The Cuifeng Lake Mountain Trail is a beautiful hiking path in the high mountains of Yilan County. This week the trail was recognized by international non-profit Quiet Parks International as the world’s first “quiet trail.”
The trail surrounds Taiwan’s highest alpine lake. It is found deep in the mountains of Yilan county within the Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area. The lake is about 1,800 meters above sea level. The trail itself is built along the route of an old freight track that was used when the area was a hotspot for logging. The trail today is almost four kilometers long.
While many tourists visit the lake, the majority of the trail itself sees few visitors. It’s because of this that Quiet Parks has designated the section between the mileage markers 2.2km to 3.7km as the “Quiet Mountain Trail.”
What keeps the trail especially quiet is the cypress forest surrounding it. That forest is lush, humid, and covered with thick moss, which act like natural sound absorbers. This means that the quietest sound consistently recorded on the trail is below 25 decibels, which is almost silent. The trail was designated a national quiet trail in 2018. But in 2014 the local forest bureau had already started working with well-known field recordist Laila Fan to investigate the area.
The trail was officially awarded its designation in a ceremony on July 18, which is World Listening Day. The ceremony included performances from local indigenous Atayal people. The performance showed how indigenous people have coexisted with and flourished in harmony with the natural world through deep listening and reciprocity. Speaking at the ceremony, Forestry Bureau chief Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said having the trail recognized for its natural silence was particularly meaningful in a small and densely-populated island nation like Taiwan.