Twin Stars of the Northwest Coast- Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are Shining Out

The center of Hsinchu City has recently had a makeover. The old moat, which lay neglected for many years, crosses the city like a blue sash, lined with grassy levees and neatly laid footpaths. As you stroll in the shade of the trees, the leaves overhead stir in the summer breeze, and the sunshine dapples the ground with flecks of dancing light like little imps frisking at your feet.

Around 1 km in length, the moat can be divided into three sections. The first starts at Hsinchu railway station, and passes through a busy commercial district filled with department stores, bookshops and restaurants. The second section runs through the city's historical heart: the area around the grade-two listed monument of East Gate, and along Peimen Street-Hsinchu's political and economic hub since the town first developed during the Qing dynasty. The final section of the moat passes through modern Hsinchu's entertainment and arts district, which includes the spacious lawns of Chinshui Park, the municipal cultural center and the site where the new performing arts hall is being built.

Following the route of the moat is like viewing the charm of Hsinchu through a row of display windows, portals in time and space.

Around 10 km away, the administrative seat of Hsinchu County at the town of Chupei presents an altogether different appearance.

Exit from the Sun Yat-sen Freeway at the Chupei interchange and you immediately find yourself turning into County Government Boulevard. On one side of the 40-meter-wide boulevard is a tidy row of brand new, architecturally distinct office blocks, housing the police department, the county council, the county government and the cultural center. Together, they present an impressive, orderly scene that reflects the development ambitions of the county.

On the other side of the boulevard is the town's commercial center, along with a park and a recreation area. With its easy access, wide-open spaces and pretty scenery, Chupei has attracted a string of mass-retail stores and is now a mecca for shoppers from Yangmei, Miaoli and elsewhere.

Twin stars of the northwest coast

In addition to Hsinchu and Chupei, twinned administrative centers that oversee city and the county respectively, there are other towns in the Hsinchu region that have long been popular sightseeing destinations for visitors from throughout the north and center of Taiwan. These include the amusement parks of Window on China and Leofoo Village in the Kuanhsi area; the Hakka architecture and snackfood of Peipu and Hukou; and the aboriginal cultures and mountain scenery of Wufeng and Chienshih.

According to Miss Chuang, a Taipei resident who likes to visit the Hsinchu area at the weekend: "It has the new and the old side by side, the classical and the modern, and there are many wonderful discoveries to be made."

The Hsinchu area, including both county and city, covers over 1500 sq. km of northwest Taiwan, bordering Taoyuan County to the north, Miaoli County to the south, and the counties of Ilan and Taichung to the east. To the west, Hsinchu faces out into the Taiwan Strait. The land drops in altitude from the mountain ranges in the southeast of the county down to the coast on the northwest, and mountains and hills account for 80% of the total area. Hsinchu City, Chupei, Chiunglin and Chutung are all located on the broad river plain that is crossed by the Fengshan and Touchien Streams.

The terrain also separates different ethnic inhabitants of the region. Atayal and Saisiyat aborigines are concentrated in the mountains, while the plains used be the domain of the pingpuzu plains-dwellers. The whole area was once called Chuchien ("bamboo pit") District on account of the spiky bamboo that grew everywhere among the hills, and Chuchien was the original name for today's Hsinchu. Later the Minnan (southern Fujianese) Chinese occupied and settled the plains, and the Hakka people who arrived next had to make their homes in the hilly and inhospitable hinterland.

What Hsinchu is probably best known for is its climate. Facing out to sea but enclosed on three sides by mountains, the area traps the sea-borne seasonal winds like a open sack. Hsinchu is famous for its strong dusty winds that blow throughout the year, and for which it is dubbed Taiwan's "Windy City."

Hsinchu also combines the traditional and the modern in terms of its representative industries: rice noodles, glass, and high technology. Ever since the Japanese colonial period Hsinchu has been stronghold of the glass industry, and during the 1970s nearly 80% of the strings of Christmas lights that American families decorated their homes with in the festive season originated from "family factories" in the Hsinchu area. These days, it is in electronics and other high-technology industries that Hsinchu leads the way, with other counties and cities throughout Taiwan desperately hoping to emulate the money-spinning success of Hsinchu's Science-Based Industrial Park.

