Yilan Forestry Culture Park

The forestry industry is an essential part of Yilan. In the past, it was the Taiping Forest Area that provided impetus for the town’s growth. The Yilan Forestry Culture Park was formerly used as Taipingshan’s Yilan Branch, equipped with sawmills, lumber yards, an agency office, and workers’ dormitories. Today, the culture park still reserves a complete set of old industry facilities, early village buildings, storage units and transport machinery - they are the living artefacts of Taipingshan’s forestry past. With the development of the Taipingshan Forest Area, sometime later Yilan emerged as a timber city and the industrial and commercial hub of Yilan.
 
Taipingshan’s forestry industry began in 1905, with the Forestry Agency of Japan drawing plans to harvest the area’s native cypress forests. A dragging track was built by laborers to pull logs up to a timber processing ground by the Duowang River. The log would then be transported out of town through the Langyan River. In 1921, the agency purchased a railway from the Taiwan Sugar Factory and adapted it for transporting timber. The railway was 36.95km long, stretching from the timber processing ground to Tiansongpi, Waiziwai, and Zhulin Station. From then on, felling of trees was carried out on an immense scale and such continued for 68 years. Taipingshan stood alongside Alishan and Bahsienshan as the three largest forest areas during the Japanese Occupation, and its scale of felling was the greatest of all.
 
The government restructured related policies in 1982 and the forestry industry started to decline. Taipingshan also ceased to fell trees. Between the years of 1994 and 2001, the Third Yilan Town Urban Planning Review demarcated the Yilan Forest Area as a “special forestry industry culture site.” In 2004, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency unveiled a plan to create the Yilan Forestry Culture Park. In 2009, the park was officially opened to the public. In fact, since in 2004, the Ministry of Culture has successively listed Japan’s agency office, director’s residence, laborers’ club, old vehicle inspection garage, staff dormitory, fortress, and log storage pool as the country’s historical assets. In 2012, the whole site was listed as a cultural landscape area. 

At the site, the log storage pool, Zhulin Station, wood-dragging tracks, forestry agency office, Japanese-style dormitories, and segments of old train tracks are all well preserved. According to its present uses, the site is divided into the forestry exhibition area, old dormitory area, art and culture area, administration and management area, nature and ecology area, green area, hiking trails, and parking space. The principal tourist facilities are further detailed below:
 
The forestry exhibition area is positioned at the core of the park, and it presents a nostalgic look at the operations and facilities used to get lumber from the Taipingshan Forest Area during the Japanese Occupation. This area is further 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 railway car from the forest railway, the old Zhulin Station building, log-transporting train tracks, steam engines, passenger cars, an unloading platform, a log storage pool, a train wash platform, a fortress, and a truck wash area.  The indoor exhibition space is composed of old warehouses and dormitories. They have been refurbished for holding educational events and displaying historical documents of the forestry industry.
 
The old log storage pool retains elements that reminds visitors of its past. “Floating islets” have been installed in the pool for wildlife to inhabit on. Frogs and fireflies also thrive and breed in the summer, making the pool an ecologically diverse place. Surrounding the pool are two paths, the Wood Shavings Trail and the Round-the- Pool Trail. The Round-the- Pool Trail features a birdwatching path and birdwatching wall, convenient for observing wild birds in action.

Moving forward, the Yilan Forestry Culture Park will align with trends of urban planning to give this old forest area a new look. The log storage pool and the Zhulin Station will be taken as the focus for development. The site’s overall expansion will orientate towards the concept of “preserving the memory of the forest area while introducing new urban planning concepts.” The Yilan Forestry Culture Park will serve as the town’s main green space and where people can recall the past of Taipingshan. It shall even be an important marker of the culture of Yilan’s forestry industry.