Located at 80, Neighborhood 6, Hsinshing Village, Duyuan (Du’s Garden) is built by Mr. Jun-yuan Du in the memory of his father Jin-chi Du and mother Yuan Wang. To contribute to the society, Jun-yuan Du decided to reconstruct their family house and Jin-feng Rice Plant into this establishment. Another purpose of Duyuan is to offer an artistic place that serves the public and promotes cultural education. Cultural and educational events are regularly held here, and any one can apply to hold events in this place as long as they are legal and healthful. However, barbeque and drinking is strictly prohibited inside the facility, and the environment must be kept clean. Duyuan takes up more than 66 acres of land, and it includes a memorial hall, landscape garden, herbal garden, rockwork, lotus pond, pavilion, broad lawn, parking lots, and petrified wood imported from Indonesia that is millions of years old. In order to keep herbal plants used for Chinese medicine popular, Duyuan has over 100 valuable herbs planted inside the facility for educational purposes. Taitung County Agricultural Research and Extension Station provided both technical guidance and valuable herbs for research purposes.
Da Po Elementary School is located in Chingfeng Village, by the eastside of the provincial highway. The school district covers Chingfeng and Da Po villages. It faces Da Po Chih, a famous spot in Huadong Valley; to the east are the coastal mountains, and to the west is the Central Mountain Area, which is also known as “Jing Mei (“beautiful view”).” In the 1950s, it was extremely difficult for children in Da Po village to go school; sometimes they even had to walk the dark mountain trails for 3 hours before sunrise, and it would already pass the “flag-raising” ceremony. Before school was finished, they had to leave by 3 pm in order to get home safely. Due to the strong demands from the parents, a branch school of Fuyuan Elementary School was thus established on August 1st, 1964. During the six years before Da Po Elementary School was officially established, It was running under the name of branch class of Fuyuan Elementary School for two years and branch school for four years. , the school only existed as a “name” rather than an actual school. After it was allowed to become independent, the most important task was to raise fund to buy the land for campus and to select a site, followed by temporarily using Fuyuan Elementary School’s campus while Da Po Elementary School’s own campus was being constructed. In the year following the construction, the school was officially operational, and the total number of students at the peak was more than 380 in 12 classes. In the 1970s and 80s, the number of students dropped since many people moved to cities and had fewer children. Today, the number of students here has maintained about 100 in 6 classes. Da Po Elementary School includes a children’s play ground on a small hill. Other special sceneries here include:
１. Observatory of geological movements:
Da Po Elementary School is located at a fault where the Eurasian plate meets up with the Philippines plate, and curving, faulting, and protruding movements are quite significant here. Whether it is horizontal or vertical changes, the most intense ones are the fault movements which travel at the minute-but-observable rate of 2 to 3 cm per year, making this place a perfect observatory for geologists. The observed fault movements here include: ●１ Between 1964 (when Da Po Elementary School was founded) and 1998, the retaining walls have been repaired 3 times due to stratum sliding.
●２ The retaining walls are currently again showing cracks. ●３ The foundation of children’s slide on the retaining wall is now hanging 20 cm above ground due to stratum movements. ●４ During a retaining wall repair in 1997, the contractor who dug 1 meter into the ground with an excavator was surprised to see that the soil on the east slide kept sliding. He instantly poured in some cement to stop the sliding. Central Geological Survey has installed a geological deformation measurer in the fault area in Da Po Elementary School to keep track of the movements of Huadong Valley. We welcome you to come take a look of how the earth’s surface moves if you are interested.
２. Educational Garden of Coastal Rocks An “East Coast Rock Educational Garden” has been established under the olive tree next to the playground. Inside the garden is the exhibition of different kinds of coastal rocks, including slates, conglomerates, quartz, sandstones, phyllites, mica, limestones, marbles, basalt, transformed sandstones, green schist, black schist, sheet mica, and transformed diabase. We welcome those who are interested to take a look of what coastal rocks have to offer.
３. Educational Garden of Aquatic Plants: The odd lot located at the left side of the main gate is constructed into the “Educational Garden of Aquatic Plants.” Cylinders are placed in the park to host aquatic plants such as water chestnuts, water lily, duckweed, Eichhornia crassipes, red lotus, lotus, Egeria densa Planch, Marsilea minuta, 頂斑太蘭 (Goodyera dailuzanensis?), Typha angustifolia, and Floating moss. This exemplary garden is very educational and has been awarded by the head of the County, Mr. Jian-nian Chen. Da Po Elementary School has the “Land Movement Observatory Station,” “Coast Rock Educational Garden,” “Aquatic Plants Educational Garden,” “Butterfly Garden,” and “Simple Observatory” that meet your educational needs.
Chihshang Sports Park No.3 is located the left side of the back of Chihshang Gas Station (left hand side of Jinping Rd., not passing the railway) on Huadong Highway. Located at a convenient location, this park is covered with flowers and grass. Lotus ponds are seen at the two sides after walking into the park. Main facilities inside the park include five playgrounds for children, 8 sports facilities, and a croquet field. The sceneries here include four octagonal pavilions, lawn covered with the county flower, ceramic flower platform, plaza, and the pond trail which includes pebble trail, shale trail, and block trail. Other facilities include 25 aluminum chairs, a parking lot, and lighting. Park No.3 is a perfect place for people of all ages. It is great for children, fitness, strolling, and simple sight-seeing.
Rice Village Museum was originally the fertilizer warehouse for Chihshang Farmers’ Association. It was then eventually abandoned by the side of County Highway 197. Since this place is right next to a brick kiln and the entrance to Wanan Community, the parking lot of the warehouse serves as a great place for “community performance.” It is now used as an exhibition place for Chihshang’s rice culture, tourist information, and recreation. The Council for Cultural Affairs thus granted the proposal of turning this place into the Rice Village Museum, which is Wanan Community’s window to the outside world despite its plain appearance. Chihshang’s organic white rice, white rice, and sticky rice are sold here. Agricultural tools are also provided by the community for display, showing how much the people here care about protecting their culture and making this place very meaningful. There are lots of events held here and even rice-harvesting activities, including rice DIY, rice painting, and kiln activities. Please phone us and find out more if you are interested. There are also three inns here that provide boarding services (information extracted from Easyagritourism).
