For many years, it took two or three hours to travel one way between Taipei and Yilan, making a one-way trip a half-day project. That was until Jiang Weishui Highway.
It cut the time from Taipei to Yilan down to less than one hour, revolutionizing the transport links to Taipei.

But because of the coastal mountain range, the highway has to run through many tunnels. One of them is Hsuehshan Tunnel, Taiwan’s longest tunnel at 12.9 kilometers long. Construction took 15 years, and the tunnel was finally opened in June 2006.

Why was it such a difficult project? Today on Taiwan History, we present the world-class engineering feat, Hsuehshan Tunnel.