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Above the ninety-nine steps rises the “Jingyi Pavilion,” its interior engraved with the “Yunlin County Jingyi Pavilion Record,” and a stone stele proclaiming it “The First City of the Front Range,” signifying that this county town was the most important on Taiwan’s western plain. (The original stele has vanished; the present one is a replica.) On the nearby hillside where Qianshan Road Section 1 meets the intersection, the ninety-nine stone steps now lie along the slope. Beside them stands a milk-white boulder carved with “Ninety-Nine Steps,” beneath which a smaller line reads “Starting Point of the Batongguan Trail.” The Batongguan Trail was opened in the first year of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing dynasty (1875) by Commander Wu Guangliang with some two thousand soldiers. Originally called the “Central Route,” it had two starting points: here at Ninety-Nine Steps and another near Long’en Canal in Sheliao Village, within the same township. The two branches converged at Lugu, crossed Xinyi and Batongguan, pierced the Central Mountain Range, and reached Yuli in Hualien—265 li (about 154 km) in only eleven months, becoming the vital east–west artery of Taiwan. For more than three hundred years, ancestors coming from Linnei Township crossed the Qingshui River, followed the riverbank, and ascended this Qianshan Road up the slope to Linkipoa (today’s Zhushan). To ease the climb, they built ninety-nine stone steps here—hence “Ninety-Nine Steps.” Later, when a new highway was opened, the path fell into disrepair and the steps crumbled away. The present staircase was rebuilt by the Zhushan Township Office for the National Arts Festival. It now serves townsfolk for exercise and evokes nostalgic memories of the past. Halfway up the steps one is already panting and drenched in sweat; imagining our forebears climbing the same incline on foot, bearing luggage or heavy loads, makes their hardship almost unimaginable.