Today, we started off the day by hearing reflections from different students on how our lectures or field trips had connected with our first week’s theme, “eco-city.” 展優 mentioned the idea that on the 24th of June, when we did the sky lanterns, though it is now considered an “environmental friendly lantern,” because of the idea that some parts are biodegradable, we still have to consider the fact that it is still producing waste. This is something to reflect upon because it is also important for the community there, as it not only increases their economy, but gives others opportunities to gain some profit from collecting these sorts of waste from the government.

We then continued the day with a lecture by Dr. Hung about “Food and Agriculture,” with an emphasis on Taiwan’s tea as an example, along with a coverage about urban agriculture. Dr. Hung talked about how food is about identity, using Taiwan’s bubble tea as an example to represent Taiwan’s identity. There is the dilemma with using tea leaves from Vietnam in Taiwan’s bubble tea, which may affect the idea of whether or not this represents Taiwan as its own form.

Then, we talked about the idea of urban agriculture. Rapid urbanization had taken over, ruining the rural areas. As time went on, more people started moving out of the rural areas to escape agricultural labor as their job, but faced struggles from finding jobs in the urbanized areas. Farmers face many struggles such as the struggle of obtaining organic certifications, challenges from aging, and the middle class/urban consumers being angry from the unsatisfied production of products. There is hope for a transformation, as the younger generation may come back bringing new ideas and markets, as well as the idea of urban agriculture. With urban agriculture, consumers could be more aware, and learn how hard producing products could be, as well as help develop a sense of community. We also went into a discussion on how the U.S. compared to Taiwan when talking about urban agriculture, such as what we’ve experienced or seen around us, as well as the different limitations there are.

In the afternoon, we listened to a lecture at the Urban Beekeeping Project (城市養蜂計畫) at Yuan Shan Park (花博公園圓山園區). We attended a lecture by Mr. Tsai Ming Hsian, after which we visited the community garden to experience the beekeeping project up close. I was surprised at how gentle the bees were, despite what I initially thought would provoke them. But, as Mr. Tsai explained, these bees are a domesticated variety, which probably affected the way they behaved around humans. Additionally, I thought that the entire design of the Yuan Shan/Taipei Expo Park was very ingenuities, as it turned a failed commercial project into a green space for urban communities to gather, and for urban agriculture and beekeeping to develop. The Expo Park was originally built as a sports stadium, but was quickly abandoned due to noise pollution from the nearby airport, causing problems for hosting games there. However, instead of demolishing it and constructing a new commercial project, the city adjusted the original infrastructure to create an urban green park while keeping the original building structure intact. I found this to be a really creative way of repurposing a space without causing more environmental damage. If, alternatively, there needed to be a waiting period for city approval for a new massive construction project to tear down the existing infrastructure and create a new design, this could potentially cause a lot of environmental and social problems, as a large urban construction project would simply be abandoned for an indefinite period of time. Instead, they chose an adaptive approach and created a unique design for bringing an urban green space to the community.

I found Mr. Tsai’s lecture very interesting, particularly the part where he talked about research conducted to figure out the reason behind mass die-offs of bees. The mass die-offs were caused by a combination of many environmental factors, including climate change affected temperature increases that led certain flower species to no longer produce nectar, water quality, and pesticides used by farmers that cause the bees to lose their ability to find their way back home, causing the whole hive to slowly die off. Ultimately, the pesticides used on the crops have the potential to harm fetal development, again highlighting the negative impact of pesticide use not only on the environment, but also on humans. It may be a natural reaction to immediately place the blame on farmers using pesticides. However, as our guest lecturer President Lai Hsaio Fen of the Homemaker’s United Foundation also taught us, farmers often have no choice but to use pesticides because of the aging rural population and the physical demand of farming labor. Therefore, organic and sustainable farming is not an individual problem, it is a collective social problem that requires integrated social engagement. Our activities for this day gave us hands-on insight on how these problems can realistically be addressed.

Many rooftops that are suitable for installing solar panels have already been taken by larger corporations, so it is more difficult to find suitable rooftop space for community solar panels. Additionally, HUF does not want to use valuable farmland space to install solar panels. Despite these challenges, HUF has managed to install solar panels on the rooftops of buildings such as the EPA building in Taipei and Guan Du Junior High School. HUF’s work also includes convincing community members in neighborhood committees to invest in community solar panels. Therefore, they also focus their efforts on spreading awareness about the benefits of solar panels: they are sturdy, non-poisonous, mostly recyclable if broken down, can produce electricity even during rainy days, and will provide revenue for community members when they sell generated electricity to Taiwan Power Company.

