壽豐鄉 · Nature & Scenery

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Chinan Nature Education Center

Step into the forest time capsule of Hualien’s forestry heritage and experience the beauty of a low-elevation forest landscape and waterside scenery while practicing an eco-friendly way of life. Located inside Chinan National Forest Recreation Area, this site lies in a fault valley between the Central Mountain Range and the Coastal Mountain Range. The nearby Liyu Mountain forest remains largely intact, and the waters around Liyu Lake have nurtured rich plant and animal life. In its early days, the area served as a timber production and transshipment station, and traces of that forestry history can still be seen throughout the site, preserving a lasting memory of the industry.

Chinan National Forest Recreation Area

壽豐鄉 · Nature & Scenery

If you are interested in history, Chinan National Forest Recreation Area is a place you should not miss: an old locomotive, logging machinery, and countless historical artifacts and old photographs in the Forestry Exhibition Hall are preserved in this small park on the shore of Liyu Lake in Hualien, making it feel like a snapshot of the 1960s. Chinan is one of the three legendary sites in Hualien’s forestry history and the starting point of the Halun mountain logging railway. Beginning in 1930, it was planned by the Japanese and expanded by the Republic of China government, creating a forestry railway empire in Hualien that stretched nearly 50 kilometers. After all logging was banned in 1989, the remote Halun work station was shut down and became isolated from the outside world; only Chinan Transfer Station was preserved and transformed into a forest recreation area, allowing visitors to remember this era of forestry. Beyond its history, Chinan’s forest is mainly made up of mulberry and camphor trees, mixed with plantation species such as Formosan ash, and the endemic brown-eared bulbul of eastern Taiwan is often seen here, making it a great place to connect with nature. At Chinan National Forest Recreation Area, you can enjoy forest bathing in an atmosphere shaped by history and understand how forestry management has changed and what lies ahead under different historical circumstances.