🌏 中文版
Who opened the route you climbed at Long Dong? Which generation of Taiwanese gyms does your local bouldering gym belong to? Where was Taiwan's first climbing competition held?
This is the second post in the Climbing History and Culture series. The previous post covered where shoes, chalk, grades and competitions came from worldwide; this one covers how they reached Taiwan, and how climbing in Taiwan turned from a mountaineering skill into a sport of its own.
By the end you should be able to name three turning points: in 1981 the Rock Climbers' Club split climbing off from mountaineering; around the lifting of martial law in 1987 Long Dong was developed at speed; and in the mid-2010s bouldering gyms turned climbing into a city sport. You'll also know roughly when the routes you climb at Long Dong were opened, and where to look them up.
Several dates differ between sources. This post sets them side by side rather than choosing for you.
Most sources here are in Mandarin; they are marked in the References.
The Japanese era: Dapaoyan was the first training ground
Taiwan's first natural crag is in Beitou, Taipei. Dapaoyan ("Big Cannon Rock") is named after a boulder that jutted out like a cannon; in the Japanese era it was also called Tengu Rock. A photograph held by the National Center of Photography and Images shows a four-day climbing workshop run by the Taiwan Mountaineering Society, with members practising rope descents at Dapaoyan; the catalogue note says Dapaoyan was opened as a natural crag in the 1930s and is one of Taiwan's oldest.
The timeline in Chinese Wikipedia's Dapaoyan article is more specific: the Taiwan Mountaineering Society, founded in 1926, was practising at Dapaoyan by 1931 at the latest, and held workshops there in April–May 1932 and on 21 July 1936. Li Chien-lung, who researched Taiwanese climbing history, also writes that before 1980 the ideas and techniques of Taiwanese climbing came mostly from Japan.
After the war: Lin Yuan-lin and the word for rock climbing
After the war the Japanese members left, and in 1946 the Taiwan Mountaineering Society was handed to its Taiwanese members. According to Chinese Wikipedia's Dapaoyan article, Lin Yuan-lin, who had learned to climb with Tokyo's Musashi Mountaineering Club while studying in Japan, returned that year and trained at Dapaoyan at least twice a month. On 7 October 1951 he gave a climbing demonstration at Dapaoyan for the Taipei journalists' association, the earliest postwar record of the word 攀岩 ("rock climbing").
Gear was primitive. A long-time member of the Shan-Gu Mountaineering Club recalled that when his club went to Dapaoyan for rock training around 1967, Taiwan still had no nylon rope apart from one left behind by a visiting Japanese team and treated as a treasure; what they borrowed was military manila rope. As the previous post noted, nylon rope had reached Europe by the early 1940s.
Dapaoyan's "cannon barrel" is gone. When and why it was destroyed has two versions:
| Date | Reason given | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Blasted before 1957 | The July–August 1957 issue of Taiwan Mountains, journal of the Taiwan Mountaineering Association (the society's name after its 1950 reorganisation), ran an elegy, "Mourning Dapaoyan", which says it was blasted by a transport bureau (路局) for stone ("惜為取材，路局爆轟"); the same article also cites a United Daily News interview with Lin Mei-chun saying the barrel was seen as disrespectful because it pointed at Chung Cheng Mountain | Chinese Wikipedia, Dapaoyan, quoting that issue |
| 1970s | Destroyed by the authorities because the barrel pointed straight at "Chung Cheng Mountain", read as "the cannon firing at Chiang Kai-shek" | National Center of Photography and Images catalogue note |
1981: the Rock Climbers' Club splits climbing from mountaineering
In 1970s Taiwan, mainstream mountaineering meant the Hundred Peaks. After the "Taiwan's Hundred Mountains" list appeared in 1972, serious mountaineers set out to climb all hundred. Li Chien-lung's paper sums up the attitude of the time: "there are mountains to climb, so why go rock climbing?" Rock climbing was just a skill for getting past hard terrain on the way up a mountain.
