Diu Diu Dang Forest Park: Yilan Travel Guide (4.2★)

How this guide was made: Editor-reviewed, AI-assisted. Facts are pulled from live Google Places data; images are licensed or public domain. See our editorial policy.

Why go

You step out of Yilan Train Station and the first thing that catches your eye is metal, not foliage. Dozens of steel trunks fan out overhead, branching into a canopy that throws slatted shadows across the pavement. It’s not a park in the leafy sense — it’s an industrial sculpture doing an impression of a forest, and it works.

Look up and you’ll spot the star attraction: a small train, seemingly mid-flight, threaded through the branches on hidden rails. It’s a nod to “Diu Diu Dang,” a folk song about the old railway line, and to illustrator Jimmy Liao, whose whimsical picture books are a point of local pride in Yilan.

Getting there

The park sits right outside Yilan Train Station’s front plaza, on Yixing Road. If you arrive by train from Taipei — about 1.5 to 2 hours depending on the service — you’ll walk into it within a minute of exiting the station.

Driving in, look for parking near Section 1, Yixing Road, in Daxin Village. Buses from Taipei’s Songshan or Zhongxiao bus stations also drop you within easy walking distance of the plaza.

What to see and do

This isn’t a place that needs hours — think of it as a striking pause rather than a destination in itself.

• Walk the length of the canopy to see how the “branches” interlock overhead.
• Find the suspended train and trace its track through the steel trees.
• Look for small Jimmy Liao-inspired details worked into the structure and nearby signage.
• Use it as a photo stop before heading into Yilan’s night market or old streets.

Because it’s an open, unticketed plaza rather than an enclosed park, most visitors fold it into a walk between the station and downtown Yilan rather than treating it as a standalone outing.

When to go

The park is open 24 hours every day, which gives you real flexibility. That also means lighting changes the mood entirely — daylight shows off the engineering of the steel canopy, while evening lets the structure’s lines stand out against the sky and any built-in lighting.

Weekends get busy between 7am and 6pm, when day-trippers pass through the station in waves. If you want the plaza closer to empty for photos, aim for a weekday morning or after dinner, once the tour groups have thinned out.

How to visit like a local

Locals treat this less as an attraction to plan around and more as scenery they pass through on the way somewhere else — the train station, the old streets, or the night market a short walk away. Take the same approach.

• Timing: avoid the 7am–6pm weekend crush; a weekday or an evening pass gets you a quieter plaza.
• Duration: 15-20 minutes is enough unless you’re taking photos.
• Cost: it’s a free public plaza — there’s no ticket booth and no gate.
• Etiquette: it’s a functional transit forecourt as much as a sculpture park, so keep walkways clear for commuters with luggage.
• Mistake to avoid: don’t build a whole afternoon around it. It’s small, and visitors who expect a full-scale amusement park (its official category, oddly enough) often leave underwhelmed if they haven’t paired it with the surrounding area.

Combine your visit with Yilan’s covered old street markets or a short taxi ride to the Luodong area, both popular ways locals and visitors alike stretch a station stopover into a half-day out.

Good to know before you go

Since it’s an outdoor public space with no posted hours, there’s nothing to book and no admission to budget for — just show up. The main variable is comfort: midday sun bounces off the steel canopy in summer, so bring water and sun protection if you’re stopping at peak day heat rather than in the cooler morning or evening hours.