It’s that time of the year when the ginkgo forest at Xitou Nature Education Area in Nantou County offers up a spectacular display of autumn color. The leaves on over 80 massive trees in the park are already starting to turn a thrilling shade of yellow. Travelers from Taiwan and beyond are flocking to the park to get a glimpse of the show. Xitou, which boasts the biggest ginkgo forest in Southeast Asia, is always a big draw for tourists, many of whom come to take pictures of the changing colors.As the only surviving member of a family of non-flowering plants dating back 270 million years, the ginkgo tree is one of the best known “living fossils” of the plant world. Now, the ginkgos in Xitou are starting to turn a brilliant yellow, thanks to the recent arrival of a cold front.Chung Li-chanXitou Forest Area DirectorThey started to turn color last week, due to a new weather front in Taiwan together with certain rainfall conditions. The ginkgo trees in the park are now in turn shedding their yellow leaves. But because of the rain, we’re expecting a shortened window for looking at the yellow leaves, which should all have fallen off by around the end of the month. Administrators of the forest maintained by National Taiwan University indicated that a sufficient amount of rainfall this year had ensured that visitors to Xitou would be able to behold the autumn color in its full splendor.