The change began with the Rock Climbers' Club (RCC). Convened by Kao Ming-ho, it was founded in 1981 (Li writes June; TOCC's Long Dong chronicle says May). Taiwan was still under martial law, assembly, association and publishing were all restricted, and technique and gear all came from abroad: equipment catalogues in outdoor shops and the odd climbing magazine brought back from overseas were the training materials. In October that year the RCC made the first ascent of the north face of Yushan East Peak, and it went on to run regular beginner and intermediate courses. Li considers the RCC one of the few groups of the time to treat climbing as a sport separate from mountaineering.
Observation meets: where Taiwanese climbing competitions began
On 30 May 1982 the RCC held the first National Climbing Observation Meet at Dapaoyan in Beitou. Sixty-five people signed up; 26 showed up. Li cites a contemporary Min Sheng Daily report with an observation that reads interestingly today: because the routes weren't hard, people with strong arms or good fitness had the edge and could finish without balance technique; judge Tsai Kuang-lung said that without good foundations, progress is slow. The rules were relaxed during the event so that climbers who failed could watch a demonstration, get hints and try again. RCC members were barred from entering, because the point was promotion.
That September the Kaohsiung County Hiking Association held the south's first observation meet at Shoushan. The second national meet, in 1983, was again at Dapaoyan; from the third, in 1984, it moved to Long Dong. The fourth, in 1985, drew 63 participants, the largest climbing event in Taiwan at the time.
The fifth meet, in 1986, was a turning point, but two sources disagree on where the Chung Cheng Cup begins:
- TOCC's chronicle says that from the fifth meet on 30 October 1986 it was "renamed the Chung Cheng Cup climbing competition".
- Li writes that the fifth meet was hosted by Kaohsiung's Snow Rock Club, that the Chinese Taipei Alpine Association ran it every year after that, and that it "became the forerunner of the later Chung Cheng Cup". He also judges that only after 1988 was the meet formally treated as a sports competition.
On 11 November 1989 the eighth Chung Cheng Cup at Long Dong was the first international invitational climbing event. Taiwanese competitions from the 1990s on are left for the competitions series.
Climbing abroad meant applying as a "sports team"
In February 1986 the RCC formally joined the Chinese Taipei Alpine Association (CTAA). That July a CTAA expedition summited Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn; apart from the leader, every member was from the RCC. Li writes that under martial law it was very hard to get permission to travel, so the team applied as a sports delegation through the Ministry of Education and only got passports with an invitation from the French mountaineering federation. In July 1987 RCC members climbed the 800-metre Washington Column in Yosemite.
These trips abroad are further evidence that climbing had split from mountaineering: the climbers were going overseas for big walls, not just summits.
Long Dong: three versions of the discovery date
Nobody disputes that Uenxi Chang (Chang Wen-hsi) discovered Long Dong. The year is another matter:
| Year | Source |
|---|---|
| 1978 | TOCC's Long Dong page, Chinese text; the Long Dong chronicle says "1978 – 1982" |
| 1977 | The English text of the same TOCC page |
| c. 1976 | In the preface to a translation on his blog, Chang writes that the American climber G. B. Talovich first came along to Long Dong "two years after the discovery and development of Long Dong, around late autumn 1978", which puts the discovery around 1976 |
After the discovery, Tsai Kuang-lung, Tsai Feng-pin, Chou Te-chiu, Ying Shih-cheng, Tsai Wen-tsung, Ho Chung-ta and others joined in developing it. The third observation meet was held at Long Dong in 1984, and on 24 August 1987 two RCC climbers, Mao Tsu-chi and Yang Shih-pi, were married on the rock; the route has been called the Wedding Route ever since.
Development took off around the lifting of martial law in 1987. The community-written Taiwan history on Mountain Project says that after martial law ended people were far more willing to explore, and the obvious lines fell in quick succession. In November 1989, during the Chung Cheng Cup, climbers from around Taiwan gathered at Long Dong to issue the "Long Dong Declaration". Its date has two versions: the TOCC chronicle says 11 November, the same day as the eighth Chung Cheng Cup; Li Chien-lung's 2008 master's thesis says 12 November. The thesis says its aim was to prepare for a national climbing organisation; the full text has not been made public.
Roughly when was your route opened?