Overall, this lecture was impactful because it was very cool hearing about grassroots organizing efforts surrounding clean energy in Taipei. Much of the push for renewable green energy in Taiwan is top-down government enforced or from foreign green industry companies (such as multinational wind turbine energy companies as we learned later in the study abroad), so I think this lecture was important as it prioritized what local people can do to invest in renewable energy from a bottom-up approach. HUF also prioritizes engaging women and girls to participate in and lead community-based green energy initiatives, which demonstrates the theme of environmental resilience that is informed by local people.

Currently, only 19 houses are left for local residents to live in, with the other houses used for artist and exhibition spaces. The housing in Treasure Hill Artist Village is  government owned and designated as a cultural heritage site. As long as the remaining families that are descended from the original KMT military veteran families follow the guidelines (社會住宅法) of living there, they can continue to reside in the cultural site. However, the guide told us after the tour that the guidelines said that they can only live there for a set number of years, so they currently only have nine years left if no changes are made. The complexities of maintaining a living cultural site (活脈絡) demonstrate the social resilience from the people who descended from families that have been there for generations. In contrast, we have seen cultural sites and old streets 老街 that have become more commercialized and catered towards tourism like Jiufen.

When walking around, interesting community features included a community garden, a board where people can post art exhibition and ecotourism information, and a dugout with art decorating it. Some services we passed by included a theatrical school for those graduating junior high school, a restaurant run by a comic book artist, a traditional Taiwanese grocery store (called a “gammadiam”), a New York Times recommended café, a hostel, an exhibition hall, a handmade jewelry store, and a store selling robot figurines made from antique pieces.

My favorite detail from the tour was that since soldiers built and now renovate their houses themselves, when the family expands, the house expands as if the house was alive. This adaptive nature well demonstrates this course’s theme of social and environmental resilience. Every person and place has the ability to change constructively. Constructive responses, seen in HUF and Treasure Hill, are valuable in small and large scales and can collectively create a culture of growth and improvement. Not only can this change individual lives, but it can help to create enduring, resilient communities.

Our day first started off at the Zhuzihu Ponlai Rice Foundation. Upon reflection, this rice foundation was one of our initial encounters with social and environmental resilience. We learned about the evolution and growth of Zhuzihu Ponlai Rice Foundation in how they worked very hard to expand their buildings while preserving the original building. We learned that the Rice Foundation used to be a lake, named Bamboo Lake (Zhuzihu) until a volcano erupted with erosion and leakage. People used to use bamboo for the population’s medicinal purposes, but the foundation was a place of origin for appreciation of cherry blossoms. In the face of environmental challenges, they recognized how the elevation of the Rice Foundation was higher than Taipei’s and utilized it to grow highland vegetables and plants year round, such as Calla Lily and Hortensia. As we learned more about the Ponlai Rice Foundation, we got to learn about the Mother and Father of Ponlai Rice and their contributions to agriculture. Suenaga Megumu was the Mother of Ponlai Rice and worked on improving rice work that originated in Chiayi Agriculture Experiment Station while carrying it out to Taichung. Megumu proposed a “younger seedling transplantation” to resolve the challenges in developing Japonica rice in Taiwan and Taichung No.65 was then later developed through cross pollination between Kameji and Shinriki. This then opened a new era of Ponlai rice that was carried over the next twenty years. On the other hand, the father of Ponlai Rice was named Iso Ekichi. Ekichi contributed greatly to the agriculture improvement, research, practice, education, and rice breeding. He was even awarded the “Order of the Brilliant Star medal” by the Provincial Governor at the time. With this experience, we were able to learn about rice purity, breeding, and its importance on the culture of Taiwan. 

After our lunch of traditional and local foods, we were given some free time to explore on our own before meeting back at the museum. During that time, most of us headed towards the garden where the nice old lady said she would let us in for free. Before entering the garden we ran into a group of cheerful old men, a similar age to my grandpa, who asked us to take a photo for them. They were so happy to see young, youthful, foreigners, but I think they had even more energy than we did. Throughout this whole trip I’ve noticed that Taiwanese people, especially older ones, are super friendly and show a lot of interest towards our group. For instance, the elderly lady at the flower garden let us in the garden to explore and take photos, free of charge.

The garden had a beautiful layout of all different types of flowers. In particular, there were many hydrangea bushes in gorgeous tones of blue and purple flowers. We also saw sunflowers and many other flowers in a variety of colors. There was a path throughout the garden that allowed us to stop and stare at all the different flowers and plants. Eventually, the path led to a hut where we sat down and enjoyed the shade and the view. As we were leaving the garden, we noticed that a lot of the plants had DVDs or CDs tied to them. Our guess was that they were to prevent the plants and flowers from being blown away, but we forgot to ask as we left the garden. 

