The New "Country Dwellers"

This well-known children's song makes a lot of urban children wonder: Is that what home is meant to be like?

Many Taipei office workers are now going in search of just such a home. The delights of country life are proving a growing attraction.

Four years ago Li Hsiao-k'un, who teaches at Chinese Culture University and Chung-Yuan Christian University, moved out of a building in Taipei's Chienkuo North Road and bought a two-story home with a garden in Linkou. Cuddling his two girls, now aged 5 and 2, he says: "Sun-shine, earth, insects, birds and trees are the best things for growing children."

"We used to go down in the lift and drive off in the car, hardly ever really putting our feet on the ground," Li says. Now his kids can play with leaves and mud in the garden, the family keeps a vegetable patch nearby, and he now enjoys the peace and calm he needs for his studies in aesthetics and his artistic work.

Upon returning from the States the other year Sam Chen and his wife wanted to buy a house and settle in Taipei. Their ideal was a price below NT$3 million, nice surroundings, and convenient transport links. But that was when Taipei property prices were soaring, and any apartment of 30 pings over 5 years old would cost at least four or five million NT. To anyone else, their ideal sounded like a castle in Spain.

Yet today, sitting in his brand-new 40 ping apartment, Chen tells how it all came true--his house is situated in pleasant green countryside, only half an hour's drive from Taipei city centre--and only cost NT$2 million, a whole NT$1 million less than he originally budgeted for. "I didn't settle for the 'cheap end of the market', I just adopted a winning strategy--to move away from urban Taipei," he says happily.

"We never thought we would buy a house in Hsichih," says Hsiung Shu-hua, a public relations employee at Philips. She grew up in Hsichih but the place always seemed a bit of a backwater, awkward to get to and limited by its traditional rural economy, so when she got married three years ago she and her husband moved out to rented accommodation in Neihu. "A home in Neihu only cost NT$60,000 per ping then," says her husband, "but within two years prices had shot up to NT$200,000 per ping, and of course rentals rose accordingly, so we were gradually forced back to Hsichih."

With Taipei's crowded bustle and pressures in mind, Hsiung Shu-hua now sees Hsichih in a different light from her childhood days.

"Waking up to birdsong and insects chirping makes me feel relaxed the whole day through," she confides. Hsichih hasn't lost its rural atmosphere entirely and the pace of life is slow enough to relieve all the tensions of high-pressure public relations work. "Whenever possible I prefer to stay here at home and enjoy it all," she chuckles.

The busy roads and high-rise buildings of Taipei city are thronged more and more by "new country dwellers."

By day they wear suits and ties, carry a briefcase and work at modern life's feverish tempo; in the evening and at weekends they enjoy the sound of birdsong, fresh air and the slow pace of country living.

These are no millionaires or captains of industry, most are salaried office workers.

Usually in their thirties, they're still far from retirement age.

Although in their flight from the city they uncannily resemble the first wave of urbanites to move into Taipei's suburbs, their motives and ideals are quite different.

"A big city draws people because of employment opportunities and a better economic and cultural life, but space limitations mean that building housing out in the suburbs has been the trend in Taipei for the past decade," points out Ts'ai Hsueh-i of Taipei city's Office of Urban Development. "In recent years the Taipei suburbs of Shihlin, Tienmu, Neihu, Sungshan, Chingmei, Mucha, Hsintien and Yungho have seen their population increase by 6 or 7 percent a year, while city centre districts like Chengchung and Taan have only grown by one or two percent."

With suburban property prices rising in response to the recent boom and growing demand, the trend now is to look even further afield. But this second wave of would-be-country dwellers have a whole new set of attitudes and values.

Compared with ten years ago, middle-class house-buyers in their thirties and forties are better educated and more open to outside cultural influences. In contrast to the attitude ten years ago, when young people would grimly put up with paying off big bank loans for a house, today's thinking is more like: Don't let buying a house become too heavy a burden and diminish our enjoyment of other things in life.