Early route information at Long Dong was passed on by word of mouth. The written record built up one publication at a time (per TOCC's Long Dong page and chronicle):
| When | Record | Who |
|---|---|---|
| February 1993 | Hand-drawn "Big Cannon Rock & Long Dong Rock Climbing Topos" | Liu Nai-hsun ("Milk") |
| After 1993 | Draft Climbing Guide to Taiwan's Premier Rock Climbing Area: Longdong / Dragon Cave | American climber Paul Foster |
| November 1998 | Lungtung Rock Climbing Guide (前進龍洞岩場), the first widely distributed Long Dong guidebook | Korean climber Yum Yum (Park Rae-kyung) and Lu Chin-ying |
| 2005 or 2006 | Long Dong Trad Climbs (TOCC's page says 2005; the chronicle says 31 March 2006) | Matt Robertson, Wang Hong-hsiang |
| April 2012 | Rock Climbing Taiwan (臺灣龍洞攀岩) | Matt Robertson and team |
Mountain Project says the 1998 guide documented over 100 routes and the 2012 guide over 500. In between, in 1994 Ta-Chi Wang led the founding of the 5.11 Rock Climbing Club; in summer 1995 Wang and Wu Yen-yi developed Long Dong's Back Door; and that November Wu opened "Devil's Challenge '95", the first 5.13a developed by a Taiwanese climber.
So if your route is already in the 1998 guide, it was opened before then; if it only appears in the 2012 book, it was probably opened, or at least written down, after 1998. For a single route's first ascensionist and year, check the route database TOCC maintains. How Long Dong's bolts are placed and replaced, and who decides, is in Who Decides Whether a Line Gets Bolted; rock type and rules at each crag are in Choosing a Crag in Taiwan.
Gyms: "first" depends on the definition
Which was Taiwan's first climbing gym? It depends how you count:
- National-team training wall: on 1 June 1997 the CTAA converted its Lanzhou Street clubhouse in Taipei into an indoor climbing training centre, mainly for national-team athletes.
- Open to the public: in 1999 it became the Taipei Climbing Club, opening to the public and hosting competitions.
- Commercial: in 2004 the team that later ran STONE took it over and ran it commercially. A United Daily News (500 Times) feature describes the Lanzhou Street gym as founded in 2004.
Before that, schools and companies already had artificial walls, though none ran as a public gym. Li Chien-lung's 2008 master's thesis covers this: its timeline puts the south's first artificial wall in 1984, while its abstract says Taiwan's first artificial wall was introduced in 1989 and that about 304 had been built by 2006; in August 1994 the Hsin Hsueh Yu company in Taipei imported a movable indoor wall from the US, which a news report said "opened the door to indoor artificial walls in Taiwan". Lanzhou Street was on the third floor of an old apartment block, and 27 April 2012 was its last night.
Then came the years of fast growth. T-UP Climbing (原岩) opened in Yangmei in 2015 (first called Ding Gua Gua), added a Wanhua branch in 2017 and a Zhonghe branch in 2020. The AAC feature says the number of gyms roughly tripled in the mid-2010s, and because Taiwan's cities are crowded and land is expensive, most were bouldering gyms. By 2021 Taiwan had 30-odd public sports centres and private gyms with climbing facilities.
Climbers often contrast the two generations as old school and new school. A veteran climber summarising a community panel wrote that old-school climbers usually have stronger fingers, while new-school climbers usually have better coordination and body control. Set that next to the 1982 Min Sheng Daily observation that strong arms were enough and balance technique wasn't needed, and you can see the emphasis of Taiwanese route setting has moved from strength to coordination.
Organisations: who runs climbing
| Year | Organisation | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Chinese Taipei Climbing Association | Promotes climbing, runs coach certification courses |
| 19 April 1997 | CTAA Rock Climbing Committee | The CTAA's dedicated climbing committee |
| 15 March 2020 | TOCC, Taiwan Outdoor Climbers' Coalition | Maintains the Long Dong route database, rebolting, rescue drills |
Four generations
The AAC feature describes Taiwanese climbers in generations: the first mostly grew up under Japanese rule and were mountaineering pioneers who climbed high peaks in siege style; Ta-Chi Wang belongs to the second; Matt Robertson and Maurice Chen to the third; and the gyms of the mid-2010s onward produced a third and fourth generation mostly focused on bouldering.