Taipei enclave

Although blessed with an abundance of natural, cultural and industrial advantages, Hsinchu didn't used to stand out in any special way from the other towns of Taiwan's northwest coastal belt.

According to Mrs Chen, who moved to Hsinchu ten years ago with her husband when he took a post at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), "The inner city district was small and cramped, and in terms of shopping it was quite backwards-the goods in the stores often seemed to be covered in dust, and the quality of service left much to be desired." Also, the roads out of the city were poorly maintained and transportation wasn't so convenient, which prevented Mrs Chen from getting to know and explore Hsinchu County.

With the pace of development lagging behind the times, many of the top-notch people that were drawn to the area because of Tsinghua University, Chiao Tung University, ITRI and the science park, didn't wish to live in Hsinchu itself.

Lu Cheng-hui, a professor in Chinese at National Tsinghua University once wrote: "When I first came to Tsinghua I often heard people describe Tsinghua as a Taipei 'enclave.' Tsinghua is on the edge of Hsinchu, just two minutes from the freeway and an hour from Taipei, with inter-city buses at the campus gate. For many people at Tsinghua, when they went out of that gate it was more likely that they were on their way to Taipei rather than going in to Hsinchu." Chiao Tung University, ITRI and the science park, all of which are close to Tsinghua, also have similar relationships with Hsinchu.

It was in the late 1970s and early 1980s that Hsinchu began to be transformed, and reveal its astonishing potential. "In the old days, Hsinchu people got wealthy through land or savings," observes a local journalist, "but then technology became the route to sudden wealth." Hsinchu began to appear frequently in the headlines for its high income levels and surging prosperity, while the golden lure of its residents' spending power attracted a succession of leading department stores, hotels and shopping malls to the city.

"The problem is that the old city was originally Hsinchu's most prosperous commercial district, but it has been unable to profit from Hsinchu's development as a city of science, and instead it has lost its competitiveness in the face of new types of commercial services." So says Yang Wen-chuan, a Master's degree student at National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, who once organized a community-building project in Hsinchu for the Dandelion Cultural Workshop. Yang feels that the chaotic appearance of downtown Hsinchu, the chronically congested traffic, and the fact that the district still caters largely to working-class clientele, means that it is not able to attract high levels of consumer spending. These days, Hsinchu residents increasingly go to the big retail outlets on the outskirts of town, even for their daily shopping needs.

Treasure chest

In 1982 Hsinchu was upgraded to become a provincial municipality, separate from Hsinchu County, and this is one of the main reasons for the development bottleneck, now that there is little room for the city to expand.

According to Hsinchu mayor Tsai Jen-chien, "There is little free space within the city limits, so we can only carry out rationalization and renewal on present scale. But the city enjoys many other assets due to its long history and culture." From the Qing dynasty through to the Japanese colonial period, Hsinchu was one of northern Taiwan's key political and economic centers, and this has left the city with a rich legacy of cultural assets. In later years Hsinchu was passed over and forgotten about, and today it's like a dusty treasure chest that will shine again once it gets a good polish.

To this end, Mayor Tsai this year announced the appointment of six deputy mayors, the first such enlarged deputy mayoral team in Taiwan. Among them are specialists in transportation and urban planning, along with executives from high-tech companies.

"In addition to being professional managers, the deputies play the role of advisers, consultants and coordinators," explains private secretary Lin Tze-yu. "Hsinchu citizens have far higher standards than city government workers do, and they have long since lost patience with our lack of administrative ability and efficiency."

Hsinchu was in fact the political and economic center of northern Taiwan for around a century. When Taiwan was incorporated into the territory of Qing dynasty China in 1684, it was allocated one prefecture and three counties, with the town of Chuchien coming under the administration of Chulo county. After the Yongzheng emperor (1723-1736) took the throne, the area of Taiwan stretching from today's Changhwa in the center to Tamsui in the north, was upgraded to the administration of the Tamsui provincial government office. In 1756, with prosperity spreading northwards through the island, the Tamsui yamen-the office of the principal governing official-was formally relocated in Chuchien. It was not until 1875, at the start of the Guangxu emperor's reign, that the Taipei prefectural administration was established in place of Tamsui, and the prefectural yamen was moved north to Tamsui.