This leaves house-hunters with the choice of a few towns around the perimeter of the Taipei basin. "Places like Linkou, Hsichih, Shulin, Shihting, Shenkeng, and the Hsintien Wulai area offer the only hope of finding housing costing less than NT$100,000 a ping, and bearing our commuting needs in mind we decided to concentrate our search along the route of the north-south railway line," recounts Sam Chen, manager of the Aucera Tech. Co, who finally plumped for Shanchia.

"Shanchia is a station on the line between Panchiao and Yingko, and belongs administratively to Shulin town," explains Chen's wife Ch'en Ya-ling. When they had first moved here they used to have trouble explaining to their friends where they lived and coping with their doubts about the quality of a house costing only NT$50,000 per ping. "They acted as if we'd gone to live on a bare mountainside," she shrugs.

"Actually Shanchia is only half an hour to Taipei by train, but since the town lies on the border between Shulin and Yingko and is sandwiched between Kueishan and the Tahan River there's not much hinterland to develop, so it's not prosperous enough to attract attention. On the other hand, this has helped it maintain its pleasant natural surroundings together with low property prices, in contrast to Taipei," they explain.

After moving here they found there were other benefits too. "Everybody knows one another in this small town and there's a traditional neighborly atmosphere," says Ch'en Ya-ling. Not just the neighbors but the station staff and market traders are all nodding acquaintances. She was pleasantly surprised once when her mother arrived at the station in a sudden downpour and a member of staff saw her across the platform with an umbrella. "Baby-sitters are incredibly cheap, too," she adds. The whole family also enjoy picnics beside the nearby Tahan River and trips to olde-worlde Sanhsia and Shihmen Reservoir.

Most importantly, their monthly mortgage repayment only takes up 10 percent of their combined income, so there's plenty left over to enjoy life; both of them enjoy dining out and taking holidays abroad. The money left over from their house purchase budget has been spent on interior decoration and contemporary furnishings. "It's so nice to have a really smart and well-designed fitted kitchen for NT$100,000 or so," stresses Ch'en Ya-ling.

The north Taiwan sales manager of one building firm points out a special feature of this middle-class 30 to 40-year age group: They're well-educated, often having been to college overseas, and they have a clear-cut individual style and plenty of ideas of their own. They don't want to be burdened by the cost of buying a home, and they prefer quiet, relaxing surroundings to the bustle of the city. What they want is for their home surroundings to be a complete contrast to the feel of their place of work, so that once they go home they can relax completely and feel rested.

Designer and artist Shih Heng-te moved to Linkou ten years ago, out among waving pampas grass taller than a man's height. "I was unhappy working in Taipei and felt the farther from the crowds I lived the better for me; it was the only way to find harmony and emotional balance," he says. The simpler way of life in the countryside helps filter out distractions and clarifies your thoughts. His rooms and garden are furnished with antique tables, chairs, vases and knickknacks picked up outside. "City life is too materialistic, and often makes us forget how to live alongside nature."

At their apartment in Wulai's New Flower City, Yang Wen-yuan and her husband have arranged their balcony like an old Chinese pavilion and sit out here in fine weather chatting over a pot of tea, enjoying the breeze and singing together.

"Out here in the mountains the air's fresh and pleasant all year round, on a clear day you can see Mt. Kuanyin and in rainy weather all the luxuriant vegetation looks just wonderful." Co-planner with her husband of the "Chinese Style Promotion Centre," Yang Wen-yuan says they'd always admired the leisurely lifestyle of the old Chinese literati, so they're happy to put up with the inconvenience to enjoy a breath of fresh air.

Not wanting a house purchase to become an economic burden and changed expectations as to living environment combine to make more affordable out-of-town locations the ideal choice for many.

