Yangmingshan National Park, the world's first silent urban park
Located in the north of the Taiwan Island, the Yangmingshan National Park has been named the world's first quiet urban park by Quiet Parks International (QPI), a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization whose goal is to preserve spaces of silence (#SaveQuiet).
"The Soundscape Association of Taiwan , founded and directed by Laila Fan, contacted us so that we could recognize the work they have been doing for more than a decade, ”she tells Traveler.es Gordon Hempton, co-founder of QPI.
"This award is simply a formality that the government and citizens, through joint efforts, have wanted to achieve in order to obtain a worldwide recognition of its commitment to cultural values that have benefits for natural life”, Hempton explains why the QPI recognized Yangmingshan National Park as the world's first quiet urban park.
from the QPI they assume that a silent urban park will never have a complete absence of noise pollution, since, due to their location in a city, they cannot avoid, for example, the background noise of the means of transport. Yes they wait, instead, that what predominates is the sound of nature, that rustling of the leaves, the different songs of the birds or, even, the pleasure of being able to hear our own footsteps.
This is the case of the Yangmingshan National Park which, located near the metropolitan area of Taipei with its seven million inhabitants, It usually receives about four million visitors a year since 2011.
And it is that any time of the year has its time for this park to be a good destination. spring with bloom as a claim; summer and its high temperatures, which cause part of the Menghuan Pond lake to dry up, allowing contemplate the Isoetes taiwanensis, an endemic plant of the country; autumn, ideal for lovers of photograph sunsets; and winter, when the fog loses height and makes the landscape mysterious.
How long has it been since you tried to be quiet in nature?
“With lush forests, icy springs, and the natural sounds of birds and insects along the way, Yangmingshan is a wonderland that can help cleanse our body, clear our mind... The world is facing a pandemic crisis this year. We need to pay attention to our physical and mental health, learn to listen to Mother Nature”, explains Laila Fan, in statements collected on the QPI website.
In addition to this, when determining whether an urban park can obtain quiet status, the QPI takes into account what the culture of the place you are in considers quiet, in such a way that visiting an Urban Quiet Park always supposes a different experience depending on the country in which it is located.
Yangmingshan National Park has been the first and the organization hopes that in the next decade up to 50 parks will join this list. At the moment, names are already sounding in Stockholm, New York, London or Portland.
“Anyone can fill out the form on our website and every nomination is taken very seriously. First, it is evaluated with remote data (via satellite) available on the internet and, later, if the initial investigation is favorable, our team studies it on the ground” , tells us Hempton, who adds that the process can take a year, between the nomination and the award, having to raise funds to make the trip.
Currently Quiet Parks International does not only focus on urban parks, but also It also works with natural spaces, marine areas, trails and ranches.
In silent urban parks, what should predominate is the sound of nature
“Each of these guys has to meet slightly different criteria for describing the sense of silence that various cultures have historically recognized and has been applied in different contexts. All of our criteria are multi-sensory and not just about sound,” Hempton clarifies.
For example, In the case of natural spaces, they are asked to offer prolonged periods of time in which sounds caused by human beings are not heard. and that there are no situations that are out of place, such as gunshots or low-flying planes. For now, do it the Zabalo river (Ecuador), although there are 262 potential candidates scattered around the world. Among them, one Spanish: Doñana National Park.
And with all this, several questions in mind. Isn't it counterproductive to highlight the silence of a place? How do you strike a balance between the visitors these nominations attract and the calm status?
“When we award a park, the status of Quiet Park increases the probability that this place will remain silent because a context is generated, a way of behaving for all those who want to enter the place. Cathedrals are a good example of context: nobody walks into a cathedral and starts screaming. I have been to a remote valley with over 1,000 people and it was still a quiet place where wildlife was not disturbed,” Hempton concludes.
Autumn in Yangmingshan National Park paints in sunsets