going up through vegetation-obscured terraces |
We took a left trail to going further up through a series of terrace paddies and reached an abandoned house area. This is a large flat area with a few houses and a pig pen. The size suggests that it must have housed many residents. I wonder whether there was something to do with the mine blow, otherwise only the terrace paddies around would not have yield enough income to support such a large household.
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| A large flat area for houses |
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| Crossing a small creek |
In about 10 minutes we came to another abandoned house. A group of hikers was just having lunch in front of the house. This one is much smaller than the last one we have visited a while ago. The trail from the house soon met another trail coming up and started steeply climbing on the ridge. The grade got even steeper as we went up and needed to use both hands to grab ropes along the trail. The steep climb ended in 20 minutes or so and we reached the summit of Dapinglin-shan (elev. 420m) at 11:40. We had a lunch there. The sun occasionally shined through clouds, which made everybody happy.
The summit felt much wider than my last visit a few years ago. Weeds were widely cut out and some groves were eliminated. You could make out peaks like Mt. Canguangliao-shan (燦光寮山) in distance between trees. |
| Another ruin of abandoned house |
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| Steep climb to the summit |
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| Dapinglin-shan summit |
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| A nice and wide trail on the main ridge |
At 12:15 we headed for the fork along the ridge trail, which we reached in a few minutes. Weather beaten direction signs show where the fork is supposed to be, but no diverging track, only a wall of vegetation. This is what I expected but the situation is much worse. I step in the vegetation for the direction that my map shows. A fearsome yellow rotang palm (黃藤) with countless thorns on its stem prevents my advance. I bring out a hand sickle for which I prepared and cut out nasty branches to go through.
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| Barely legible direction signs |
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| No track |
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| An old rope still intact |
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| Still no track but some old markers |
In a short while we found a dirty old rope stretching upwards indicating that we were on the right track. With help of ropes we were up on a top of the ridge and down towards the bottom. On our way down, I found that someone had recently passed. A few yellow rotang palms were freshly cut apart. A pair of hikers were down at the four way junction boiling water for lunch when we reached there. One of them told that they had come down by the same route only a half hour before and that they would take a valley path to further down. We took a ridge route to Mt. Youkeng-shan (幼坑山). Both of the trails were very recently cleared by volunteers.
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| Going down depending on a rope |
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| At the bottom at last |
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| Good and clear track again |
The ridge trail was wide and clear thanks to the volunteers' work. It presented several steep ups and downs along the way, but we were happy to walk on such good trails. Our trail met a trail coming up from our left at a bottom and climbed to the summit of Youkeng-shan (elev. 240m). We arrived there at 14:13 and had a final break before going down. The summit is clear of weeds and of no view as surrounded by trees.
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| Many ups and down, small and large |
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| Keeping ups and downs |
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| Going up again |
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| Weather turned nice |
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| Junction before climbing to Youkeng-shan summit |
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| At summit of Youkeng-shan |
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| Junction with Youkeng trail |
A short descent from the summit ended at a junction with Youkeng historical trail (幼坑古道) in a few minutes. We followed the wide and well-travelled trail crossing a bridge and over a high point to its end at Yuliao (魚寮) community. Our last leg was to walk along a paved path parallel to Pingxi branch railway (平溪支線). We got to Sandiaoling train station (三貂嶺車站) at 15:03 and washed mud-covered dirty boots and poles with water by the station house. Our train for Taipei came on time at 15:19.
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| Advancing Youkeng trail |
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| Walking to Sandiaoling train station |
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Cold spell brings a lot of rain in the recent weeks. The trails were muddy and slippery at some points. Nonetheless we had no rain and a sunny sky towards the end of our activity. Our hike covered about 9 kilometers for seven hours. The total ascent was 540 meters and the route physical index 22.
