After Sanhe Borough Chief Hsieh Jin-Chi made it his mission to better educate local youth about their hometown, Sanhe has seen a marked revitalisation, more happiness and harmony. Thanks to Hsieh’s decade of work as a community builder, children today can be found enjoying nature and playing in the woods. Sometimes they run up to Hsieh and ask, “What kind of tree is this? How do you climb it?”
Remaking a Hometown of Dreams
Before Hsieh Jin-Chi returned to Sanhe to serve as borough chief in 2005, he had seen how factories had sprung up all over his hometown while the rice paddies were left abandoned. The scene was hard for him to bear: “When I heard people saying we only had chicken coops and pigsties left in Sanhe, I really felt like crying.” But he never gave up hope. “I knew I had to do something to make a change, so future generations could have that hometown of their dreams.”
Hsieh sought to bring back Sanhe’s once-beautiful landscape as it was in the 1940s and 50s, to revive the borough’s lost beauty. Before he could achieve this, however, he would have to change the local way of thinking about community, creating a new vision for the area’s future development and tourism industry. He devised a plan around two major strategies: managing cultivation and restoring the landscape.
Baigong Workshop — The Resurgence of Hakka Traditions
Managing cultivation in Sanhe proved a major task. First, Hsieh proposed an end to the use of herbicides in exchange for the manual tending of crops, aided by using stones and native plants to help restore the local ecosystem. He also worked with two major electronics manufacturers in the area, AU Optronics and Chunghwa Picture Tubes, requiring their plants to meet new regulations on dumping in the nearby Hsiaoli Creek. He set zero-waste water release goals and worked with the manufacturing plants to implement environmentally friendly recycling practices. Eventually Sanhe saw the return of clean and clear water to Hsiaoli Creek.
Hsieh’s other initiatives focused on the creation of new opportunities for local young people, so that they could return to Sanhe and find work on farms or in other trades. A key aspect of this was the creation of the Baigong Workshop, which provides courses tailored to the local community. For one such programme, master bamboo weaver Liu Yun-Chuan and his daughter-in-law Huang Sha-Li were invited to teach traditional Hakka bamboo weaving techniques and share the true meaning behind the motif of bamboo in mozhu art.
In recent years, there has also been a strong resurgence in practitioners of wood-fired pottery in the woki tradition, which had once made Sanhe famous in Taiwan. Today there is even a cultural and creative park dedicated to woki pottery, which has become a central hub of the ceramic arts scene in Northern Taiwan. The park not only draws large crowds who come for exhibitions and events, it also provides a communal space for ceramic artists who can take advantage of the park’s resources and collaborate with other ceramic artists.
Managing cultivation has also had implications for the Sanhe landscape as a whole, and the borough has become a living classroom for learning about local ecology and methods of land cultivation. For example, there has been a revival in the use of a traditional type of embankment known as bog-kam, a common feature in Taiwanese Hakka villages today. With the benefit of maintaining natural water seepage while reducing soil erosion, the bog-kam technique has been passed down by Hakka people for generations. Bog-kam are sturdy structures used to hold slopes in place around ditches and ponds. Larger stones are set at the bottom and progressively smaller ones stacked on top, with the gaps sealed by cement or mortar, which adds stability to the embankment.
The Return of Younger Generations — A New Wave of Revitalisation
Outside of the woki pottery tradition, Sanhe is largely a farming village. Tea was the primary crop in the past, but today new blood has been injecting new life into the farms. Two young farmers, Hsu Jin and Liao Hsiang-Ling, are two examples of this recent wave.
Hsu Jin grows organic strawberries, which are not particularly big, but can be eaten on the spot and are unbeatably fresh, juicy, and sweet. Strawberry cultivation was actually the focus of her studies at graduate school where she researched the problem of pesticides in strawberry farming. Today she applies a number of techniques to develop better biological control methods, ranging from the use of insects and natural fungi to eliminate unwanted pests without the use of chemicals. For Hsu, it is clear, “Farmers need to have a solid foundation of professional knowledge in order to improve and refine their techniques.” In 2017, she turned an abandoned wasteland into a strawberry plantation, and has successfully cultivated more than 1,000 kilograms of high-quality, organic strawberries, becoming an overnight sensation online.
