Taipingshan Forestry District

Taipingshan Forestry District was one of three state-run forestry operations of the Japanese colonial era, alongside Alishan and Baxianshan, working the cypress forests above the Lanyang River (蘭陽溪) in Yilan County. Logging began in 1915 around Karayama (加羅山), now known as Old Taipingshan, where a Shinto shrine was built for the lumberjack settlement in 1918 and logs were floated downriver. Luodong Forest Railway (羅東森林鐵道) replaced the river route in January 1924, and the forestry office, log ponds, and sawmills moved with it to Luodong, on the site now occupied by Luodong Forestry Culture Park. Above the terminus at Tuchang a network of mountain tramways took over, linked from 1925 by aerial cableways, one line of which survives as Jianqing Huaigu Trail. Production shifted in 1937 to New Taipingshan, the present forest recreation area, and logging continued until 1982.