Aiyu Mountain Forest Road 阿玉山林道, Xikeng Forest Road 西坑林道. Tonghou Forest Road 桶後林道 and Neidong Forest Road 內洞林道 are forest roads of southern Taipei county which were all originally developed to facilitate extraction of timber. In July of 1989, the National Forest Bureau was restructured from a business organization into a public agency. Since then, the bureau no longer harvests trees for revenue. In the same year, it announced a ban on logging conifers 針葉一級木 (specifically the five trees: Taiwan Red Cypress or Formosan cypress 紅檜 (hóng kuaì) Chamaecyparis formosensis, Japanese cypress or Hinoki cypress 扁柏 (biǎn bo) Chamaecyparis obtusa, Taiwania 台灣杉 (tái wān shān) Taiwania cryptomerioides, Taiwan cunninghamia 香杉 (xiāng shān) Cunninghamia konishii, and Taiwan Incense-cedar 台灣肖楠 (tái wān xiào nán) Calocedrus formosana), bringing to an end large scale logging on Taiwan which had started in 1912, lasting over 70 years. Credit for this sea-change in national policy should include hiker and photojournalist's Lai Chun-piao 賴春標's exposé of the rapacious lumber industry and ancillary illegal farming in the cleared land that he witnessed on trips to Cicai Lake and Danda Road in 1987. His reporting brought to public attention the logging industry in a series of revelatory essays in RenJian Magazine 人間雜誌. Following the ban, Taiwan's forest road became access paths for tourists, hikers, hunters and mountain rats, memorializing decades of exploitation of the natural environment, mostly hidden from the public. In 2019, Taiwan’s 81 Forest Roads were officially opened to the public. Administrative control of some of these roads, including Neidong Forest Road 內洞林道, was transferred to local indigenous government.
Neidong Forest Road 內洞林道 starts behind Xiaoyi Police station 孝義派出所 (formerly 烏玉檢查所 Wu-ai Police Station) on Tonghou Forest Road 桶後林道 a few kilometers east of Wulai 烏來. The road has a cement surface until 3.4k where the road forks to the west and east. Continuing on the right fork to the east on the main road the surface is now gravel. A path from Laka village comes up at 4.5k onto the forest road. At 4.7k there is a usually open steel gate near the trailhead to Lapu mountain 拉璞山. We drive in and park at about 5k. There is a barrier on the road blocking continued car passage at about 6.5k There is a small path down to the upper cable car station (Yun Hsien Hotel 雲仙樂園雲仙大飯店) at 7.45k. We turn around at the 10.5 k mark. At the 12.3 km mark on the 15.8 km long Neidong Forest Road 內洞林道 a trail from Wawagu and Neidong Falls tourist area 內洞國家森林遊樂區 comes up to the road. Neidong Forest Road crosses three drainages that flow to the west contributing to the Nanshi River 南勢溪, first Wulai Stream 烏來溪 which flows through Yun Hsien Resort 雲仙樂園 before becoming Wulai Waterfall 烏來瀑布, Shanyangdong Stream 山羊洞溪 ("Mountain Goat Cave Stream") and then the largest, Neidong Stream 內洞溪 which drains the upper reaches of the valley before plunging through Neidong Waterfall 內洞瀑布 before joining Nanshi River 南勢溪.