This year Hsinchu celebrates the 170th anniversary of its founding, as dated from the completion of the stone city walls in 1829. However, as early as 1733 the inhabitants surrounded their settlement with bamboo palisades, which later became earthen defenses and eventually stone walls.

According to China Times reporter and local archivist Pan Kuo-cheng, "Hsinchu people have a very strong sense of 'city,' and although the walls were demolished during the Japanese colonial period, their outline can still be faintly discerned to this day." This sense of recall means that Hsinchu people still consider East Gate the center and the symbol of their city, even though the main business districts are now elsewhere. "In today's Taiwan, where locality and history are increasingly forgotten about, it is a rare thing for people to retain their affection for the past like this."

Lin Chih-cheng, an architect and a keen student of colonial-period urban planning, points out that "the colonial period has left Hsinchu with a rich architectural legacy. Many buildings in the city retain their original appearance from that era, including the offices of the city government (Hsinchu Prefectural Hall under the Japanese), the local law courts, the train station, Hsinchu Middle School Kendo Hall, the Kuomin Theater and the houses of Air Force Village No. 11.

Lin is currently in charge of restoring and renovating the Kuomin Theater, which is situated next to East Gate, and explains that the distinctively designed building used to be the entertainment heart of Hsinchu. During the colonial era it was the town's premier theater, and when the Nationalist government took over it was converted into a cinema and meeting-hall. Later it closed down because of the decline in the movie industry, and its interior fell into disrepair. The building faced demolition at one point, but luckily was saved thanks to the efforts of local cultural workers. Lin also found out about a residential area near Hsinchu Middle School that dated from the Japanese period, with rows of houses laid out in an octagonal pattern. "This design helped to keep out the wind and also provided a degree of seclusion-an ideal layout for a residential area," remarks Lin.

Peaches and tea

After the separation of city and county, the government of Hsinchu County was moved north to Chupei, but there was no space for new administrative buildings in the cramped streets of central Chupei itself. Instead, land was procured in phases among the fields and hills of Hsinfeng and Hukou, north of Chupei, where there was ample room for expansion.

Says Hsinchu county commissioner Lin Kuang-hua: "It was like a blank blueprint, on which ideas could be freely realized." Although the construction of the county administrative center was completed under the last two county commissioners, there is still plenty of scope in the county-which is 14 times the size of Hsinchu City in area-for big-budget projects, and developments are currently being planned by high-level educational institutions such as National Taiwan University and the National Taipei University of Technology. A station is also due to be built nearby for the high-speed railway, currently the biggest and most talked-about infrastructural project in Taiwan. This will further enhance the transportation network in Hsinchu County, which is already crossed by two freeways, and make its development potential hard to ignore. "Taiwan has been in an economic downturn during the past few years, and property values have slumped, but apartment prices continue to rise in Chupei," comments the county commissioner.

The unfortunate thing is that in spite of the favorable objective conditions of the county, local industries have not yet developed to a sufficiently large scale. With the exceptions of the third-phase science park in the Paoshan Township and the industrial district in Hukou, the economy of the county is still dominated by agriculture.

Furthermore, the county lacks the financial resources to develop infrastructure throughout the rural hinterland. County commissioner Lin Kuang-hua served two terms as a national legislator, and is particularly sore about the way that funding is apportioned at both the central and local levels.

"As we say: 'money can't buy everything,' but then again, without money you can't buy anything," comments Lin. "This is the common predicament of county and city administrations." At the local level, infrastructure development has always been constrained by the Law Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures, counter to the principle of leveling disparities between urban and rural districts. "Taipei City feasts on bird's nest and shark fin soup, while the counties and smaller cities throughout Taiwan don't get so much as a spoonful of congee," complains Lin, who doesn't conceal his frustration on the topic of funding.

