Luodong Township () is an urban township in the central 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 northe ...

. Luodong is the smallest township in the county.

Naming

Its name and former name () derive from the Kavalan word '' rutung'', meaning "

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incom ...

", referring to a large population of monkeys there half century ago.

History

Qing Dynasty

Luodong Township Aerial Panorama facing the coast

Luodong Township Aerial Panorama facing the mountains

In 1804,

Pingpu tribe Plains indigenous peoples (), previously called plain aborigines, are Taiwanese indigenous peoples originally residing in lowland regions, as opposed to Highland indigenous peoples. Plains indigenous peoples consist of anywhere from eight to tw ...

chiefs Pan Xian Wen and Maoge from

Changhua Changhua (Hokkien POJ: ''Chiong-hòa'' or ''Chiang-hòa''), officially known as Changhua City, is a county-administered city and the county seat of Changhua County in Taiwan Province of the Republic of China. For many centuries the site was h ...

led a group of people to settle in the Luodong area, where they established Alishih and Ashushih communities and developed agriculture on a large scale. In 1812,

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

officer Fan Bang Gan was assigned to Luodong. Two years later, Han settlers entered the region to begin clearing and developing the area. The Pingpu tribe and Han settlers fought over land ownership but eventually they ended up working together to develop Luodong. Years later, Luodong became a developed region with a combination of aboriginal and Han cultures.

Japanese Empire

Under Japanese rule, Luodong was developed into the base for industries established by the Taiping Mountain logging business. In 1916, the Japanese government established the Giran Branch Office of the Forest Administration Bureau in charge of logging, transportation and storage of Taiping Mountain area timber with a log pond set up in today's Yuanshan Township. The branch office was then later on moved to Luodong due to the change in the lumber transportation from waterway to railway. Finally in 1924, upon the completion of railway connecting Luodong and ''Tuchang'' (土場 in

Datong Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 cen ...

), the branch office was officially moved to . From that moment onward, Luodong became a commercial center. From 1920-1945, Lutung was administrated as of

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, ...

Geography

Luodong is located on Lanyang Plain. It covers an area of and as of 2014 had a population of 72,533 people. It has a large, landscaped sports park.

Administrative divisions

Luodong Township consists of 25 villages and 524 neighborhoods. Villages in the township are Kaiming, Daxin, Tungan, Xinqun, Luozhuang, Nanchang, Nanhao, Chenggong, Rende, Renhe, Zhongshan, Hanmin, Weiyang, Xian, Beicheng, Guohua, Xianwen, Gongzheng, Jixiang, Xinyi, Shulin, Zhulin and Renai Village.

Tourist attractions

Luodong has a large night market - Luodong Night Market - containing many varieties of

local food Local food is food that is produced within a short distance of where it is consumed, often accompanied by a social structure and supply chain different from the large-scale supermarket system. Local food (or "locavore") movements aim to co ...

, such as scallion pancakes. Luodong has a large community which organizes dance clubs and recitals for the elderly. It is also the home of the locally famous Meihua Lake. Luodong has an excellent natural environment, and is close to both urban Yilan and Su'ao township, popular for its cold and hot springs. It is popular as a destination in the summer for its proximity to the Yilan Children's Festival as well as the farms of Sanxing township. People visit Luodong year-round to enjoy its charming bed and breakfasts. Luodong Forestry Culture Park is a former timber processing plant that was equipped with sawmills, lumber yards, an agency office, and workers' dormitories. The park still has a complete set of old industry facilities, early village buildings, storage units, and transport machinery. Another park in the township is Luodong Sports Park. Festivals in the township include the Luodong Arts Festival Fringe.

Transportation

Rail

Luodong is served by the

Yilan Line The Yilan Line () is the northern section of the Eastern Line of the Taiwan Railways Administration in Taiwan. It has a length of 95 km. History This railroad was completed in 1924 as the Giran-sen during Imperial Japanese rule over Taiwan. ...

of Taiwan Railways at

Luodong Station Luodong () is a railway station in Luodong Township, Yilan County, Taiwan served by Taiwan Railways. Overview The station has one island platform and one side platform. The station building is located above the platforms and is accessible f ...

Road

The main bus station in the township is Luodong Transfer Station. There are two interchanges in Luodong township along

National Highway 5 Route 5, or Highway 5, may refer to routes in the following countries: International * Asian Highway 5 * European route E05 * European route E005 Argentina * National Route 5 Australia New South Wales * M5 Motorway (Sydney) * The De ...

Notable natives

* Chen Chin-te, acting Magistrate of Yilan County (2017–2018) * Huang Chun-ming, novelist and writer * Lin Mei-hsiu, actress and television host * Lin Tsung-hsien, Minister of

Council of Agriculture The Council of Agriculture (COA, ) is the official government body in the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the Executive Yuan in charged with overseeing affairs related to agriculture, forestry, fishery, animal husbandry and food affairs. CAO is a ...

(2017–2018) *

Lin Zi-miao Lin Zi-miao (; born 28 January 1952) is a Taiwanese politician. She is the Magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a ''ma ...

, Magistrate of Yilan County *

Ran In-ting Ran In-ting (; 1903–1979), also known as Lan Yinding, was a Taiwanese watercolour artist whose work is recognised around the world for its expressive rendition of Taiwan's landscape. He was able to capture the essence of his subjects with fl ...

, watercolor artist * Jimmy Liao, illustrator * Doris Yeh, bassist of

Chthonic The word chthonic (), or chthonian, is derived from the Ancient Greek word ''χθών, "khthon"'', meaning earth or soil. It translates more directly from χθόνιος or "in, under, or beneath the earth" which can be differentiated from Γῆ ...

* Janez Janež,

medical doctor A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the ...

and surgeonIn Chinese is doctor Janez Janež known as ''Fan Fenglong'' () or simply ''Doctor Fan'' ()

References

External links

* {{Coord, 24, 40, 36.06, N, 121, 46, 0.93, E, region:TW_type:city, display=title Townships in Yilan County, Taiwan Taiwan placenames originating from Formosan languages