If you started climbing in a bouldering gym, that's probably your generation. Behind the routes you stand on and the holds you grab are the Dapaoyan workshops, the RCC observation meets, Long Dong's three guidebooks and that third-floor apartment on Lanzhou Street.
Practice: four scenarios
The answer is under each one. Think first, then check.
1. A friend says: "Taiwan's first climbing gym was Lanzhou Street, opened in 2004."
Answer
It depends what "first" means. The CTAA converted Lanzhou Street into a national-team training centre in 1997, it opened to the public as the Taipei Climbing Club in 1999, and only in 2004 did the STONE team take it over and run it commercially. People who say 2004 are counting commercial gyms. If you count walls that weren't open to the public, Li Chien-lung's 2008 thesis records the south's first artificial wall in 1984 and the first artificial wall introduced to Taiwan in 1989 (both claims appear in the same thesis), all earlier than Lanzhou Street.
2. One article online says Long Dong was discovered in 1978, another says 1977. You want to know which is right.
Answer
There's no settled answer. TOCC's Chinese page says 1978 and its English page 1977, while the discoverer Uenxi Chang's own blog implies around 1976. When citing it, name your source, or say "the mid-to-late 1970s" and you won't be wrong.
3. Someone says: "Climbing in Taiwan only started after martial law was lifted."
Answer
No. The Taiwan Mountaineering Society ran climbing workshops at Dapaoyan in the 1930s, and the RCC was founded in 1981 and held the first national observation meet in 1982, all under martial law. The years around the lifting of martial law were when Long Dong was developed at speed, not when climbing began.
4. You want to climb a route at Long Dong and find out who opened it and when.
Answer
Check the Long Dong route database TOCC maintains, or the 2012 Rock Climbing Taiwan guide. If it's also in the 1998 Lungtung Rock Climbing Guide, it was opened before 1998. To judge whether its bolts can be trusted, read Bolts Fail.
What's next
This is currently the last post in the series. To go back to where shoes, chalk and competitions came from worldwide, read Where Climbing Came From.
If you're heading to Long Dong, read Choosing a Crag in Taiwan and Who Decides Whether a Line Gets Bolted first. For books on climbing, A Knowledge Map of Climbing Books has reading lists in Chinese, Japanese and English.
References
- National Center of Photography and Images: Climbing practice – rappelling (Taiwan Mountaineering Society workshop at Dapaoyan) (in Mandarin)
- Chinese Wikipedia: 大砲岩 (Dapaoyan) (in Mandarin)
- Li Chien-lung: A Study of the Development of Rock Climbing in Taiwan (1945–2006), master's thesis, National Taitung University, 2008 (PDF archive; in Mandarin)
- Li Chien-lung: A Study of the Development of Rock Climbing in Taiwan – An Example of Rock Climbers' Club (1981–1989), published by the CTAA (PDF archive; in Mandarin)
- Shan-Gu Mountaineering Club: 1967 rock training at Dapaoyan (2014; in Mandarin)
- TOCC: Long Dong chronicle of events (bilingual)
- TOCC: Long Dong rock climbing (development history and guidebooks; bilingual)
- TOCC: AAC Guidebook XIII feature (October 2025; bilingual)
- Uenxi Chang (Sketch Taiwan): Long Dong crag / preface to the "Chiao Sheng" translation (in Mandarin)
- Mountain Project: Taiwan (community-written history section)
- atc0317: Artificial crags, part 5 – Lanzhou Street bouldering gym (15 March 2012; in Mandarin)
- Kateberry: Old and new gym culture and route styles (23 February 2021; in Mandarin)
- Kateberry: Goodbye, STONE climbing gym (25 December 2018; in Mandarin)
- United Daily News 500 Times: Working at a climbing gym (12 November 2021; in Mandarin)
- Chinese Taipei Climbing Association: About (in Mandarin)
- Where Climbing Came From: The Origins of Chalk, Climbing Shoes, Grades, Climbing Walls and Competitions
- Who Decides Whether a Line Gets Bolted: From Clean Climbing to Rock Ethics at Long Dong
- Choosing a Crag in Taiwan: Rock Type Decides How You Climb, Rules Decide Whether You Can
- Bolts Fail: How to Judge Whether an Outdoor Bolt Can Be Trusted
- A Knowledge Map of Climbing Books