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The Jingtong Historic Trail has existed for at least a century. It originated during the Qing dynasty, when residents of Shuifanjiao (today’s Xizhi) crossed the mountains and trekked through the forest to settle and cultivate the wilderness of Jingtongkeng. Traveling between Pingxi and Xizhi, they carried supplies with shoulder-poles, gradually wearing a mountain path into the landscape. Under Japanese rule, coal seams in the Pingxi district were exploited, bringing a large influx of people and turning Pingxi into a mining center. Although the Pingxi Railway was built mainly for coal transport, the Jingtong trail remained the crucial land route to Xizhi. Midway along the trail stands an enormous boulder topped by a simple, upright stele. Though weathered, the inscription “Commemorative Monument to Road-Building” can still be read; it was erected during the Japanese period when the trail was improved, and it is now an important historic site. After 1971, highways linking Pingxi with Muzha, Ruifang and Xizhi were completed, and the ancient path gradually fell silent, visited only by hikers seeking quiet beauty. The trail is divided into two sections. It begins at the trailhead in the Dongshan valley along the Xi-Ping Highway, crosses the Shikongzi hills, climbs to the highest point at Panshi Ridge where it meets the Xi-Ping road, then enters Pingxi district, passing Roubanka, Bird-Nest Ridge, Cloud-Fog Valley, the Moxindong (“Devil’s Cave”) and finally Jingtongkeng. The Xizhi section starts behind Ren’ai Bridge on Dongshan Road, winding among fields, farmhouses and mountain villas. The Pingxi section, beginning opposite the Tudigong (Earth-God) shrine at Panshi Ridge, plunges into dense, challenging forest.