The first Quiet Trail in the world—Cueifong Lake Circular Trail of Taipingshan—is located along Cueifong Lake between Taipingshan and Dayuanshan in Yilan County. Cueifong Lake is the largest alpine lake in Taiwan, surrounded by a dense and lush cypress forest, which has a thick covering of moss. This layer of natural sound-absorbing material has created an environment akin to a natural acoustic room. Far away from the hustle and bustle of human activities, this location is also an extremely quiet place. Without human activity, the lowest measured volume was less than 25 decibels, making it almost silent. In 2018, the first national Silent Trail was established along the shores of Cueifong Lake, allowing visitors to the trail to experience the unique melody of every stone, stream, tree, and even mountain by listening to this natural soundscape. Through their listening, visitors can even witness the efforts to preserve these mountains and forests. On World Listening Day, July 18, 2022, Quiet Parks International (QPI), an international non-profit organization, formally designated Cueifong Lake Circular Trail of Taipingshan as the world’s first Quiet Trail. The designation ceremony opened with a prayer and performance by the Atayal people of Nan’ao Township, who used to live in the Haga-Paris tribal community. They continue the legacy of the Atayal people and live in co-existence and co-prosperity with nature through listening and feeling. It was then followed by the designation ceremony of Cueifong Lake Circular Trail as the world’s first Quiet Trail, which was completed with the QPI representatives’ testimonies and blessings. The Forestry Bureau said that Cueifong Lake Circular Trail is built along the route of the old timber track and circles around Cueifong Lake, allowing visitors to enjoy the beauty of the lake at a close distance. At 3.95 kilometers long, this is the longest trail in the Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area, and it is visited by many tourists. However, because of the long distance, many tourists only stay for a short while and leave after walking the 300-meter wooden pallet path and admiring the view of Cueifong Lake. Therefore, this has also resulted in the quietness of the majority of the trail being preserved. The Silent Trail refers to the stretch located between the 2.2K and 3.7K distance-marker of the trail. In June 2014, the Luodong Forest District Office of the Forestry Bureau collaborated with renowned Taiwanese wilderness recordist Fan Chin-Hui (Laila Fan) to investigate and record the soundscapes of the Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area. After more than a year of recording the unique soundscape of each trail in Taipingshan, a “silent” area that was representative of Taiwan’s forests was found in the cypress forest along the Cueifong Lake Circular Trail in Taipingshan. With precise measurements using scientific instruments, the sound volume within the Ordovician tundra area of the Cueifong Lake Circular Trail was found to be only 25 decibels, closely resembling the state inside an anechoic chamber. From 2015 to 2017, a three-year soundscape data collection was started at the Ordovician tundra area of the Cueifong Lake Circular Trail through the use of scientific instruments (SM2) to record the soundscape at an interval of 5 minutes per hour. The sound recording files were made available to the public on the Asia Soundscape Platform. Since 2016, the Luodong Nature Education Center and the Luodong Forest District Office have been working together to launch an environmental education program on the theme of “Playing with Sound and Listening to the World”, so that people can learn to understand the impact and wonders of sound and learn to open up their senses beyond the visual. In 2018, Youth Cultural Enterprise Co., Ltd. published the picture book The Call of the Silent Trail, describing the origin and goal behind the first national Silent Trail in Taiwan. In the same year, with the American acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton in attendance, Cueifong Lake Circular Trail was christened the first national silent trail in Taiwan. The public was urged not to make noise, use loudspeakers, play music along the trail, or step on moss in order to continue to promote the concept of silent trails and soundscape conservation. Quiet Parks International (QPI) is an important international organization focusing on the care of silence. It was founded in 2019 by world-renowned wilderness recordist and acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton. The goal of QPI is “saving quiet for the benefit of all life.” By preserving the quiet, it preserves the original natural soundscape of the land, thereby conserving all life. QPI has divided the quiet places around the world into five categories: Urban Quiet Parks, Wilderness Quiet Parks, Quiet Trails, Quiet Stays, and Quiet Residences and Communities. It is the hope that people will protect the earth through the three core concepts of Listen, Learn, and Love. Nicholas McMahan, Director of QPI Quiet Trails, stated, “The establishment of the Taipingshan Quiet Trail is a milestone in the awakening of human beings to ecological awareness.” This is because only when our “heart” changes will the “ecosystem” change. On World Listening Day 2022, a series of global sound conservation activities were launched under the theme of “Listening Across Boundaries”. QPI also pointed out that while organizing the designation of the Taipingshan Silent Trail to become the world’s first internationally certified Quiet Trail, two other places in the world, the Niobrara River Wilderness Area in Nebraska, USA, and Haleakala National Park on Maui, Hawaii, will also follow suit as the first quiet trails in the USA. It is hoped that the quiet of Taipingshan will inspire the establishment of more Silent Trails in the future, to link Taiwan to the world and ensure that through the quiet, people will be able to hear and repair their connection with nature and the land and reconnect with themselves. ◎ Quiet Parks International website: https://www.quietparks.org/quiet-parks-international-award ◎ Introduction of the Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area Silent Trail (Chinese version): https://tps.forest.gov.tw/TPSWeb/wSite/lp?ctNode=372&mp=1&idPath=215_218_372 ◎ Introduction of the Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area Silent Trail (English version): https://tps.forest.gov.tw/TPSWeb/wSite/lp?ctNode=373&mp=2&idPath=290_359_373
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