Lintian Mountain Forestry Center

On our first full morning, we drove to the Lintian Mountain Forestry Center, a large forest that used to be filled with cypress trees but was used for lumbering by the Japanese during the 1920s. Most of the cypress trees have been cut down but the forestry center is still very beautiful and interesting to walk around.

The forestry center became a town because they were exporting so much cypress from Taiwan to Japan that they needed workers and their families to live there. The area has a dormitory, a clinic, a welfare center, a rice store, a grocery store, a laundry, a barbershop, a fire department, a kindergarten and an elementary school, all of which you can walk through during your visit. It’s free to visit and worth a morning tour – get more information here.

This house was made of cypress and still had a faint smell of the cypress tree, even though the house was build in the early 1900’s:

These railways were built specifically for transporting cypress trees out of this area:

Here’s part of the town:

We walked around the cypress town and ate lunch in the area, too. The dormitories still have some of the artifacts from the people that lived there. My mom recognized some of the records and artists that the cypress workers listened to, too!

After our lunch, we took a long drive along the coast – more tomorrow!