With the county's large territory and the ethnic diversity of its population, it can be hard to implement the work of county governance. The most pressing problems are the exodus of people away from farming and the decline of industry, and it can be forecast that Taiwan's eventual accession to the WTO will create further competitive threats to local products.

"The only response must be to develop recreational farming and organic farming, and upgrade local products to compete," says Lin Kuang-hua, whose head is full of marketing ideas. After he assumed office he organized events to promote the county's agricultural produce and rural scenery. There was the Pengfeng Tea Festival in Peipu, using Hakka culture and packaging to promote the local speciality tea, and an aboriginal-themed promotion for peaches and pears grown in the mountain townships of Wufeng and Chienshih, for which city-dwellers were encouraged to visit the area and purchase its produce. "At a conservative estimate there are around 70,000 people working in the science park areas, and they are accustomed to having two-day weekends. They definitely need places to go for leisure and shopping at the weekend. Earning money from them alone would be enough!"

It's my home, not a museum

The local government of Hsinchu City and County do indeed have plans, aiming to give the area a thoroughly modern makeover. The public have their views on the matter too.

"If people can't be persuaded to care for their own quality of life, and the educational and local environment that they inhabit, then it doesn't matter how many projects or events you organize, nothing will last," says Shu Shih-wei, a sociologist who came to Peipu five years ago for research. In recent years for example, tourists have flocked to the Peipu area for the Hakka architecture and Hakka foods of Chinkuangfu, and for Pengfeng tea. "But this has also had a big impact on the lives of people in Peipu," says Shu. "Several old streets had to be demolished for the widening of National Route 3, to ease traffic congestion, and people who used to sit and chat under the arcades outside their houses are now shut away inside modern apartment buildings. This has weakened neighborhood relations."

Tourists also bring environmental pressures. "Every weekend the streets are packed with people and vehicles, and the restaurants and trash collection points are overflowing. Shu, who set up Peipu's "Ta'ai Association for the Advancement of Cultural Life" to carry out community work, says that tourists even poke into the lives of local residents, often wandering uninvited into people's homes. Curious tourists also find their way into the old building, used only for offices, in which Shu himself works.

Peipu is relatively lucky, because its strong Hakka characteristics attract researchers such as Shu Shih-wei, who can wield their professional skills to protect the area. The Ta'ai Association for example, is committed to combining the strengths of the neighborhood to preserve the quality of life, and arranges family education activities, discussions about local history, and environmental protection work. While tackling local environmental concerns they often find that the issues are not restricted to the immediate locality, and need to be jointly solved in collaboration with other communities and ethnic groups. "Our river here was recently found to have serious pollution problems, so we organized the Ta'ai River Protection Brigade, with the aim of linking the aborigines, Hakkas and Minnan people that live along the entire length of the river to protect it and prevent pollution."

Breaking the mold

What the public finds hardest to adapt to is government vacillation and the failure to fully implement policy. This was a problem that was encountered in the preservation of the historical monuments of Peimen Street in Hsinchu City. Peimen Street was the thriving commercial center of the Qing dynasty town, comparable to Taipei's Ti-hwa Street, and is also known simply as "the big street." There are still a number of outstanding buildings from olden days along the street, including the residence of Cheng Yung-hsi, who was Taiwan's first chinshih-a successful candidate at the highest level of the imperial examinations-along with the Cheng Family Temple and Changho Temple.

"In 1985 the government listed three of the buildings in the street as grade-two and grade-three historical monuments," says Chuang Ting-tsai, a resident of the street. But valuable artifacts were stolen from the buildings-which had by now attracted envious attention-during the long delay before conservation work began. The Chinshih Residence was still inhabited by members of the Cheng family, although it was dilapidated and they wanted to move out. "They couldn't afford to leave, however, and decided to renovate the house instead, but the government said that would be against the law. It was a real Catch-22."

