Lintianshan Forestry Village

Lintianshan was built in the 1930s as a complete company town for a logging operation: rows of cypress dormitories for the workers, a school, a hospital, a shop, a cinema, a bathhouse and an ice store, with a rail incline hauling timber down from the mountain. Logging stopped in the 1980s and the town emptied, and it has since been restored as a heritage site with the buildings kept as they were and some open to walk through.

What you actually see

• The timber dormitories - rows of cypress worker housing from the 1930s.
• The company buildings - the cinema, shop, bathhouse and clinic of a complete town.
• The rail incline - the haulage line that brought timber down from the mountain.
• The ice store - the preserved cold store the town depended on.

When to go

Year round; buildings keep set hours and some close on weekdays. Weekends bring visitors from Hualien. Summer is hot and humid.

Honest expectations

Several buildings are viewed only from outside. Interpretation is mostly in Mandarin. The site is quiet to the point of feeling empty on weekdays, which some like and others do not.

Nearby

Mataian is southwest, and Hualien city is north.