Ever quick on the scent, building contractors have detected this change in consumer sentiment. In many country towns around the edge of the Taipei basin, once thought of as poverty-stricken and off the beaten track, you can now find property ads emphasizing "affordable prices, easy mortgages, good facilities and attractive surroundings," all aimed at luring Taipei commuters out into the country.

How far "out on a limb" should one really go?

"Transport is the main consideration," a sales manager for Pacific Rehouse points out, because the transport factor not only determines whether a place is convenient for getting to work but also dictates the future value of the house.

"People's concept of commuting has changed," confirms Professor Chang Chin-o of Chengchi University's Department of Local Government. With worsening traffic jams in recent years, most people don't consider actual commuting distance so much as journey time and convenience. This makes localities along the railway line, near the freeway or with easy access to Taipei's future mass rapid transit system highly attractive.

Hsichih is one example. "Hsichih's development has long been stunted by poor transport links, and the 1987 floods in this low-lying area brought property prices tumbling down," explains Hsiung Shu-hua, who when house-hunting here once studied the local property news so assiduously she could practically reel it off backwards by heart.

Now that the freeway is open Taipei city centre is only half an hour's drive from Hsichih, which has attracted consirable interest in property investment. "And Hsichih's potential is receiving a further boost from the second freeway now under construction," Hsiung adds.

As shown on the road system map produced by the Taipei city government's Department of Public Works, the two freeways, the north-south railway line, and the ring road will link up with Taipei's MTR system and several fast highways currently under construction to form a network connecting Taipei city with its satellite towns.

This transportation infrastructure, either under construction or on the drawing board, together with business investment, is set to give a big boost to development in the region.

The second freeway in northern Taiwan, slated for completion in 1992, will greatly shorten journey times between Taipei and the towns of Tucheng, Sanhsia, Yingko and Tahsi, previously considered awkward to reach. Thanks to their location along the Tahan River valley with its extensive hinterland and attractive natural scenery, these areas have already begun to see numerous new developments springing up over the past two years.

Shenkeng and Shihting have recently benefitted from better accessibility thanks to their link-up to the fast ring road (formerly the Nankang-Shenkeng highway). "Newly built houses used to lie vacant for two or three years with no takers, but lately people have been coming round asking about properties for sale," says a resident of Shihting's White Clouds estate. He attributes this turnaround in the housing market to the widening of the highway from Mucha Zoo to Shenkeng and Shihting, a major artery linking the north Taiwan second freeway and the MTR system.

Population statistics confirm this theory; Shenkeng's population was steadily shrinking until three years ago, when more people moved in than moved away. Shihting's rate of social population increase (the ratio between population moving out and moving in) also changed dramatically three years ago from negative 84.7% to negative 1.85%.

Unfortunately Shenkeng and Shihting are restricted by being water catchment areas with much of their land set aside as mountain land, conservation areas and farmland. Building land is limited, making large scale developments impractical.

Linkou, on the other hand, enjoys a host of natural advantages. Its land consists of low-lying hills averaging 300 meters in height, it offers extensive views, plenty of sunshine, and the hills are covered with acacia woods because of the poor red soil. The Sun Yatsen Freeway passes through Linkou and the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital's inpatients department has been built nearby, linked by a regular bus service with the outpatients department in Taipei's Tunhua North Road. This bus service is open to the public, which means Linkou residents can be in downtown Taipei within 30 minutes.

These factors mean that Linkou has seen a blossoming of developments of all kinds. Along the checkerboard network of roads north of the freeway, all along Chunghsiao Road, Jenai Road and Wenhua 1st to Wenhua 4th Road, you can see ten-story blocks fitted with lifts, inexpensive apartments, public housing projects and European/American style villas with gardens.

Although the delights of country living make city life pale by comparison, most commuters have been influenced in their choice to a greater or lesser extent by desperation in the face of soaring urban property and consumer prices. Since the trend is only just getting off the ground their neighbors are a mixed bag, local facilities are lacking, and there are problems with children's schooling. All these issues must be tackled by personal initiative.

