Huaxie Greenhouse (花榭), Kenting National Forest Recreation Area (Hengchun Tropical Botanical Garden)

The Huaxie greenhouse stands in the former Hengchun Tropical Botanical Garden, now Kenting National Forest Recreation Area. According to the park's official page, the site was planned in 1901 as a nursery for tropical plants, the Japanese founded the Hengchun botanical garden there in 1906, and a forestry research branch station followed in 1921. After the war the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute took over the garden; in 1967 the Forestry Bureau redeveloped it as a tropical botanical garden before renaming it Kenting Forest Recreation Area.

The park's Facebook post says the greenhouse's present look dates mostly from a 2003 renovation and that its roof, damaged by a typhoon in 2018, had to be repaired without changing the building's appearance much. The TFRI press release of 1 July 2022 states that the greenhouse had been built to show shrubs and herbs that compete poorly in the wild; it belongs to the Pingtung Forest District Office.

Since late 2021 it has hosted the exhibitions of the TFRI's "ark" programme, launched in 2019 to shelter threatened native plants. The first, "ark within the ark", opened on 30 December 2021 with more than 50 species; the second wave, from 1 July to 31 December 2022, raised the number of southern-Taiwan species from 55 to 78.

The TFRI press release (1 July 2022) describes a "sloping" exhibition greenhouse able to regulate temperature by air extraction, to provide a stable water supply and to reproduce habitats that are alternately dry and wet; a zigzag path lets visitors observe the plants from several angles. The park's post gives its length as under 30 m; the OpenStreetMap outline, about 33 m by 15 m (nearly 500 m²), is slightly larger.

The photograph of the interior attached to the press release shows a roof of small transparent panes on a steel frame, hanging plant baskets, a walkway that looks like metal grating and, at the side, solid walls pierced by windows; one blog calls it a "glass house" resembling a greenhouse. The glass is read from the photograph.

The greenhouse gathers rare plants native to southern Taiwan. The 2021 exhibition showed more than 50 species of vascular plants in six zones imitating the ecosystems of the Hengchun peninsula, among them 小葉魚藤, the Hengchun camellia (恆春山茶) and 南臺灣黃芩. According to a 2022 article, the plants are placed by habitat: coastal species are at the entrance, and the altitude of origin rises as one goes in.

The TFRI speaks of more than 70 threatened species in the greenhouse, 17 of them extremely rare, known from a single site in Taiwan. A February 2023 article cites the fern 中華雙蓋蕨 and the herbaceous bamboo 囊稃竹, whose seeds, collected while its populations were declining, were kept in an "ark greenhouse" of the programme; the species could be replanted in its Guanshan habitat. The information plaques carry a QR code that opens notes on the plants.

The greenhouse stands right beside the park's visitor centre; according to the official page, the park is about ten minutes from Kenting's main street. A route suggested by a 2023 guide puts it after the visitor centre and before the flower beds, on a loop that continues to the sea-view tower (27 m high), the buttress roots of the silver-leaf tree (銀葉樹) and the fig garden (榕屬植物園).

The park is known for its forest on uplifted coral reef and for several caves. It can close in case of typhoon or heavy rain: on 13 July 2026 the press announced its reopening for the 14th after storm Bawei. The greenhouse's exhibitions have changed over the years; it is wise to check the park's page before visiting.