Description

During the first years of the Qing Dynasty, the isolated village housed nine families, thus the village would request "nine portions" every time shipments arrived from town. Later Kau-hun (meaning "nine portions" in Hokkien) would become the name of the village.

Despite the earliest reference to the production of gold in the island dating to 1430,[1] and multiple rediscoveries by early inhabitants, visiting Japanese, Dutch occupiers, and Koxinga's retainers, awareness of the wealth of Taiwan's gold districts did not develop until the late Qing era. In 1890, workmen discovered flakes of gold while constructing the new Taipeh-Kelung railway,[2] and in 1893 a rich placer district was discovered in the hills of Kau-hun that produced several kilograms[a] of gold a day. In the next year, the promise became greater than ever after a Chinese "expert" with experience gained in California found gold-bearing quartz in the said hills.