We made our way back to the museum after the garden. There we got back on the bus which dropped us off at the Lengshuikeng Visitor Center. There we got a quick tour of the visitor center, and what our hike was going to look like. After the quick tour, many students went outside to take photos of the stunning view of the mountains and the clouds hovering above. As we walked, we saw numerous cicada shells on tree trunks. We even had the opportunity to see a shedded snake skin! We then crossed the Jingshan Suspension Bridge where we admired the greenery from a new perspective. We learned that Yangmingshan is a national park surrounded by volcanoes, which is the cause for the “milk pond” we saw on our hike. The remnants from the volcanoes and the sulfurous fumes are the reasons for the water turning into its milky white color. We finished off the day back at the observation deck, but unfortunately, we did not see any wild buffaloes.

When reflecting on this experience, we were able to appreciate the biodiversity that Taiwan has to offer. We were amazed with the differences in plants, animals, and the notable differences in environment at Yangmingshan compared to the Taipei city we were used to. We fell in love with the beauty of Taiwan and were even more excited for the upcoming trips that we were going to experience.

After eating our dumplings, we had the opportunity to learn about NTU’s farm. In the beginning of the tour, there was downpour and lightning and we were taken into a restaurant on NTU campus and got to try their delicious ice cream sandwiches and passion fruit beverage. After that, we had the opportunity to try on bamboo hats and really dive into the biodiversity of NTU’s farm. We started off learning about the Bloom Tea Tree and the Alligator Flag, located right near each other. We learned that the Bloom Tea Tree was used for medicinal purposes and to develop essential oils. Additionally, the tour guide mentioned that people who grew the Australian tea tree no longer needed to enlist in the military, as it provided essential medicine for during wartime.

On the other hand, the Alligator Flag interested us as the plant itself shakes to indicate the spotting of alligators. We then got to experience the lab building that the mother and father from the Ponlai Rice Foundation worked in. We learned that in the past, since metal was rare, the laboratory building was built from wood. On the other hand, the bases were made from concrete and soil within the woods of the bases to act as durability. The soil is used with sticky rice and soup made from sticky rice to act as an adhesive base similar to the structure and base that bricks would act on. Within this building, the mother and father of Ponlai Rice Foundation found that the climate in Yangmingshan was similar to the climate of southern Japan and so they brought rice from Japan to Taiwan to grow in similar climates. This sparked the dozens of rice species in Taiwan.

As we continued with the tour, we got to see the growing process of the original species of Taiwan’s Ponlai Rice (Taichung number 65). The tour guide taught us that rice is grown within a net, but when it grows into grass, it is moved to the field nearby. We were surprised by the fact that when our hand grasped the grass, it gave a stinging sensation.

After this, we entered a house that was built by Japanese people.Through this, we learned the effectiveness and importance of bamboo, as well as many other tools that farmers have used in the past. We got to witness bamboo being used in the hats given to us, as well as a personal heater, steamer, and a method of carrying heavy items in the past. This showed us that bamboo can be very flexible and sturdy. Some other farming methods that the tour guide introduced to us was this machine that separated lighter and heavier rice. After harvesting the rice and drying it, the rice would be placed within the top left of the machine. As you turn the handle, wind is generated and the machine will flow where the rice that is lighter would fly towards the left and the heavier rice would slide down, ultimately separating the rice. Lastly, another surprising farming equipment that we learned was this rain jacket that was made from palm tree leaves. The leaves are weaved where fiber is created and oil comes out, making the jacket waterproof due to the separation of oil and water. 

Lastly, we ended the day in an empty classroom where we engaged in two activities. First, we were tasked with attempting to peel back a grain of wheat rice to reveal the part we eat as white rice, and the task proved more difficult than expected. The number of people who succeeded could be counted up on one hand. Second, we played a game where we acted as farmers and strategically decided what seeds to plant. During each round, a random disaster took place that affected our crops.  Through this session, we learned the importance of biodiversity as the players that won had planted diverse species of beans when faced with harsh weather conditions. We also learned that the team who ended up with the least amount of profits were the ones who only grew the beans with the highest profit and highest loss every round. By the end of our time in the classroom, we learned valuable lessons on the role of luck in the agricultural industry and the work that goes into making even one grain of edible rice. Today, we learned a lot about the effort put into each bean, each grain of rice we put into our bodies, and we left with a sense of gratitude towards all those who work to keep us nourished. 

