The Huatung Valley runs most of the length of Hualien and Taitung Counties, one of the longest rift valleys in East Asia. Guangfu occupies a central stretch, where the valley is wide enough to support intensive agriculture — sugar cane historically, and now fruit orchards, rice paddies, and specialty crops. Fourteen villages are spread across the township, home to a population of nearly 12,000 people, and the landscape between them is patterned farmland broken by rivers and tree lines. Provincial Highway No. 9, the main artery linking Hualien city to Taitung, runs through the township, giving it connectivity that some of its more isolated neighbors lack. The Taiwan Railway also serves the area, with Guangfu Station sitting at the edge of town — a small but functional stop on the line that hugs the valley.

Roughly half of Guangfu's population is Amis — Taiwan's largest indigenous group, with a long presence across the Huatung Valley. The Amis have been farmers, fishers, and forest people here for generations, and their culture marks the township in visible ways: in ceremonies held at village squares, in the architecture of community gathering spaces, in the foods grown and prepared by methods passed down within families. Agriculture is not just the township's economy; for the Amis, land is also lineage. The sugar factory that dominated the local economy for much of the twentieth century drew both indigenous and Han laborers, and the resulting community is mixed and layered — Amis traditions surviving alongside, and sometimes intertwined with, the township's more recent history.

In July 2001, Typhoon Toraji struck eastern Taiwan with unusual intensity. Guangfu was one of the two most severely affected areas in the entire country. Twenty-one people died in and around the township, and approximately thirty more were reported missing. Mudslides swept away bridges and mountain roads. Floodwaters carried houses from their foundations. The Agriculture Council of Taiwan estimated damage to land, livestock, and agricultural districts at around four million US dollars — a figure that does not capture what was lost beyond crops and infrastructure: neighbors, belonging, the ordinary rhythms of a farming community torn apart. Recovery was slow and uneven, as it often is in places that depend on terrain that is also capable of destroying them.

In July 2025, Tropical Storm Wipha triggered a massive landslide near Matai'an Creek, forming a barrier lake — a natural dam of debris-blocked water — in the mountains above Guangfu. For weeks the lake held. Then in late September 2025, as Typhoon Ragasa brought heavy rains, the barrier failed. Sixty million tonnes of water discharged from the lake's total volume of roughly 91 million tonnes, sending a wall of mud and floodwater down toward the valley floor. A bridge on Provincial Highway 9 was swept away; vehicles were carried off by the current. Flooding reached Guangfu, Fenglin, and Wanrong Townships. At least 19 people were killed across the affected area, 107 were injured, and six were missing. Around 5,200 residents — roughly 60 percent of Guangfu's population — were forced to shelter in the upper floors of their homes. Four thousand people lost access to water supply. Officials described what happened as 'a typhoon from the mountains.' The phrase captures something true: the disaster arrived not from the sky directly, but from the terrain itself, which had been storing catastrophe since July.

Guangfu has been remade by external forces more than once: colonial settlement, post-war renaming, typhoons, corruption scandals, and floods. In 2011, the sitting mayor was arrested for election fraud, accused of paying bribes of NT$1,000 per vote during the 2010 mayoral election; two other candidates faced charges as well. A by-election was held, and local governance continued. Communities absorb these disruptions differently than institutions do. The Amis families who have farmed and fished this valley for generations carry a longer memory than any single political moment. The sugar factory that defined the twentieth century is now a heritage site and tourist destination. The valley floor is still planted. The railway still stops here. Life in Guangfu insists on continuing.