The concept of a cultural landscape as a cultural heritage artifact provides ample room for imagination. Some say that the cultural landscape, as defined in the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, could be just about anything. By contrast, other forms of cultural heritage, such as monuments and historic buildings, are intuitively understood and identified by most people. The concept of cultural landscape is like the air: without knowing a specific definition, people have a hard time seeing it.

Cultural landscapes can be defined as specific spaces and environments shaped by myths, traditions, sagas, historical incidents, religious life or ceremonial activities.

Going by the literal meaning of the definition, for the cultural landscape to be a cultural heritage artifact, there must be a process of study and identification of cultural factors that shaped it. Things that on the surface do not attract any attention can constitute cultural heritage.

A cultural landscape could be the agricultural landscape common to all Hakka villages: paddy fields, mountain fields, vegetable, tea and fruit gardens, and irrigation facilities made up of ditches, walls, ponds, watersheds, reservoirs. All these are part of the cultural landscape shaped by the Hakka lifestyle. We could say that as the result of the Hakka lifestyle and production methods, the surface of the earth has changed, giving rise to a specific cultural landscape.

Take Zhubei City in Hsinchu, which is located on an alluvial plain where the Touqian and Fengshan rivers meet. It sits at the center of what is traditionally known as the Six Lineage area. According to Lin Family oral tradition, their ancestors had perceived the area as a “wasteland,” even though the original indigenous inhabitants had fished and hunted the land. After two hundred years of development, the Lin Family and other Hakka inhabitants turned the area into the "Hsinchu rice granary." This new topography is what we could call a Hsinchu Hakka cultural landscape.

Another example is the oldest Hakka-inhabited area in the Six Lineage village: Historic home six groups (六家林氏古厝群). The Lin Family has a very clear historical oral tradition detailing the cultural landscape here. Although the inhabited area was small, it had its own eastern, southern and western gates. Outside the eastern gate, there was a field for horse riding and archery that was used by those preparing for military exams. The Lins’ oral tradition, the area is referred to as "horse race alley." Although the topography looks vastly different today, it still holds profound value in the memory of locals and in their oral history. As it is a historical site, we may also call it a cultural landscape.

Another Hakka experience of the past was deeply entwined with working in mountain forests, in government as well as privately owned wooded areas, and logging roads. Hakka people would serve in every related occupation in such landscapes: on pastures; on farms, raising birds and domestic animals; and at fishing ports, fish ponds, fish farms, stone fish traps. In the north of Taiwan, the Hakka had experience in minerals and mining, working with kilns, coal mines, oil pits. In more recent times, they have worked in power plants, sand and gravel pits, and industrial science parks. In the Taiwan Railways Administration, the Hakkas are represented in significant numbers—an ethnic phenomenon unique to the point that Hakka TV produced “Love of the Old Mountain Line,” a TV series describing the life of the Hakkas "on the rails.” Hakkas were late to arrive in the Taipei urban districts, but they are regularly present in fresh produce markets, fish markets, general markets and night markets. If a Hakka patron uses the Hakka dialect when shopping at a stall run by a fellow Hakka, a discount is usually in the offing.

With the establishment of the Hakka Affairs Council, government assistance became available for Hakka cultural installations throughout the country, leading to the emergence of a great many elements of the Hakka cultural landscape, such as parks, courtyards, athletic fields, tourist spots, museums, art galleries, art museums and Hakka academies.