Songyuan Bieguan Introduction
Songyuan Villa was built around 1943 and was once the office of the Military Affairs Department in Hualien Harbor. Together with the nearby broadcasting station (now the Chung Kuo Broadcasting Company Hualien Station), the coastal radio station (now Chunghwa Telecom), and the waterworks (now the Meilun Water Purification Plant), it formed a dense area of pine trees. Due to its vantage point directly overlooking the beautiful confluence of the Meilun River and the Pacific Ocean, it holds a natural strategic advantage, allowing a view of the river mouth, Hualien Harbor, and the ocean, as well as easy monitoring of vessels on the southern coastal waters and planes taking off and landing at the southern airport. The dense pine shade provided a canopy-like protection, making it an important military command center for the Japanese army in Hualien. After the war, the location was taken over by the Nationalist Government military and served as a leisure retreat for the American military advisory group. It was later managed by the Veterans Affairs Commission of the Executive Yuan. In 2000, the Hualien County Government designated Songyuan as a "Historical and Cultural Preservation Area," and in 2001, it was selected as one of the trial sites for the "Reuse of Idle Spaces" by the Cultural Affairs Council, as well as being listed among "Taiwan's Hundred Historical Landscapes."
