Pioneering quiet
Fan says that Taipingshan’s Cueifong Lake Circular Trail will become the world’s first certified quiet trail when it obtains its own QPI certification in April of this year. Meanwhile, YMSNP is arranging listening experiences themed around wind, fire, water, earth and wood for other trails within the park. For example, the Xiaoyoukeng fumarole will offer visitors a chance to experience the Earth’s power by listening to “fire” via the sound of subterranean sulfur gas venting into the atmosphere.
The many kinds of flowing water found within the YMSNP’s Tianxiayuan Ecology Education Center include everything from a calm pool to a waterfall, and provide visitors opportunities for water listening experiences. Far from residential and office towers, one can immerse oneself in the natural setting and appreciate the many sounds water makes, such as the quiet drip of water falling from the tip of a leaf into a pond below. “When you can hear the sound of an individual raindrop, you have truly cleared your mind,” says Fan.
Rather than seeking simply to increase the number of Taiwan’s silent trails, Fan is constantly thinking about how to take things to another level, beyond international certification and themed listening experiences. She says that the next step is developing life aesthetics education in hopes of sparking new philosophical and spiritual ideas.
Taiwan is slowly shaping its own domestic model for soundscape preservation. When engaging in environmental conservation, Taiwan has always followed strategies developed in other countries. This time, we are in the vanguard, and the international community is seeing for itself how Taiwan speaks on behalf of silence.
It has been nearly a decade since Laila Fan’s wish stone started Taiwan on a path to silent trails. Now she speaks happily about sending her stone on to the next country to approve the creation of a quiet trail, in effect extending Taiwan’s silent footpaths out into the world beyond our island. She also wants to hold a fundraiser for Malaysia’s rainforests aimed at helping transform them into quiet wilderness parks and conserving local frog species. We sincerely hope that these dreams come to fruition, and that everyone walking one of Taiwan’s silent trails finds their way to their inner self.
Amid the ever-changing mists at Yangmingshan’s Menghuan Pond, hikers listen to the “song” of the land, an invitation sent out by Taiwan’s silent trails.