The year before last, Hsinchu municipal cultural center wanted to restore Peimen Street to its former state of prosperity, and commissioned Dandelion Cultural Workshop to carry out a community-building project. This aroused a great deal of interest from local residents, who assumed that the big street would be getting a facelift. And last year, with government funding, the street's residents organized a large, lively Lantern Festival fair. "We assumed we would do the same thing again this year," says Chen Huan-ting, another resident of the street, "but after lots of preparations, the government suddenly decided not to subsidize the event." Undeterred, the residents organized themselves into the "Peimen Big Street Cultural Promotion Committee" and launched a fund-raising campaign. With support from the management committee of the City God Temple they were able to put together a wonderful event for this year's festival.

"Hsinchu residents seem conservative and parochial on the surface," says Chen Mei-chun, a researcher with Dandelion Workshop, "but once you have made contact you find that they can be very flexible, and highly spontaneous." When Chen was studying at Tsinghua University she spent some time filming a documentary and collecting historical material in the Chincheng New Village, a military dependants settlement just across from the university. The village was also known as "general's village," on account of the senior commander who was its most prominent resident. "At first I thought the people there were really intimidating," recalls Chen, "but it turned out that once I got to know a few of the families they were keen to help me meet people, and the project was quickly concluded."

Architect Hsieh Ying-chun believes that "the most pressing thing at present is to shatter the old mold of uniform-development." Taiwan's development has always followed in the footsteps of Taipei City. All the counties and cities want whatever Taipei has, with the result that the whole of Taiwan pursues the same development pattern, and there is little to separate the appearances of the various cities and counties. "There's no consideration whatsoever for local differences and characteristics. The same kind of development is imposed all over, and this creates many problems."

For example, environmental problems stemming from Taiwan's over-hasty economic development later became an ever-present headache for Hsinchu County. A few years ago there was a fad in Taiwan for developing amusement parks and golf courses, which had disastrous consequences for the land in the Kuanhsi, Hsinfeng and Hukou region, where heavy rain and typhoons are liable to trigger floods and landslides. Solving these problems will require wise approaches by governing officials at both the central and local levels.

Having known both prosperity and decline, and now emerging anew to seize the attention of the whole of Taiwan, Hsinchu still has much to ponder on.

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Hsinchu City has witnessed brisk development in recent years. The former city moat was dredged after long years of neglect, and is now a focus for leisure activities.

Chupei, the administrative seat of Hsinchu County, impresses with its smart new layout and infrastructure. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)

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Hsinchu train station, one of Taiwan's few remaining stations from the Japanese era. The baroque-style building, the most complete example of its type in Taiwan, is a well known landmark in the city.

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Hsinchu has a long history. Peimen Street, once the most prosperous thoroughfare in the town, is today dotted with historical sites.

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Hsinchu's City God Temple is a center of faith for locals, and for people all around Taiwan. The temple dates back over 100 years.

This traditional building has been converted into a teahouse, and is an example of how Hsinchu is putting its historical assets to good use.

A hotchpotch of old and new is characteristic of all Taiwanese cities. The contrast is even more pronounced in Hsinchu, due to the proximity of the Science-Based Industrial Park. This old lady, who has been selling vegetables from her road-side stall for over ten years, has seen the high-rises spring up and the computer industry flourish.

p.78

Architect Hsieh Ying-chun, who won Taiwan's leading architecture award for his Hakka-inspired design of the Hsinchu County Cultural Center, is a former chairman of the Hsinchu Cultural Association, and has worked hard to redress the imbalance between technology and culture in Hsinchu. He is currently dedicated to restoring "Air Force Village No. 11," a remnant of the Japanese colonial period.

p.79

The Kuomin Theater was Hsinchu's entertainment center and the best theater in town during the Japanese colonial period. The building was spared demolition thanks to the efforts of local enthusiasts. Architect Lin Chih-cheng (left), who is particularly fond of Hsinchu's traditional buildings, is currently working on the restoration of the elegant old building.

p.80

Hsinchu mayor Tsai Jen-chien (second from left) took the unprecedented step of establishing a team of six deputy mayors, to make up for the shortfall of top talent at the local government level. Lin Tze-yu (left) and Yang Tzu-pao (right) are experts in the fields of administration and transportation respectively. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)

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East Gate is the central symbol of Hsinchu City. This year Hsinchu celebrates the 170th anniversary of its founding, and work is being carried out on the monument to restore it to its former glory.

