Yilan City

Yilan City (宜蘭市) is the historic county seat and administrative center of Yilan County, originally serving as the seat of the Qing dynasty Kavalan Prefecture (噶瑪蘭廳) starting in 1812. It was subsequently fortified over the next several decades, initially with a bamboo thicket and later with a moat and four city gates. The city became an important center of Qing dynasty education and scholarship, home to the Dengying Academy (1863) and the residence of Yang Shifang, one of only approximately 35 Taiwanese to achieve the prestigious jinshi degree in the imperial examinations.

During the Japanese colonial period, Yilan became the administrative hub for the region with major government buildings including the county office (1906) and Yilan Theater (1930), while the post-war era saw the reconstruction of the Confucian Temple (1953) and preservation of heritage sites like Hualong No. 1 Village, which occupies the site of a former military camp inside the historical city walls.