Xitou Nature Education Area or Xitou Bamboo Forest () is a forest park in Lugu Village,

Lugu Township Lugu Township () is a rural township located in the southwest of Nantou County, Taiwan. Lugu is known as the home of Dongding Oolong Tea, which was first cultivated on Dong Ding Mountain in the area. Administrative divisions Lugu, Zhangya, Gu ...

Nantou County Nantou County (; Hokkien POJ: ''Lâm-tâu-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Nàm-thèu-yen'') is the second largest county of Taiwan by area, located in the central part of the country. It is also the only non-coastal county in Taiwan. Its name derives fro ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Name

''Xitou'' is derived from a Chinese word with the meaning of the origin of river.

History

During the

Japanese rule of Taiwan The island of Taiwan, together with the Penghu Islands, became a dependency of Japan in 1895, when the Qing dynasty ceded Fujian-Taiwan Province in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. The shor ...

, the forest was used as an experimental forest for

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

students. Later after the handover of Taiwan from Japan to the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

in 1945, the forest was declared a nature reserve and named Xitou Nature Education Area in 1970. On 11 September 2016, a 2,800-year old giant tree fell after long heavy rain, injuring three visitors.

Geography

The forest is located within a valley of mountain on its three sides and consists of many bamboos. It also has

Ginkgo biloba ''Ginkgo biloba'', commonly known as ginkgo or gingko ( ), also known as the maidenhair tree, is a species of tree native to China. It is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales, which first appeared over 290 million years ago. Fossils ...

garden. It is located at an average altitude of 1,150 meters above sea level and spans over an area of 2,500 hectares. The highest mountain peak within the forest reaches 2,025 meters above sea level, which is Mount Lingtou. It has a cool climate all year round with average monthly temperature ranges from 11-28°C and average monthly of 16.6°C. The average annual rainfall is 2,635.18 mm. The forest is home to more than 70 species of bird.

Facilities

The forest features many hiking trails and pavements, 22.6-meter high and 180-meter long skywalk through canopies and observatory at a height of more than 2,000 meters above sea level. It also provides electric cars rental, shops, Vacation Forest Natural Ecology Exhibition Center, tourist service center, restaurant and hotel.

Activities

The main objective of the forest is the promotion of natural education of nursing natural ecology. The forest is part of experimental forest belongs to

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served d ...

Transportation

The forest is accessible by bus from

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Taiw ...

Caotun Township Caotun Township, formerly transliterated as Tsaotun Township, is an urban township in the northwest of Nantou County, Taiwan. It is the largest township in Taiwan by population. History The area was historically known as ''Chháu-ê-tun'' () wi ...

Nantou City Nantou City (Mandarin Pīnyīn: ''Nántóu Shì''; Hokkien POJ: ''Lâm-tâu-chhī'') is a county-administered city located in the northwest of Nantou County, Taiwan. It lies between the Bagua Mountains and the Maoluo River and is the county ...

, Zhushan Township and Douliu City.

References

{{commons category 1970 establishments in Taiwan Parks in Taiwan Geography of Nantou County Tourist attractions in Nantou County