Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of Hualien’s 2024 earthquake, the strongest to hit Taiwan since the 1999 Jiji earthquake. Within just a day, the earthquake dramatically altered Taroko National Park.
The Taroko National Park Headquarters teamed up with Taiwanese director Mai Jue-ming (麥覺明) to produce a documentary that includes scenes of the Hualien quake as well as footage showing efforts to repair damages to the park from the past year. The documentary premiered on the park’s YouTube channel at 7:58 a.m. April 3, the exact same time and date the earthquake struck last year.
Interpretation Education Section Chief for the park Chen Ku-lin (陳顧淋) said they aimed to not only showcase Taroko’s natural beauty, but also to inform viewers how they are making the park more resilient to natural disasters. Mai also interviewed members of the Truku indigenous tribe, who recalled how the initial earthquake, aftershocks, and continuous heavy rains and typhoons impeded the park’s restoration.