On 9 November 1980, five members of a Taipei hiking club—none of them Catholic—descended Sanjiaolun Mountain after dark with only candles for light, having first prayed at a wayside statue of the Virgin Mary for a safe return. Halfway down, one of them looked back: a white, long-haired female figure was glowing above an acacia tree near the Wufengqi waterfall. They reached the foot of the mountain unharmed, returned to the spot, and raised a statue and a stone stele. From that night on the slopes above Jiaoxi a pilgrimage grew—first a wooden mountain lodge, then a circular church modelled on Beijing's Temple of Heaven, dedicated in October 2005 as the Sanctuary of Our Lady of WuFongCi.
The sanctuary stands at the foot of the Wufengqi ("Five Flag Peaks") Waterfall Scenic Area in Jiaoxi Township, Yilan County, on the north-east coast of Taiwan, below the northern ridge of the Xueshan (Snow Mountain) range. The Lanyang Plain opens to the east, where Turtle Island sits offshore. The shrine is the principal Marian pilgrimage destination of the Yilan region and a designated diocesan and Jubilee pilgrimage church of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Taipei, tended by the Camillians—the Order of the Ministers of the Sick—from their community at Luodong.
📜 History & Spiritual Significance
The shrine's origin lies not in the 19th-century mission history of Taiwanese Catholicism but in a single mountaineering night in 1980. A year earlier, in 1979, Brother Ba Ruishi (巴瑞士) of the Luodong Camillians had begun carrying building materials up the mountain with volunteers, over three years, to build a wooden refuge hut—the Shengmu Shanzhuang, Our Lady Mountain Lodge—at the waist of Sanjiaolun Mountain. A marble statue of Our Lady stood in front of it, a large crucifix above, and an outdoor set of the fourteen Stations of the Cross formed a mountain calvary. The brother's stated purpose was a shelter for hikers and a quiet point of evangelisation.
On the evening of 9 November 1980 five hikers of the Taipei Ziqiang Hiking Club, most of them Buddhist, descended the mountain after dark with only candles. They had stopped to pray at the Our Lady statue for a safe return. During the descent one of them looked back and saw a radiant, white-haired female figure above an acacia tree near the Wufengqi waterfall. They reached the foot of the mountain safely. Afterwards they concluded it was the Virgin Mary who had guided them, returned to the spot, and erected a statue and a memorial stele. The stele records, in part: "On 9 November [of the sixty-ninth year of the Republic], the Blessed Virgin Mary protected five mountain climbers, leading them safely down the mountain in the darkness, and appeared above the second acacia tree to the right of this pavilion."
Word of the event spread, and pilgrims began to come from across Taiwan. The faithful raised funds over many years, and in October 2005 the shrine church—the Shengtang—was completed and dedicated. The dedication Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Joseph Cheng Tsai-fa (鄭再發) of Taipei, with Bishops Jacob Jacqin (賈彥文) and John Huang Chao-ming (黃兆明), the Yilan County council speaker, the Jiaoxi township head, and about two thousand faithful from every Taiwanese diocese. At the dedication one of the 1980 hikers, Mr. Chen Wen-long, gave his witness under the title "A Buddhist meets Mary." Archbishop Cheng framed the shrine as a place where Mary guides the lost back onto the right path, and as a door of evangelisation for Taiwan.
The shrine is operated by the Camillians through their Luodong community, the same order whose brother built the first mountain lodge in 1979. It is listed by the Archdiocese of Taipei under the Ninth Deanery, and GCatholic records it as a shrine and parish. It is not a minor basilica; no basilica decree exists for it. The Archdiocese designated it a Jubilee pilgrimage church for the 2016 Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy and the Holy Year 2025.
☩ Pilgrimage Sites in Jiaoxi
Sanctuary of Our Lady of WuFongCi (shrine church)
天主教五峰旗聖母朝聖地聖堂
The shrine church is a distinctive circular building set on a hillside above the Wufengqi Waterfall, at roughly 168 metres overlooking the Lanyang Plain. It was completed and dedicated in October 2005 after a twenty-five-year effort led by the Archdiocese of Taipei. The circular form is modelled on the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (祈年殿) at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing—an act of architectural inculturation that gives a Catholic Marian shrine the silhouette of one of East Asia's most recognisable sacred buildings. It is the lower, accessible station of the sanctuary.