Today, the first site we visited was Fa Chu Kung temple, a major temple and the first Taiwanese temple to install an elevator because it was also the first temple to be built on the second floor! The first thing we noticed about the temple was that the first floor was empty, and the tour guide explained that 50 years ago, during the city’s expansion, city authorities asked Fa Chu Kung if they could move the temple elsewhere. To answer this question, Fa Chu Kung asked the temple deity by casting jiaobei, or moon blocks.

We learned that jiaobei are wooden divination tools that are used in pairs to seek divine guidance in the form of a yes or no question. To cast moon blocks, you hold the blocks, tell the deity your name, ask your question, then release them. If the blocks both land with the curved side out, the deity smiles upon you, and you should ask the question again. If the blocks both land with the flat side out, the answer is no. Only when the two blocks land on opposite sides is the answer yes. After the tour guide explained to us how jiaobei divination works, I gave it a try myself, asking the temple god if my dinner that night would be delicious. I’m not sure if making my wish public affects the results, but spoiler alert, my dinner that night was tasty!

Now, back to Fa Chu Kung. When Fa Chu Kung cast the moon blocks, the answer he received was no, meaning that he could not change the location of the temple. To aid in this conflict, Mr. Lee, the architect who later built Taipei 101, added another floor to the temple, moving the floors up and leaving the room for the road city authorities were looking to build. Some call Fa Chu Kung Taipei 005, as it was a building made by Mr. Lee that has 5 floors. Additionally, we learned that Taipei 101 is modeled after bamboo, as bamboo is a Confucious symbol of humbleness, signifying the importance of being hard on the outside but empty on the inside.

Then, we visited the Da Dao Cheng city god temple. The tour guide explained that city gods are like underworld gods, and before a city mayor takes office, they must pray to the city god to ensure peace and a smooth transition. The day we visited happened to be during the festivities surrounding the city god’s birthday, so we went and paid our respect to the city god. We made sure to avoid stepping on the part of the building symbolizing the god’s face as to not disrespect the gods and witnessed the temple’s liveliness. Additionally, the tour guide told us about how the temple grew in popularity because a popular Japanese idol prayed at this temple and within a year tied the knot. The city god’s reputation as a successful matchmaker god brought many to the temple to try their luck. After the tour guide told us this, one of the NTU students whispered to me that one of her friends also came to this temple to wish for a boyfriend. I asked her if her friend had her wish granted, and unfortunately it wasn’t. Next time, I’ll wish for her friend…

We took a group picture in front of the Taiwan bank near the temple because the staff wanted to showcase our group as a promotion. As we walked around the city, the tour guide had us do a hunt for items such as pineapple and ginger root which contributed to a lot of the trades during the economic boom in the roaring 20s. Because the tour guide worked a lot, a shop owner that knew them gave us a sample of a hard candy which was medicinal and similar to a cough drop. Chinese traditional medicine was also abundant in these streets. We visited the Young Le fabric market where Japan imports a lot of fabric from. Here you can find fabric for anything and customize as much as your hearts desire because it is a main center for textile trades. More than half  of the World Cup’s team jerseys were manufactured in Taiwan with recycled plastic as Taiwan is one of the top recyclers in the world.

We then stopped by a tea shop and toured the back process of tea. We then sat down and learned art. Different types of tea require different processes. With the oolong that we had, a glass pot was best because the flavor was light whereas if it was a strong flavor, for example, oriental beauty, then a flat pot would be used to soak in some of that flavor. The tea can be steeped up to five times before it has to be replaced and you have to throw away the first infusion depending on the tea type. The last infusion is the most concentrated so steeping and pouring time should lessen the more the tea is steeped. We learned about how tea masters are strategic with their brewing, brewing three consecutive infusions to ensure that the concentration remained consistent. Fun fact, back in the day, for one kilogram of tea you could buy enough rice for three hundred bowls of rice! That’s a lot of rice!! Needless to say, we learned lots about the value of tea and the culture that surrounds tea traditions.

After learning about tea culture and history, we rode a boat to Tamsui. On the way to Tamsui, we enjoyed the water view, took much needed snoozes, and, if we understood Chinese, listened in to the information the boat guide shared with us. The boat ride went smoothly, and after sharing many laughs and photos, we arrived at Tamsui, where we ended class for the day. Overall, today we learned about the richness of Da Dao Cheng history and culture, leaving us more acquainted with the city than when we first arrived. When we arrived at Tamsui, we were given the rest of the day to roam around and the stalls had a variety of seafood—a given for a coastal city. It started pouring a bit later but luckily the MRT was close and it was just one line—the red line—back to Taipei main station.