The Liwu River ( zh, t=立霧溪, p=Lìwùxī) is a river entirely located in Xiulin Township,

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 ...

, Taiwan. The deep gorges of

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 ...

are formed by this river.

Etymology

The origin of "Liwu" comes from the Taroko word "Tkijig", which referred to the river and the current settlement of Chongde. During Japan's rule over the island, the word was transliterated into . Then, the ''

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

'' was adopted into Chinese, hence the name. Notably, "Tkijig" is also transliterated into Chinese for the names of two tributaries of the Liwu River: the Tacijili River (塔次基里溪) and the Dazili River (達梓里溪).

Course

The source of the Liwu River is located 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

Qilai Mountain Mount Qilai () is a mountain in Xiulin Township, Hualien County, Taiwan. Its highest point of the range, the Northern Peak, is above sea level. It is named after the Sakizaya people. See also *List of mountains in Taiwan The island of Taiw ...

in 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 ...

. From an elevation of 3,000 m, the river flows west until Tianxiang, where it enters Taroko Gorge. After collecting the Shatudang River near Changchun Shrine, the Liwu River ends in the

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

near Chongde, a settlement occupied by the

Taroko people The Taroko people (), also known as Truku people, are an Indigenous Taiwanese people. Taroko is also the name of the area of Taiwan where the Taroko reside. The Executive Yuan, Republic of China has officially recognized the Taroko since 15 Janua ...

. The length of the river is around 55 km and is entirely located within

. Much of the eastern section of the

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 ...

follows the river. The Liwu River has changed course three times: the first was due to

stream capture Stream capture, river capture, river piracy or stream piracy is a geomorphological phenomenon occurring when a stream or river drainage system or watershed is diverted from its own bed, and flows down to the bed of a neighbouring stream. This ...

over time, and the next two were due to

landslide dam A landslide dam or barrier lake is the natural damming of a river by some kind of landslide, such as a debris flow, rock avalanche or volcanic eruption. If the damming landslide is caused by an earthquake, it may also be called a quake lake. Some ...

s. These changes formed many of the

fluvial terrace Fluvial terraces are elongated Terrace (geology), terraces that flank the sides of floodplains and fluvial valleys all over the world. They consist of a relatively level strip of land, called a "tread", separated from either an adjacent floodplai ...

s where human settlements are located today.

History

The first human settlers along the Liwu River likely originated from the Shisanhang Culture in Northern Taiwan around 1,300 years ago, evidenced by fourteen ruins found near the mouth of the river. Like their northern counterparts, these people mastered

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron-making, iron, copper extraction, copper ...

and used iron tools, but also mined gold. This was discovered by

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

forces in the 16th and 17th century, who noted that the river was named "Tackili" and named the area "Turoboan". Domingo Aguilar, a Spaniard, described that a tribe named Parrougearon (also known as Mek-qaolin) lived upstream, and three different tribes near the delta: the Pabanangh, Dadangh, and Torrobouan. The Dutch led several expeditions to this region in search of gold, but did not find a substantial amount. Around 300 years ago, a group of

traveled from present-day

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 ...

across the Central Mountain Range into the Liwu River valley due to overcrowding. Heading east to west, the Taroko's influence spread all the way to the Pacific, until 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 ...

with the Japanese forced many of its population into the plains. The Japanese also established a path for easy access in accordance to 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 ...

Gallery

References

{{reflist Rivers of Taiwan Landforms of Hualien County