Qualla: Jiji, Nantou https://qualla.com/jiji-nantou en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:38 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Jiji, Nantou https://qualla.com/jiji-nantou Jiji, Nantou: Introduction https://qualla.com/jiji-nantou/ Its name comes from a phrase in the Formosan languages — "Chiv-Chiv" — which means nothing to most visitors who arrive by train, step onto the platform at Jiji Station, and find a small mountain township that has absorbed a great deal of history into very little space. Jiji is the smallest township in Taiwan by area, occupying 49.72 square kilometers of mountain terrain in west-central Nantou County. Its lowest point is 230 meters above sea level, its highest is Big Jiji Mountain at 1,392 meters, and between them runs the Zhuoshui River along the southern boundary. None of that geography explains why the name Jiji became, for a time, synonymous with catastrophe. On September 21, 1999, the ground beneath this township moved in a way that reshaped central Taiwan. But the story of Jiji begins much earlier.

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/z/jiji-nantou-wp/wsjz-jiji-nantou-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Jiji, Nantou: Camphor, Colonists, and the Coming of the Railway https://qualla.com/jiji-nantou/ Han Chinese settlers from Zhangzhou began arriving in the Jiji area in 1771. The indigenous place name persisted — Chiv-Chiv, Jiji — even as the character of the settlement shifted under successive administrations. During the Japanese colonial period, which lasted from 1895 to 19...

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/z/jiji-nantou-wp/wsjz-jiji-nantou-camphor-colonists-and-the-coming-of-the-railway.mp3 0:06 2 full Jiji, Nantou: The Day the Ground Moved https://qualla.com/jiji-nantou/ At 1:47 in the morning on September 21, 1999, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck. Jiji was its epicenter. The 921 earthquake — named for the date, 9/21 — killed more than 2,400 people across Taiwan and injured thousands more. Buildings across Nantou and Taichung collapsed; roads c...

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/z/jiji-nantou-wp/wsjz-jiji-nantou-the-day-the-ground-moved.mp3 0:06 3 full Jiji, Nantou: The Slowest Township in Taiwan https://qualla.com/jiji-nantou/ Whatever the 921 earthquake took from Jiji, the years that followed gave back something different. Tourism arrived — specifically, the quiet kind. The Jiji Railway Line, which had carried camphor a century earlier, now carries day-trippers from Taichung who come to rent bicycles,...

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/z/jiji-nantou-wp/wsjz-jiji-nantou-the-slowest-township-in-taiwan.mp3 0:06 4 full Jiji, Nantou: Mountains on All Sides https://qualla.com/jiji-nantou/ Jiji is surrounded by mountains. To the north, Zhongliao; to the west, Mingjian; to the south, Zhushan and Lugu; to the east, Shuili. The Zhuoshui River — the longest river in Taiwan — runs along the southern edge of the township before continuing west toward Ershui and the Chang...

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]]> Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/w/s/j/z/jiji-nantou-wp/wsjz-jiji-nantou-mountains-on-all-sides.mp3 0:06 5 full