"Rural schools offer a better pupil-teacher ratio, which means the children are better looked after, but you have to admit their equipment and quality of teaching don't compare with the city," comments Hsiung Shu-hua. She is often torn by contradictory emotions, looking forward to the school having more space for her children to play, but worrying that they may be placed at a disadvantage later on.

Experts are also concerned that middle-bracket residential developments built to attract salaried employees don't have properly planned parks and green space. This risks merely spreading Taipei's urban blight into the suburbs, as Professor Hsia Chu-chiu of National Taiwan University has pointed out.

What worries Chang Chin-o is that people often have no idea what a residential development should be like and are deficient in environmental awareness. "Yards are concreted over or paved, open space is built on, and people won't sweep the staircases," he complains. In his experience the farther developments are from the city the dirtier they tend to be, with piles of rubbish everywhere and open land seriously misappropriated, "but the Chinese attitude always boils down to: The environment's ghastly, let's move away!"

The story of Mencius's mother moving house three times is probably the most legendary instance in Chinese tradition of moving house in search of better surroundings. But today's new "country dwellers" don't wish to emulate Mencius's mother; they hope to actively maintain or improve their environment.

"Our community is organizing a management committee to use the income from car park rentals to hire a security guard and establish a children's play area and reading room," Hsiung Shu-hua says. She has read about and heard about several successful models of community development, and hopes to promote a similar one in her own community. Having spoken with her neighbors she's discovered: "Things are looking pretty optimistic!"

When Yang Wen-yuan and her husband had just moved in they noticed the young couple downstairs digging the soil and planting vegetables at five or six o'clock in the morning. As their familiarity grew they discovered they shared a similar outlook and tastes and became firm friends, frequently swopping thoughts and observations on what's going on in the community. "After all, we've both woken up from the urban jungle now and should know how to cherish our present surroundings!" she chirps.

[Picture Caption]

Fresh country air and glorious views are turning many Taipei commuters into new "country dwellers." This is the home of Sam Chen and his wife in Shanchia.

(Above) Li Hsiao-k'un's yard offers his two daughters unlimited scope for playing house.

(Below) "If we lived in Taipei city, how could we afford such a large garden to keep fish and plant flowers?" asks Shih Heng-te (Left).

In their comfortable home, Ch'en Hai-yu (left) and Yang Wen-yuan (right) amuse themselves playing with their "doggie son" Fatty Boy.

For residents in the vicinity, modest Shanchia railway station is their gateway to the outside world.

Hsichih's market quarter has a lively country atmosphere.

Living in the outer suburbs offers the attractions of a pleasant social life without all the noise and bustle. Photo shows a home in Linkou.

Batches of new residential developments are changing the suburban scene.

People today stress quality of life, and ever more residential developments include recreation areas.

Taipei city's mass rapid transit system under construction.

Plan of future major transportation links in the Taipei metropolitan area.

Viewing the scenery from a balcony together is one of the simple pleasure of life enjoyed by "new country dwellers."

Li Hsiao-k'un's yard offers his two daughters unlimited scope for playing house.

"If we lived in Taipei city, how could we afford such a large garden to keep fish and plant flowers?" asks Shih Heng-te （Left）.

In their comfortable home, Ch'en Hai-yu （left） and Yang Wen-yuan （right） amuse themselves playing with their "doggie son" Fatty Boy.

For residents in the vicinity, modest Shanchia railway station is their gateway to the outside world.

Hsichih's market quarter has a lively country atmosphere.

Living in the outer suburbs offers the attractions of a pleasant social life without all the noise and bustle. Photo shows a home in Linkou.

Batches of new residential developments are changing the suburban scene.

People today stress quality of life, and ever more residential developments include recreation areas.

Taipei city's mass rapid transit system under construction.

Viewing the scenery from a balcony together is one of the simple pleasure of life enjoyed by "new country dwellers.".