In 2008, Guang­ming Elementary School finally entered the pages of history after 51 years of educating the people of Wu­deng Village in Nan­tou County’s Yuchi Township.

On the former school’s small grounds, the Sun Moon Lake Scenic Area Administration set up 12 wooden pavilions, opened up the classrooms, and transformed the tennis court into a rock-climbing wall, to turn this former hall of education into the Sun Moon Lake Travel Learning Center.

The center’s combination of nature, culture, and exploration has attracted kids and kids-in-spirit alike, who can learn about the area beside the spectacular natural beauty of Sun Moon Lake. Through renovation and repurposing, this well-remembered former school has now found a new lease on life.

Through the Sun Moon Lake Travel Learning Center’s cooperation with five local schools, visitors can experience the thrills of tree climbing, learn about the Toushe basin, and take part in other fun educational activities.

Guang­ming Elementary School sat in the heart of the Sun Moon Lake area. In the early days, when transport to the area was still difficult and no school had been set up there, the local students had to travel over five kilometers to attend Tou­she Elementary School. Then, in 1955, a branch of Tou­­she Elementary was set up in Wu­deng; it became Guang­ming Elementary School in 1957, a response to the school’s rapidly growing rolls.

At its peak, Guang­ming Elementary had over 200 students, but after the 921 earthquake of 1999, the population of the area plummeted as people left, leaving only a dozen students enrolling each year. The year of the school’s closure, only one new student enrolled. “We’d been hearing talk of closing the school for years as the rolls got smaller,” says Shi Zong­hong, technical specialist in the recreation section of the scenic area administration.

Each time word hit that Guang­ming Elementary, the heart of the community, was facing closure, the locals responded with vigorous calls for it to stay open. In 2008, when the ROC government opened tourism up to visitors from mainland China, the scenic area administration wanted to find more land in the Sun Moon Lake area to use for tourism purposes. Guang­ming Elementary, not far from several tourist attractions and easy to get to, had long been an attractive option, with the administration even talking with the school about using its buildings prior to the closure.

Once the school’s closure was confirmed, the scenic area administration purchased the buildings from the Nan­tou County Government for NT$8 million, and then invested a further NT$30 million in renovating them. In 2011, the Sun Moon Lake Travel Learning Center was born.

Not only has this renovation given Guang­ming Elementary a new lease on life, it has also led to five local schools—De­hua Elementary, Ming­tan Elementary, Ming­tan Junior High, Tou­she Elementary, and Che­cheng Elementary—creating the Travel Learning Alliance, the first of its kind in Taiwan.

Once the lights went out at Guang­ming, says Shi, the other schools suddenly became aware of their predicament, and that helped boost the reception of the alliance idea. The five schools work together with the Sun Moon Lake Travel Learning Center, leaving behind the usual “every man for himself” attitude to revitalizing such sites.

After being closed down, the half-century-old Guangming Elementary School was transformed into a place where adults and children alike can learn about the area while having fun.

The driving force behind the alliance, and the first to suggest the idea of “travel learning” in 2002, is Guo Xiong­jun. Currently principal of Yun­hai Elementary School in New Tai­pei City, Guo already has a record of success, having previously transformed Yu­guang Elementary (now part of Ping­lin Elementary) in New Tai­pei into a popular destination for travel learning.

Guo promoted the idea of travel learning during his tenure as head of the Domestic Tourism Division of the ROC Tourism Bureau, later joining forces with Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area Administration head Zeng ­Guoji to lay the foundations for the Sun Moon Lake Travel Learning Center.

After the scenic area administration took possession of Guang­ming Elementary, they sought out Guo for his ideas. Guo, already having some relevant experience, set about being a matchmaker of sorts between the administration and interested schools, making the Travel Learning Center the hub of the project. The center would let visitors soak up the scenery while also learning about the lifestyles and cultures of the area through the five-school alliance. “Through the center, the Travel Learning Alliance have not only been able to make their schools part of the Sun Moon Lake area, they’ve also been able to make the Sun Moon Lake area part of their schools,” says Guo.

Each of the schools in the area has become its own window onto Sun Moon Lake, each offering visitors a different perspective. De­hua Elementary, for example, is situated in Ita Thao, a village occupied by members of the Thao and Atayal Aboriginal tribes; there, visitors can learn about the Thao harvest ceremony and traditional ways of fishing. Tou­she Elementary, meanwhile, is near the well-known Tou­she mud pools, thus giving visitors a chance to see and stand on geologically active ground. Further out is Che­cheng Elementary, where travelers can see how the area flourished in the early 20th century, when the railways and lumber industry were in full swing.

Through the Sun Moon Lake Travel Learning Center’s cooperation with five local schools, visitors can experience the thrills of tree climbing, learn about the Toushe basin, and take part in other fun educational activities.

Thanks to this transformation, Guang­ming Elementary has gone from being a place infested with mosquitoes to becoming a must-see destination for visitors to Sun Moon Lake. But the transition to tourist spot wasn’t always a smooth one.

Center assistant Jackey Wei explains that at first, people were unclear about the purpose of the Travel Learning Center. On top of this, it was a struggle for the center to try to combine environmental education and local culture into programs that would give visitors the means to not only enjoy their trip, but also learn a little about the area along the way.

As more visitors came to the center, it began offering one- and two-day itineraries in response to the growing demand. Not only could the visitors try out the center’s own facilities, like the rock climbing wall, they could also try their hands at weaving traditional fishing nets with people from Ita Thao, or learn about the tea industry from local experts.

“Sun Moon Lake isn’t just about the scenery anymore,” says Wei. “By branching out into Che­cheng, ­Shuili, and other local villages, visitors can experience different cultures and ways of life. This helps draw them in for longer, too.”

Sun Moon Lake Travel Learning Center and its affiliated facilities have grown as the scenic area administration’s jurisdiction has grown, expanding to include Jiji, ­Shuili, and ­Xinyi Townships and an additional three schools on top of the original five. Future visitors to the area will have the chance to experience even more of what Sun Moon Lake has to offer.

Since the center’s founding in 2011, it has attracted visitors not only from around Taiwan, but also from Hong Kong, Singapore, and mainland China. From about 3000 people a year in the early days, the center now sees upward of 10,000, and this year it will finally go into the black, with total revenues of NT$6 million.

The success of the center and the alliance of schools has made ripples that are being felt as far as ­Yilan, ­Miaoli, and New Tai­pei City, where schools are following suit. Following its closure, Guang­ming Elementary is now creating new ways for communities and schools to interact and intersect, turning Sun Moon Lake itself into a giant school.

Through the Sun Moon Lake Travel Learning Center’s cooperation with five local schools, visitors can experience the thrills of tree climbing, learn about the Toushe basin, and take part in other fun educational activities.