Lintianshan Forestry Culture Park

The Lintianshan Forestry Culture Park was formerly the Lintianshan Forest Area, and during the Japanese Occupation it served as Daan Mountain’s log processing ground. Felling, collecting and transporting of timber all carried out here. For its massive scale, it became one of the three large forest areas of eastern Taiwan.
 
Forestry in Lintianshan began in 1918, with felling initiated by Japanese company Hualien Harbor Timber. In 1939, the company acquired a new name, Taiwan Kougyou Kabusiki Gaisya (ch. Taiwan Xingye Company), and established the Taiwan Xingye Company Lintianshan Logging Office by the Wangping River. A number of logging railways were established and several dormitories and buildings were also constructed to facilitate logging on the site. As logging flourished, Lintianshan gradually expanded to its current scale. After Taiwan’s liberation from Japanese Rule, the Resource Management Committee under the Ministry of Economic Affairs took ownership. The Lintianshan area was placed under management of the Taiwan Paper Company, and forest and wood extraction continued. In 1954, the site was transferred to private ownership.
 
The logging industry reached a peak in 1960 with 2,000 staff members, and a total of 123 dormitories were built to accommodate them. In 1972, ownership was transferred to the Zhongxidng Paper Company operated by the provincial government. Yet by 1973 the logging industry was in decline. Control of the site was assumed by the Taiwan Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, and by 1988 logging at Lintianshan had drawn to a halt. The Taiwan Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency merged the two work sites at Guangfu and Fenglin into the Wanrong Work Station, Hualien Branch, Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency. Following that, plans were set afoot for the creation of the Lintianshan Forestry Culture Park at the forest area. In 2006, the Hualien County Cultural Affairs Bureau announced the listing of the area as a historical village. There are currently still more than 50 retired staff members living on site in 32 households, and they are the best embodiment of the site’s living history.

The Lintianshan Forestry Culture Park maintains much of its Japanese Occupation history reflected through former offices and residences, living facilities, staff dormitories, logging and transportation machines and tools, rail tracks, an old elementary school, and a church. According to its present uses, the site is divided into the forestry exhibition area, early settlement buildings, the remains of Kangle New Village, administration and management area, and hiking trails. Details of the main facilities are explained as below:
 
The forestry exhibition area is focused around the settlement area at the park’s north and in the machine repair factory situated beneath Senrong Elementary School, where restored wood-carrying and logging equipment is on display. This area further is divided into an outdoor and an indoor exhibition space. Objects from the forest area that are now on display in the outdoor exhibition space include a steam engine, railway used for transporting lumber (the Wenquan line), ropeway platform, and the remains of Kangle New Village (this former family dormitory was ravished by fire in 2001).
 
The Japanese-style dormitory buildings are constructed primarily from cypress wood, with a further five of the buildings of a tile construction. The dormitory buildings are used for a range of functions including staff accommodation, canteens, rice shop, Christian church, auditorium, school, staff shop, and hot spring hotel. Even though some of Kangle New Village’s 35 buildings have suffered from fire damage, with other structures bearing erosion by termites, heavy rain and wind damage, the site still retains the distinctive style of the original forest industry. Some of the old buildings on site have been restored and re-used as an indoor exhibition space where historical materials about the forest industry, wood sculptures, and snapshots of early workers’ life in the forest are presented.
 
Senban Trail is located in the south of the park, in the shadow of Changhan Mountain. Visitors may go through the Senrong Church on the western entrance to find the trail’s scenic platform. From there, the trail becomes a little crooked, leading on to the Sanctuary and the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes. This path takes around an hour to walk in its entirety.

In the future, the Lintianshan Forestry Culture Park will be developed alongside other tourist places in the East Rift Valley and be highlighted as an important part of the rift’s leisure network, with a rich ambience of this forestry setting and historical texture an important overarching theme. By taking “scenes of village life” as the developmental launch pad, it is hoped that the old forestry settlements can be revitalized, and act as living, experiential museums about the forestry industry. Through village revitalization, community work, and co-administering the site with local residents, the glory of forest life in the old days may be preserved, and an experiential museum site rich in historical atmosphere can be created.