Xibao Elementary School

Xibao Elementary is unlike any other school in Taiwan: it is the only elementary school located inside a national park, sitting deep within Taroko National Park along the historic Central Cross-Island Highway. It began in 1963 as a branch school serving the children of retired veterans who had helped build the highway through the gorge, alongside local Truku children — and became independent in 1997 as the "Xibao Forest Experimental Elementary School," Taiwan's first in-system public forest school. With roughly 59 students and staff, the campus experienced a moment of real vulnerability during the April 2024 Hualien earthquake, when it was briefly isolated by landslides and rockfall before being safely evacuated — a vivid reminder of how remote and exposed this mountain school truly is.

西寶國小在全台獨一無二：它是唯一一所座落於國家公園內的國小，深藏在太魯閣國家公園境內的中橫公路沿線。學校於1963年以分校形式創立，最初服務參與中橫公路開闢的退伍老兵子女，以及當地太魯閣族兒童；1997年獨立設校，正式定名「西寶國小」（森林實驗小學），成為台灣第一所體制內的公立森林小學。全校師生約59人，在2024年4月花蓮大地震期間曾一度因坍方與落石而遭孤立，所幸最終平安撤離——這也生動提醒著這所山中學校所處位置的偏遠與脆弱。