Hualien City

Hualien City (花蓮市), with a population of slightly more than 100,000, is the administrative center and largest city in Hualien. It is the gateway to Taroko National Park and the many wonders of the Huadong Valley, but also a destination of its own, with a dense layer of Japanese colonial era heritage. Pine Garden (松園別館), a hilltop officers’ villa overlooking the port, is among the best-preserved, while the Martyrs’ Shrine on Meilunshan (美崙山), a former Shinto shrine (花蓮港神社), overlooks much of the city. A former brewery now operates as the Cultural and Creative Industries Park (花蓮文化創意產業園區), and several heritage buildings associated with the Port Forestry Institute (花蓮港山林事業所) speak to the region’s forestry heritage. Further north, the Dachen New Village (大陳新村) is the largest community of islanders evacuated from the Dachen Islands during the First Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1955.