Hehuan Cross-Ridge Road (Wushe to Taroko)

The Hehuan Cross-Ridge Road (合歡越嶺道) was a military supply and patrol road constructed by the Japanese colonial government of Taiwan during the Taroko War of 1914. The road crossed the Central Mountain Range at elevations exceeding 3,000 meters, connecting Wushe (霧社) in Nantou County on the western side to the Taroko Gorge area in Hualien County on the eastern side. It represented one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects of the Japanese colonial period in Taiwan.

The road's construction was directly tied to the Fifth Governor-General Sakuma Samata's "Five-Year Aboriginal Pacification Plan" (五年理蕃計畫). In preparation for the 1914 Taroko Campaign, a survey team of some 280 persons (286 in some accounts) led by surveyor Noro Yasushi was dispatched in March 1913 to chart a route across the Hehuan and Qilai mountain ranges. The expedition was caught by severe cold and storms on Hehuan Mountain, and an estimated 89 members — all Taiwanese guards and porters — died, making it the deadliest mountaineering disaster in Taiwan's history.

The Taroko War is generally dated from May 17 to August 28, 1914, with the main offensive opening at the end of May; Governor-General Sakuma personally led the army columns advancing from Hehuan and Qilai. Counts of the force vary: one gives 6,235 soldiers and police, or 11,075 including labourers, while totals approaching 30,000 are cited when all porters are included. Nantou Prefecture Chief Ishibashi Tooru led the road construction team that carved the route from Puli through Wushe to the Hehuan Mountain area above 3,000 meters, where a command post was established for the 70-year-old governor-general. The road was initially only 30 centimeters wide in places, later expanded to 1.5 meters using conscripted indigenous labor after the campaign was declared complete in August 1914.

Following the war, the road was rebuilt and improved as a police patrol trail (警備道路) for ongoing surveillance and control of indigenous communities. A major rerouting and reconstruction was completed in 1935, incorporating sections along the dramatic Zhuilu Cliff (錐麓大斷崖), one of the most spectacular and perilous stretches of mountain trail in Taiwan. Guard stations and communication posts were established at regular intervals along the route.

After Japan's defeat in 1945, the road fell into disuse until the 1950s when the Republic of China government selected the Hehuan Cross-Ridge Road corridor as the basis for the Central Cross-Island Highway (中橫公路), which was completed in 1960. Today, portions of the original Japanese-era trail that diverge from the modern highway are preserved as historical hiking routes within Taroko National Park, including the famous Zhuilu Old Trail.