The northern suburbs of Hualien, many of which have nice, broad, tree-lined streets, belong it seems to XinCheng (新城, "new town") Township rather than Hualien (花蓮) City itself.
Xincheng dates from the 1870s when the top Qing official in Taiwan, Shen Bao-zhen (沈葆楨), had three roads constructed to connect the underdeveloped Hualien County to the rest of the island as part of Chinese attempts to civilize (subdue) Aborigines in the wake of the Mudan Incident (牡丹社事件).
Xincheng, near the north of the county, was the first "new town" to be developed.
In contrast, nearby Guangfu (光復, "Retrocession") was an Aboriginal township with a long history.
Since every household grew beans, the area was known as the hometown of bean growing, “Fataan” in the language of the Amis. This was transliterated into Hoklo Chinese as “馬太鞍”, and appeared in Qing dynasty texts under this and other Chinese names.
When the ROC administrators rolled into Hualien in 1945, they decided to upgrade the community to the level of township. As the first new township following the end of Japanese rule and the "retrocession" of Taiwan to Chinese rule, it was given the honor of being called "Retrocession”.
This was supposed to be a fish-of-the-day post, but was sidetracked to place-name history (another VftH obsession). Anyway, here's the same sign from Xincheng, but more "artistic" because VftH's chief photographer forgot to set the flash.
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