Lintianshan Forestry Culture Park (Morisaka)

Lintianshan (林田山), known as Morisaka (森坂, meaning 'densely forested slope') during the Japanese colonial period, is a former logging camp and sawmill complex located along the Wanli River in Fenglin Township, Hualien County, eastern Taiwan. It ranks among the most important forestry heritage sites in Taiwan and preserves one of the island's last intact Japanese-era logging villages.

Forestry operations at Lintianshan began in July 1918 with the East Taiwan Timber partnership (東台灣木材合資會社), reorganized in 1919 as the Hualien Harbor Timber Company (花蓮港木材株式會社), which commenced harvesting valuable hinoki cypress (扁柏) and red cypress (紅檜) from the surrounding mountains. However, low timber prices led to a halt in operations by 1934. Taiwan Xingye Company (台灣興業株式會社) then obtained a special concession from the Taiwan Governor-General's Office to resume logging (dated 1938 or 1939, depending on the source), and in 1939 the company established the Lintianshan Logging Office (林田山砍伐事業所) beside the Wanli River and began constructing an extensive infrastructure of railways, ropeways, and processing facilities.

During the Pacific War years (1941-1945), Lintianshan's timber production took on strategic importance as Japan's military demanded vast quantities of lumber for construction of military barracks, airfields, and fortifications across the Pacific theater. The wartime shortage of fuel and materials was so severe that at times ox-drawn carts had to substitute for locomotive-powered rail cars on the logging railway. Despite these hardships, the camp continued producing timber throughout the war.

Following Japan's surrender in 1945, the site was taken over by the Taiwan Province Recovery Committee and subsequently managed by Taiwan Paper Company, then by the Forestry Bureau. The logging settlement reached its peak around 1960, with over 2,000 workers and their families residing in 123 dormitories built on the hillside. The community was self-sufficient, with its own school, clinic, barbershop, and commissary. A devastating forest fire in 1972 burned for one month and destroyed over 1,000 hectares of forest. Logging operations gradually declined and ceased entirely in 1987–88 (sources give either year).

Today, Lintianshan Forestry Culture Park preserves a remarkable collection of Japanese-style wooden dormitories (日式宿舍群), the Zhongshan Hall (中山堂) that once served as the community theater, a forestry exhibition hall, and sections of the original narrow-gauge railway with preserved locomotives and rolling stock. The 34-kilometer logging railway that once connected to Wanrong Station is partially preserved with its tracks still visible along the valley. Some 60 households (about 150 people) of retired forestry workers and their families continue to live in the old dormitories, serving as living witnesses to the settlement's history. The site was officially designated a historical village by the Hualien County Cultural Affairs Bureau in 2006.