Cuifeng Lake Circular Trail, Taiwan, was Awarded the World’s First Quiet Trail Status on July 18, 2022 - World Listening Day
Cuifeng Lake Circular Trail, the world’s first Quiet Trail, is located around the Cuifeng Lake between Taiping Mountain and Dayuan Mountain in Yilan County. It is the largest alpine lake in Taiwan.
The surrounding cypress forest is lush, humid, and covered with thick moss, which acts like a layer of natural sound-absorbing foam. As a result, it feels like a natural audio control room. Far from the hubbub of human-caused noise, the lowest measured volume is fewer than 25 decibels, which is almost silent.
In 2018, the first national ‘Silent Trail’ was established around Cuifeng Lake, allowing tourists who walk on this trail to experience the “sonic landscape” through deep listening. This act helped preserve this piece of forest.
The non-profit organization Quiet Parks International (QPI) officially awarded Taiwan’s Taiping Mountain Cuifeng Lake Circular Trail as the world’s first Quiet Trail on July 18, 2022, World Listening Day.
The ceremony began with the prayers and performances by the Hagaparis tribe of the Atayal People (pronounced “Tayal”), a Taiwanese indigenous group from Nan’ao Township. The Cuifeng Lake forest area was the traditional hunting grounds for the Hagaparis. Through deep listening and reciprocity, indigenous people have coexisted and flourished in harmony with the natural world for many generations.
The ceremony was completed when QPI representatives awarded Taiping Mountain Cuifeng Lake Circular Trail the world’s first quiet trail status.
According to the Forestry Bureau, the Cuifeng Lake Mountain Trail was built along the route of the old freight track that circled around Cuifeng Lake. On this trail, visitors can enjoy Cuifeng Lake up close. The trail is 3.95 kilometers long, and is the longest trail in the Taiping Mountain National Forest Recreation Area. The trail is frequented by tourists, but many turn back at the end of the 300 meter wooden walkway. The thinning crowd preserves the natural silence of the trail, and the actual ‘Quiet Mountain Trail’ section is designated between mileage markers 2.2km and 3.7km.
In June 2014, the Forestry Bureau’s Luodong Forest Area Management Office began working with Fan Chin-Hui (Laila Fan) - a well-known Taiwanese field recordist - to conduct on-site investigation and recording of the Taiping Mountain National Forest Recreation Area soundscape. Fieldwork continued for over one year, and the representative office for Taiwan’s Forest Silence was founded.
Photo credit: Quiet Parks International, Laila Fan/Soundscape Association of Taiwan
Over a three year period from 2015–2017, precision scientific instruments were used to record the Ordovician tundra area of the Cuifeng Lake Trail for five minutes every hour. It was found that the quietest of these recordings did not exceed the 25dB, which qualifies the area under QPI’s standards for designating the area as a certifiable quiet trail. These soundscape recordings are archived and open to public inquiries.
Since 2016, Luodong Nature Education Center and Luodong Forest Management Office have jointly launched an environmental education course with the theme Playing with Sound and Listening to the World so that the public can learn to understand the influence and magic of sound by opening up all of our senses.
In 2018, Young Lion Publishing House published the picture book The Call of the Silent Mountain Trail, describing how the dream of Taiwan’s first national ‘Silent Mountain Trail’ came to life. In the same year, the first silent mountain trail in the country was established.
At the ceremony, world-renowned American field recordist and acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton encouraged the public not to play music and not to step on the moss in order to preserve the natural quiet and spirit of the ‘Silent Mountain Trail’.
About QPI
Quiet Parks International, a non-profit organisation based in Los Angeles, is on a mission to save quiet for the benefit of all life. Preserving natural quiet means preserving the natural soundscape that originally belonged to the land, thereby preserving natural life and habitat on that land.
QPI divides the world’s quiet areas into five categories: urban quiet parks, wilderness quiet parks, quiet trails, quiet stays, and quiet residences and communities. It is hoped that people will protect this land by observing the three core concepts of Listen, Learn, and Love.
Nicholas McMahan, director of QPI Quiet Trails, pointed out: “The Taipingshan National Forest Quiet Trail is a step furthering humanity’s ecological awareness; an opportunity to reflect within the natural world that surrounds us. Let the forest grow and the voice of nature sing. Walk peacefully on a silent path and listen to the earth around.”
On World Listening Day 2022, a series of sound conservation activities will be launched around the world with the theme of ‘Listening Across Boundaries’. QPI’s certification of Taipingshan Cuifeng Lake Circular Trail will mark the world’s first certified quiet trail. This occasion will set the stage for the establishment of more certified quiet trails within Taiwan and around the world, such as in the Niobrara River Wilderness Area in Nebraska, USA, and Haleakala National Park, on the island of Maui. It is our hope that the quiet trail of Taiping Mountain can conserve natural soundscapes and environments, connect people with nature, and bring them to connect even more deeply with themselves.
Press Contact
Gordon Hempton, Executive Director of Media Affairs, gordon@quietparks.org, cell +1-360-477-9588, Skype ID quiet.planet1