Scenery of the Tianzhong Marathon
Besides the passionate faces of the volunteers, the Tianzhong Marathon route also offers beautiful scenery.
In the early days of the town, most settlements in Tianzhong were located amid farmland, and this is how the town got its name, which means “in the fields.” During the era of Japanese rule it became an intersection point between the main north–south railway and the narrow-guage sugar-industry railways, making transportation convenient. Farmland expanded outward alongside the Bagua Mountains and the Babao irrigation canal. Since the Japanese era the area has also produced high-quality black and white rices, earning it the moniker “Taiwan’s rice granary.” This has all been due to the locality’s fine soil, fine climate, and fine water.
After Taiwan came under Qing-Dynasty rule in 1683, Shi Shibang (1671–1743) and others raised funds to build the first Babao Canal (then called the Shi Family Canal), which was completed in 1719, making it the oldest large-scale hydraulic engineering project in Taiwan. In 1721, local gentry including Huang Shiqing completed the 15 Villages Canal, later called the Second Babao Canal. In 1907, under Japanese rule, the two canal systems were joined together and became known simply as the Babao Canal. Bringing water from the Zhuoshui River to irrigate 18 of the present-day cities and townships of Changhua County, it turned the area into a major agricultural region. The canal is even seen as “Changhua’s Mother River.”
From the route of the Tianzhong Marathon one can get a sense of the deep emotional connection between the people of Changhua and the Babao Canal. Two-thirds of the course, which passes through Tianzhong Township and neighboring Shetou Township, follows the Babao Canal Green Corridor. “Visitors can see the expanse of land watered by the Mother River,” says Zhang Xichi.
When we visit the Babao Canal Green Corridor, glossy green fields stretch out before our eyes while our ears are filled with the sound of gurgling water, and we can smell a natural “soil aroma.” Running in the shade of the green trees that line the canal on both sides, one feels cool and refreshed. Zhang says that this is a result of the negative ions produced by the agitation of the water as well as the shade provided by the trees, which together give runners a sense of wellbeing. The “soil aroma” comes from the Zhuoshui River sediment carried by the water, giving one a sense of being “close to the water and the land.”
At the entrance to the Dongxing Community, next to the Hongmen Canal (a branch of the Babao Canal), there is an old-fashioned rice silo. The wall of the circular structure is curved inward at the bottom. Zhang explains: “This is to prevent rodents from climbing up.”
The sport of running has set down roots in Tianzhong. Local schools from kindergarten to high-school level all have graduation road races.