Wutai is a Rukai tribe stronghold. It comes from the Rukai language and means small village. Very appropriately, the Chinese characters used to write "Wutai" mean Fog Terrace, as, being up at an altitude of 900 meters, every afternoon a fog settles in.
「霧台」是魯凱話，原意為「小部落」，因為地處海拔九百公尺的山區，每到午後便開始起霧，譯為「霧台」倒也貼切，這裡是魯凱族的大本營。