Entering Liao Hsiang-Ling’s garden is quite the experience, like walking into a sea of leaves. Filled with row after row of succulent plants, the scene is quite spectacular. This is no easy feat, as Liao mentions, “Taiwan sees drastic variations in climate, which makes it difficult to domesticate foreign plants. That’s why I use natural strains to modify the body of the succulents." She also makes sure to educate her customers on how to take care of the succulents at home. “I teach my clients how to make environmentally friendly enzymes, how to use natural fungi to control pests and diseases." Liao’s succulents are recognised as top of the line in Taiwan, and hobbyists claim that they grow no matter how you plant them. Now her dream is to bring more people to her hometown.
To experience the wonder of rural life and all that the community in Sanhe has to offer, it is best to plan a full-day visit with a knowledgeable guide. Before you arrive, you can make an appointment with the places you want to visit and see if any local residents are available to help facilitate your tour and provide a more in-depth journey into Taoyuan’s Golden Village.
Samgabsui Environmental Education Center
No. 430, Sec. Zhuwo, Longsin Rd., Longtan Dist., Taoyuan City, Taiwan
(+886) 910-636-101
A Stop Along the Way:
Chinshu Hall
Chinshu Hall is at present the most complete Hakka house in Sanhe. The building is over a century old and features a brick facade made using red clay unique to the Longtan area. Divided into three sections, the front courtyard serves as a place for residents to gather and chat, as well as for arts and cultural performances. In 2018, the Hakka Tung Blossom Festival held a series of events here. Surrounding the building is a thick forest of trees and the constant hum of insects.
No. 171, Ln. 699, Sec. 2, Yangtong Rd., Longtan Dist., Taoyuan City, Taiwan
A Stop Along the Way:
Pine Garden
For a farming village, Pine Garden is somewhat surprising to see: a quiet place that brings together culinary art, horticulture, literature, and handmade crafts. Located in front of founder Lang Cheng-Fu’s old house, Pine Garden features meticulously maintained gardens and a grand red brick building complemented by mottled stone walls. The sloping hillside is dotted with century-old camphor trees and a wooded area of Formosan short-leaf pines. Koi swim in a small pond, and the wide windows look out on a magnificent mountain view.
After serving as a military doctor and forensic doctor, Liang Cheng-Fu returned to his hometown to open a family clinic. But not simply a physician, Liang is also an artist of his generation. These days, he immerses himself in carving inscriptions on ceramics, which he does with the classic Hakka spirit of perseverance. From cursive script to seal script, clerical script, and beyond, Liang engraves everything from small tea cups to large vases and columns. He approaches the work as a dialogue between written language and ceramics, implicating the shape and size of the objects, the thickness of the clay, and the hand’s control of the blade’s motion. Liang’s work has been exhibited throughout Taiwan in various cultural bureaus, as well as at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei. In 2014, he was invited to exhibit at the Louvre in France.
For great Hakka cuisine, Pine Garden is definitely not to be missed. The restaurant combines an old-fashioned ambience with an innovative character, a country style with a modern twist that feels as warmhearted as it is refined. Sourcing specially raised free-range chicken from local farms, the poultry dishes come fresh and crispy, typically served with kumquat sauce and fresh butter. A deep-fried crab curry dish is served with lettuce bread for dipping. Traditional Hakka tangyuan burst with savoury flavour, complemented by the spicy, fragrant soup. You can enjoy a leisurely stroll around the grounds, basking in the unrestrained interplay between art and cuisine.
No. 1008, Sec. Sanhe, Longsin Rd., Longtan Dist., Taoyuan City, Taiwan
(+886) 3-409-0911, (+886) 3-489-3696 (Prior notification required for certain courses)
11:30am–2:00pm, 5:00pm–9:00pm (Closed on Mondays and Thursdays)
Fun Hakka - A Fun Trip to Taoyuan
As the government of Taiwan has been in the process of implementing a national-level revitalisation project along Provincial Highway 3, many local communities have been activated in recent years. History, culture, and industry have all come together at a number of stops along the highway, and Hakka communities have prospered as a result.
There is an extraordinary diversity to the ways of life, cultures, and histories of different Taiwanese Hakka people. For those who live in the Taoyuan districts of Xinwu, Yangmei, Pingzhen, Longtan, Zhongli, Guanyin, Dayuan, and Daxi, Highway 3 is a key asset in the diverse cultural landscape. A north–south highway that features scenic mountain views and extends from Taipei to Pingtung, Highway 3 provides access to many Hakka communities, especially the 850,000 Taiwanese Hakka spread throughout the mountainous, coastal, and urban areas of Taoyuan.