Inside are a Eucharistic adoration chapel, a Divine Mercy image at the entrance, and the fourteen Stations of the Cross mounted on the church walls. The church is the formal liturgical site of the sanctuary; the grotto, the spring, and the mountain lodge above complete the pilgrimage route.
Our Lady's Grotto
聖母山洞
The grotto is the place associated with the 9 November 1980 apparition to the five lost night hikers, who reported a radiant white-haired female figure guiding them safely down the mountain. A statue and a commemorative stele mark the spot. Pilgrims come here first to entrust intentions to Our Lady, pray the rosary, draw a scripture verse, and light a candle. The grotto stands on the sanctuary grounds and shares the church coordinate; no separate coordinate is published for it.
The Mountain Spring beside Our Lady's Grotto
聖母山洞右邊的水泉
A small spring of mountain water flows down beside the grotto. The sanctuary treats it as a sign of divine grace and purification. Pilgrims wash their hands and face in it and pray Psalm 51, recalling baptismal grace and the call to repentance. The spring lies on the sanctuary grounds and shares the church coordinate.
Our Lady Mountain Lodge
礁溪聖母山莊
The wooden mountain refuge built from 1979 by Brother Ba Ruishi of the Luodong Camillians and volunteers—who carried the building materials up the mountain over three years—is the original heart of the sanctuary, predating the lower church by more than two decades. A marble statue of Our Lady stands in front of the lodge, a large crucifix above, and an outdoor set of the fourteen Stations of the Cross forms a mountain calvary. The lodge is the upper terminus of the pilgrimage, reached by a round-trip hike of three to six hours from the church along the Shengmu Dengshan Budao, the Sacred Mother Mountain Trail (also known to hikers as "Matcha Mountain" for the green moss that covers its slopes in the wet season).
🕯️ Annual Feast Days & Celebrations
The shrine publishes no fixed annual pilgrimage feast day and no patronal feast on the universal calendar. The 9 November 1980 apparition is recorded as history on the shrine's own pages and on the memorial stele, but it is not advertised as an annual commemoration Mass. Pilgrims visit year-round, and organised groups arrange their own dates.
Christmas at the Sanctuary — 24–25 December
Christmas is the one fixed-date annual observance the shrine publishes. Christmas Eve brings a Midnight Mass in the evening, followed by a hot mulled wine gathering. On Christmas morning a dawn Mass is held at the Marian grotto, the apparition site, followed by a day Mass and a fellowship meal. The afternoon is left free for hiking the mountain trail. The combination of the grotto dawn Mass and the mountain walk gathers the shrine's whole geography—grotto, church, and trail—into a single day.
Monthly Gathering Masses
Two recurring monthly Masses function as the shrine's regular gathering points. The first Tuesday of each month brings an evening Mass. The second Wednesday of each month brings a morning Mass, observed from September through the following June—a window that follows the Taiwanese school year and the cooler hiking season. These are the closest the shrine's published calendar comes to a pilgrimage cadence; no source labels them formally as pilgrimage liturgies.
🛏️ Where to Stay
Jiaoxi is a hot-springs resort town, and the natural pilgrim lodging is a hot-spring hotel in the town centre, two to three kilometres downhill from the sanctuary, followed by a short taxi or bus ride up Wufeng Road.
Evergreen Resort Hotel (Jiaosi) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — A large established hot-spring resort on Jiankang Road in central Jiaoxi, about three kilometres from the sanctuary. Every room has hot-spring water, with on-site dining, a pool, and family facilities. Website
King Hot Spring Hotel (帝王行旅) ⭐⭐⭐ — A mid-range hot-spring hotel on the main Jiaoxi Road strip, about 400 metres from Jiaoxi railway station and roughly 2.8 kilometres from the sanctuary. Rooms have in-room hot-spring tubs and breakfast is included. Website ∙ Reserve this hotel
Prince Hot Spring Hotel (太子行旅) ⭐⭐⭐ — A hot-spring hotel on Jiaoxi Road within a ten-minute walk of the Jiaoxi hot-springs and Tangweigou Hot Spring Park, roughly three kilometres from the sanctuary. Rooms have in-room sodium-bicarbonate hot-spring tubs. Reserve this hotel
Sanctuary lodging referral (pilgrim accommodation) — The sanctuary can assist pilgrims in arranging lodging on request; enquire through the official website. This is a referral rather than an online-bookable property. Website
🚗 Getting There
By Air: The nearest airport is Taipei Songshan Airport, approximately 45 kilometres south-west of Jiaoxi by road. Songshan serves domestic and cross-strait flights. Most international visitors arrive through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the principal international gateway, further south-west along the coast. From either airport a train, bus, or hired car carries the pilgrim north-east to Yilan.
