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The Batongguan Ancient Trail passes through Hougou Pit in Shanchong Village. Hougou Pit was once a settlement of the Pingpu people. The site sits on a small, flat-topped hill, a location easy to defend and hard to attack. Stone knives, axes, and perforated stones unearthed in archaeological digs prove that a living culture once thrived here. In the late Qianlong period, this was also the garrison where Fuk’ang-an stationed troops to quell the Lin Shuang-wen rebellion, and the Ganquan Well became a fixed feature of the settlement. Two stories surround the well: first, its water—flowing year-round from Nonghui Mountain—never dries, and its level stands higher than the surrounding ground; second, at noon on the Dragon Boat Festival, “noon-hour water” is drawn for bathing to wash away misfortune. Beside the well, the Stone Grandfather originally kept watch over the spring; later, because it stands on the only route through Batongguan, it has become one of only two such stone guardians on the Batongguan Sheliao line. This spot also marked the “earth-ox red line” boundary drawn in the early Qing administration, the entry point for “opening the mountains and pacifying the aborigines.”