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| :::Home》 Rift valley landscape– The Great Ma Tai An Community, Ta Chuan Community, Ta Hsing Community and Fu Feng Commnity of KuangFu Township, Hualien County |
 Rift valley landscape– The Great Ma Tai An Community, Ta Chuan Community, Ta Hsing Community and Fu Feng Commnity of KuangFu Township, Hualien County
| The Green Vitality Village in Ma Tai An |
In the early years when the ancestors of Amis people migrated to KuangFu, they started to call this place as Ma Tai An because they saw a forest of fata’an growing here (In Amis, fata’an is pronounced as Ma Tai An). With Ma Hei Shan mountain as a natural shelter, the Ma Tai An wetland was gradually fostered by the irrigation of underground streams quietly flowing over the past thousand years. People living here show great respect and appreciation to the nature for letting the sunshine in every clear day penetrate the greenish land, while the ever-changing tracks of life continue the reincarnation in this piece of wetland within the longitudinal valley in Huadong. |
| Listen to the Symphony of Frogs in Heng Tang and See the Vitality in Ma Tai An |
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 As said in a poem, “Taking a walk through Heng Tang and listening to the symphony of frogs bring the reminiscences of adolescence”. The Ma Tai An Wetland is an environment of the highest quality where different kinds of frogs leap and skip on the mountain and across the streams, and start singing when dusk falls all year round. During the breeding season, the place is overwhelmed by a symphony of frogs competing with each other by singing! Due to the low pollution level and the exuberance of flowers and weeds in the natural environment, butterflies are commonly seen flying in the Ma Tai An Wetland Besides, the natural ecological environment is also a paradise for dragonflies. Strolling along the Fu Teng riverbank during spring and summer, one may be frequently surprised at bumping into dragonflies, especially the orthetrum luzonicum, rhyothemis variegata aria and neurothemis ramburifi with breathtakingly beautiful colors. Bird-watchers may as well amazed by the sight of moorhen families roaming and singing their “chi-li, chi-li” song in the ponds while white-breasted waterhens shuttle in between. A great variety of primary plants in Taiwan reside in Ma Tai An too. The slim and graceful Taiwan yellow pond lilies, W.arrhiza(L.)Wimm (the smallest blossoming species) and the flickering Salix warburgii Seemen all grow healthily and sturdily here.
| Pangcahs’ Illisin Festival and Unique Way of Fishing |
The Amis people call themselves “Pangcahs（ㄗㄚˋ）” and the harvest festival “Illisin”. The harvest festival is the most important day in a year for the Amis. During July and August each year, the Amis in Ma Tai An follow their ancestral tradition to hold a harvest festival ceremony to express their gratitude to their gods for bestowing a harvest year and to pray for a great harvest in the coming year. Every accessory on their outfits contains a different story or connotation. Participating in the harvest festival is definitely a must for visitors who want to take a thorough look at the Amis culture. Besides, the Amis in Ma Tai An adopt a special traditional fishing technique -- Pa La Kao – the only eco-friendly fishing technique in the world. Local people joke that they “eat the fishes that volunteer for food”. This fishing technique applies natural materials such as branches of Lagerstroemia subcostata Koehne and bamboo tubes to construct an underwater scaffold in the streams. The scaffold is divided into three levels for the inhabitation of different types of fishes and shrimps. The three levels form a food chain, where fishes and shrimps can swim in and out freely. When you want to catch a fish, all you need to do is to block up the water flow at both the front and the back of the scaffold, without doing any harm to the ecological cycle. Tourists may experience this unique fishing method first-hand. |
| The History of Indomitable Hakka Sugarcane Workers, a Story from Past to Present |
There are a group of hard-working and conscientious Hakka people living in the Fu Feng residential community near Ma Tai An. The elders in the community used to work as sugarcane workers in local sugar factories in the early days. The place started to produce sugar about a hundred years ago during the Japanese Occupation Period. These sugar factories once represented a very prevailing industry in the good old days in which the whole village earned a living from sugar and they were convinced that sugar meant wealth. Afterwards, the factories were shut down, local industries withered away, and young people started to leave the village. In recent years, however, local residents have been gradually involved in the development of ecosystem preservation activities. For examples, spring water was induced from the mountains to recultivate the Taiwan shoveljaw carps, and a new butterfly paradise was developed. Strolling through the old streets, one may visit the sugarcane worker history museum transformed from a previous theatre and feel as if an old-fashioned rumbling steam train slowly passed through the Ta Fu station again. The crossover of flashbacks and present-day vividness is so intriguing that one would linger on without the thought of leaving. |
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