Hualien County

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Hualien County 花蓮縣
County
Top:Liyu Lake, Second left:A cigarette product house in Fenglin, Second right:Taroco Gorge in Cross Island Highway, Third left:Qixingtan Beach in Xincheng, Third right:Hualien Railroad Station, Bottom left:Cingshui Cliffs near Suhua Highway, Bottom right:A paddy field in Shoufeng, backyard in Central Mountain Range
Flag Logo
Coordinates: 23°58′34″N 121°36′17″E / 23.97611°N 121.60472°E / 23.97611; 121.60472
Country	Republic of China (Taiwan)
Region	Eastern Taiwan
Seat	Hualien City
Largest city	Hualien City
Boroughs	1 cities, 12 (2 urban, 10 rural) townships
Government
• County Magistrate	Hsu Chen-wei (KMT)
Area
• Total	4,628.5714 km2 (1,787.1014 sq mi)
• Rank	1 of 22
Population  (March 2023)
• Total	318,736[1]
• Rank	20 of 22
Time zone	UTC+8 (National Standard Time)
ISO 3166 code	TW-HUA
Website	www.hl.gov.tw
Symbols
Bird	Maroon Oriole (Oriolus traillii)
Flower	Lotus (Nymphaeaceae)
Tree	Peepul (Ficus religiosa)

Hualien County (Mandarin Wade–Giles: Hua¹-lien² Hsien⁴; Pīnyīn: Huālián Xiàn; Hokkien POJ: Hoa-lian-koān or Hoa-liân-koān; Hakka PFS: Fâ-lièn-yen; Amis: Kalingko) is a county on the east coast of Taiwan. It is Taiwan's largest county by area, yet due to its mountainous terrain, has one of the lowest populations in the country. The county seat and largest city is Hualien City. Hualien County is located in the eastern part of Taiwan; the Pacific Ocean is to its east and the Central Mountain Range is to its west. Hualien is the largest county in Taiwan in terms of area, with a long, narrow and mountainous terrain.

Most of the population resides in the Huadong Valley, which runs north to south, sandwiched between the Central and Hai'an mountain ranges. Due to the rural nature of the county, Hualien attracts many visitors for its natural environment, which includes Taroko Gorge, Qingshui Cliff and Qixingtan Beach.

Much of the modern-day Hualien County was populated by the Sakizaya people prior to the arrival of the Spanish, Dutch and Han Chinese, who later joined the Qing. The region was renamed Karenkō Prefecture in 1895 during Japanese colonial rule. After the end of World War II, the Republic of China, established in 1911 after the fall of the Qing, took control of Taiwan and re-organized the former Karenkō Prefecture as Hualien County of Taiwan Province in 1945. Taiwan Province would later be downsized in 1998 and Hualien County became directly governed by the Executive Yuan.

As of February 2023, Hualien's organic cultivation area has reached 3,175 hectares, and the organic cultivation area is the largest in the country, accounting for 23% of the total area. Hualien is the largest organic agricultural production base in Taiwan.^[2]