By Train: The Taiwan Railway (TRA) serves Jiaoxi station (礁溪車站) on the Yilan line. The station sits in the town centre, about three kilometres downhill from the sanctuary. A short taxi or local bus ride up Wufeng Road covers the last stretch to the shrine gates.
By Bus: Capital Bus route 1572 runs from Taipei City Hall Bus Station to Jiaoxi in about forty minutes. Kamalan Bus route 1915 runs from Taipei Main Station to Jiaoxi in about sixty minutes. Both stop in central Jiaoxi within walking distance of the hot-springs hotels.
By Car: Freeway No. 5 runs north-east from Taipei through the Hsuehshan (Xueshan) Tunnel—the longest road tunnel in Taiwan—and out onto the Lanyang Plain. The drive from Taipei to Jiaoxi takes roughly forty minutes over about 47 kilometres. Leave at the Toucheng interchange and follow Provincial Highway No. 9 south to Jiaoxi, then take Wufeng Road uphill to the sanctuary.
🧭 Nearby Pilgrimage Destinations
No existing destinationes.com guide lies within 550 kilometres of the sanctuary. Taiwan is an island, and the nearest published guide—Manaoag, in the Philippines—sits nearly 1,000 kilometres across the sea to the south. No neighbouring guide is listed here.
🪶 Closing Reflection
"On 9 November, the Blessed Virgin Mary protected five mountain climbers, leading them safely down the mountain in the darkness, and appeared above the second acacia tree to the right of this pavilion."
— Memorial stele inscription, Our Lady's Grotto, Sanctuary of Our Lady of WuFongCi
🔗 Useful Links
Sanctuary of Our Lady of WuFongCi — The shrine's official website, with the founding story, the pilgrimage-route description, the Mass schedule, and contact details for lodging arrangements.
Archdiocese of Taipei — Ninth Deanery — The archdiocese's English deanery page listing the sanctuary among its parishes and shrines, with the parish priest and address.
GCatholic — Sanctuary of Our Lady of WuFongCi — Independent catalogue entry recording the shrine's jurisdiction, deanery, type, and Jubilee pilgrimage-church designations.
🎥 Recommended Videos
宜蘭礁溪 天主教五峰旗聖母朝聖地 官方簡介 (Official Introduction) — The shrine's own official introduction, published on the sanctuary's YouTube channel. Traditional Chinese, 7 min 55 sec.
39年前「五峰旗聖母顯靈的故事」(The Story of Our Lady's Apparition at WuFongCi 39 Years Ago) — Catholic Truth Radio's full account of the 1980 apparition. Traditional Chinese, 23 min 15 sec.
39年前「五峰旗聖母顯靈的故事」專訪三位目睹者 (Interviews with Three Witnesses) — Catholic Truth Radio's companion piece, with interviews of three witnesses to the reported apparition. Traditional Chinese, 4 min 19 sec.
📚 Further Reading
The World of Marian Apparitions: Mary's Appearances and Messages from Fatima to Today — A broad survey of Marian apparitions across many sites, giving the global context into which the 1980 WuFongCi event fits as a contemporary, locally recognised apparition in an East Asian setting.
Mother Figured: Marian Apparitions and the Making of a Filipino Universal — An academic study of the 1948 Lipa Marian apparition in the Philippines, the closest East Asian Marian apparition study in print, offering an anthropological framework for how a local apparition is received and shaped in an East Asian Catholic context.
The Catholic Church in Taiwan: Birth, Growth and Development — The standard English-language academic study of the Catholic Church in Taiwan, covering the mission history from the 1622 Spanish arrival through post-1949 development—the frame within which the WuFongCi shrine and the Camillian presence in Yilan arose.
The Catholic Church in Taiwan: Problems and Prospects — The companion volume, covering the contemporary challenges and internal development of the Taiwan Catholic Church, including inculturation—the process by which Marian devotion took local root in Taiwan.
Presenze: 400 Years of Camillian Activity in the World — A bilingual Italian/English volume marking the 400th anniversary of St. Camillus de Lellis's death and documenting the Order of the Ministers of the Sick across fifty-plus countries, including its East Asian missions. The Camillian Luodong community operates the WuFongCi shrine, and the founding brother was Camillian.