Raknus Selu Trail

The Raknus Selu Trail is a historical trail where many ethnic groups cross paths. Its name tells the story. The word “raknus” means “camphor” in the Taiwanese indigenous Atayal and Saisiyat language, a pungently aromatic plant that was massively harvested and exported in the 16th century; and “selu” means “a small path” in Hakka, a language spoken by a group of Han Chinese immigrants. It is a road of conflict and reconciliation among men, and between men and nature—underneath the peaceful existence that is today, decades of conflicts, memories of a once thriving trade, are all sealed in the stones and remnants along the path. Starting from Taoyuan and extending southward all the way down to Taichung, the trail consists of three types of paths: historic trails, farm roads, and highway. The historic trails are ancestral paths connecting inner mountain settlements, transporting goods, as well as people for marriages and funerals. Farm roads include sections of low-traffic industrial roads and footpaths; winding around mountains, fruit farms, and bamboo forests, the roads are nestled in well-preserved natural landscape, some are even so offbeat that only the locals know the way. The highway refers to Provincial Highway No. 3 and other high-traffic roads with a sidewalk.