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Agriculture is the main economic activity in Hsinchu County. As traditional industries have declined, maintaining the livelihood of farmers has become the biggest challenge for the county government.

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The commissioner of Hsinchu County, Lin Kuang-hua, has employed modern marketing concepts for the design and promotion of local agricultural produce. Lin also hopes that the county will become the main leisure area for people throughout northern Taiwan. (courtesy of the information department, Hsinchu County government)

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Several amusement parks have been set up in the countryside of Hsinchu County, launching a local leisure industry. The picture shows a ride at the Leofoo Village theme park, which is well known throughout Taiwan. (photo by Pu Hua-chih)

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The old streets of Hukou, lined with the traditional architecture of Hakka mountain villages, is a steady attraction for tourists who want to experience the atmosphere of olden times. Can a balance be struck between tradition and modernity? (photo by Pu Hua-chih)

Chupei, the administrative seat of Hsinchu County, impresses with its smart new layout and infrastructure. （photo by Pu Hua-chih）

Hsinchu train station, one of Taiwan's few remaining stations from the Japanese era. The baroque style building, the most complete example of its type in Taiwan, is a well known landmark in the city.

Hsinchu has a long history. Peimen Street, once the most prosperous thoroughfare in the town, is today dotted with historical sites.

Hsinchu's City God Temple is a center of faith for locals, and for people all around Taiwan. The temple dates back over 100 years.

This traditional building has been converted into a teahouse, and is an example of how Hsinchu is putting its historical assets to good use.

A hotchpotch of old and new is characteristic of all Taiwanese cities. The contrast is even more pronounced in Hsinchu, due to the proximity of the Science-Based Industrial Park. This old lady, who has been selling vegetables from her road-side stall for over ten years, has seen the high-rises spring up and the computer industry flourish.

Architect Hsieh Ying-chun, who won Taiwan's leading architecture award for his Hakka-inspired design of the Hsinchu County Cultural Center, is a former chairman of the Hsinchu Cultural Association, and has worked hard to redress the imbalance between technology and culture in Hsinchu. He is currently dedicated to restoring "Air Force Village No. 11," a remnant of the Japanese colonial period.

The Kuomin Theater was Hsinchu's entertainment center and the best theater in town during the Japanese colonial period. The building was spared demolition thanks to the efforts of local enthusiasts. Architect Lin Chih-cheng （left）, who is particularly fond of Hsinchu's traditional buildings, is currently working on the restoration of the elegant old building.

Hsinchu mayor Tsai Jen-chien （second from left） took the unprecedented step of establishing a team of six deputy mayors, to make up for the shortfall of top talent at the local government level. Lin Tze-yu （left） and Yang Tzu-pao （right） are experts in the fields of administration and transportation respectively. （photo by Pu Hua-chih）

East Gate is the central symbol of Hsinchu City. This year Hsinchu celebrates the 170th anniversary of its founding, and work is being carried out on the monument to restore it to its former glory.

Agriculture is the main economic activity in Hsinchu County. As traditional industries have declined, maintaining the livelihood of farmers has become the biggest challenge for the county government.

The commissioner of Hsinchu County, Lin Kuang-hua, has employed modern marketing concepts for the design and promotion of local agricultural produce. Lin also hopes that the county will become the main leisure area for people throughout northern Taiwan. （courtesy of the information department, Hsinchu County government）

Several amusement parks have been set up in the countryside of Hsinchu County, launching a local leisure industry. The picture shows a ride at the Leofoo Village theme park, which is well known throughout Taiwan. （photo by Pu Hua-chih）

The old streets of Hukou, lined with the traditional architecture of Hakka mountain villages, is a steady attraction for tourists who want to experience the atmosphere of olden times. Can a balance be struck between tradition and modernity? （photo by Pu Hua-chih）