Yet Taijiang is not the name of any official administrative district on the map. If you ask a historian, you may learn that Taijiang was a geographic name that disappeared in the mid-Qing Dynasty. However, Taijiang still exists in the present, and there is a group of people who are working tirelessly to write exciting stories here.

National greenway starting point

Temple classes, a grassroots movement

Every village in Taiwan has its local temple. “Village temples were the community schools of their era.” They were also like local town halls, places where public affairs were coordinated. And they were cultural centers. Village temples have been the most suitable places for local learning and citizen participation. This is how Wu Maocheng, executive director of the Taijiang branch of Tainan Community University (TCU), describes the origins of the “temple classes” movement.

The temple classes movement won support from TCU president Lin Chaocheng and executive director Lin Guanzhou. Meanwhile Wu Jinchi, chairman of Chaohuang Temple at Haiwei in Tainan’s Annan District, also wanted to promote educational activities. In 2007, the Taijiang branch of TCU was formally established at Chaohuang Temple.

Hearing Wu Maocheng advocate for temple classes and talk about the Mountains to Sea National Greenway, you are sure be moved by the passion in his voice.

The Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association spares no effort in promoting trail walking and cycling trail travel in Taiwan.

The “temple classes” grassroots cultural movement was launched at Chaohuang Temple in Haiwei.

Come to Taijiang to learn

TCU’s Taijiang branch has offered courses in “Tai­jiang studies” including “Folk culture in Taijiang,” “Ecology of Taijiang’s Waterways,” and “Exploring the Haiwei Community Museum,” and has organized the writing of songs for the locality. In this way local residents have been able to rediscover their community.

The National Museum of Taiwan History stands beside the Mountains to Sea Greenway. Its permanent exhibition informs us that 400 years ago this area was a large enclosed bay called the Taijiang Inland Sea. In 1661 the Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong landed here, and it was the first place that early immigrants from China reached after crossing the Taiwan Strait. It’s a place of great historical significance.

The permanent exhibition at the National Museum of Taiwan History tells the story of Taiwan over the past 400 years.

Maintaining order and protecting life

The main deity venerated at Chaohuang Temple is Baosheng Dadi, known to locals as the Lord of the Dao. Most of the village’s residents are followers of this deity. Wu Maocheng explains that in life the Lord of the Dao was a famous physician who acted in the spirit of “maintaining local safety and protecting life.” From a modern perspective, one could say that his mission was to “conserve the environment and protect life.”

The origins of the Mountains to Sea National Green­way can be traced back to efforts to deal with river pollution. Eighteen years ago, teachers, students, and parents from Annan District’s Haidian Elementary School formed the Little Taijiang Reading Club and launched an initiative to protect the river. Students and teachers went river tracing and walked mountain trails in hopes of finding out how the river had become so contaminated. “Within a ten-kilometer radius of the National Museum of Taiwan History there were eight industrial parks, including four without wastewater treatment facilities,” says Wu Maocheng. Having identified the problem, they convened public hearings on saving the Jianan (Chiayi–Tainan) irrigation system and came up with two proposals: on the one hand to plant trees and build trails, and on the other to clean up the polluted water.

Other groups also lent their assistance, and for many years now have continually organized a series of river patrols, ecological surveys, and discussions with local residents.

Wu Maocheng leads a group of Taijiang children in exploring their hometown.

Public–private cooperation

A public hearing held in 2006 on saving Taijiang’s rivers won support from then-legislator and current ROC vice president Lai Ching-te (William Lai). He brought together various organizations to discuss the problem, and they ended up planting ­numerous trees along paths beside the drainage channels of the Jia­nan irrigation system.

Following the enlargement of Tainan City in 2010 by its merger with the former Tainan County, authority over regional matters was unified, and efforts began to promote extension of the pathway to the Wushantou Reservoir in Guantian District. Thus was formed the 45-­kilometer long Tainan Mountains to Sea Greenway, the forerunner of the Mountains to Sea National Greenway.

In 2017 the National Development Council (NDC) began promoting greenways, and the then Forestry Bureau was put in charge of overall planning. In 2018 the Mountains to Sea National Greenway was completed, running along the Jianan irrigation canals from Taijiang National Park up to Wushantou Reservoir, and then following the Zengwen River past Alishan to reach Yushan at an elevation of 3,952 meters.

For many years now, initiatives promoted by non-­governmental groups have gained force. One of these organizations, the Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association, was founded in 2006 by Huang Wu-hsiung, Hsu Jen-hsiu, and author Hsiao Yeh (Li Yuan). Meanwhile, within the central government, former NDC deputy minister Tseng Shu-cheng and former NDC minister Chen Mei-ling were important advocates for greenways. All working for environmental conservation, their paths eventually crossed.

“This was an important project in terms of public governance in national development,” says Wu Maocheng. “There was collaboration among government agencies including the Tainan City and Chiayi County governments, the NDC, local branches of the Water Resources Agency, the Irrigation Agency, and the Forestry Bureau as well as local communities, NGOs and other groups. It spanned all levels from local to central government.”

This 177-kilometer-long national greenway offers a microcosm of 400 years of Taiwanese history. It encompasses the ethnic and cultural characteristics of the Taijiang area and the Siraya and Tsou indigenous peoples. It also incorporates diverse natural ecosystems, with five forest climate types and four types of aquatic environment. It manifests the rich diversity of Taiwan, and its starting point is Taijiang.

The Mountains to Sea National Greenway promotes diverse modes of travel between Taijiang and Yushan, including walking, cycling, public buses, and pleasure boats.

The black-faced spoonbill in Taijiang

A paradise for aquatic birds

The global population of the black-faced spoonbill at one time fell to only 288 individuals, but thanks to inter­national conservation efforts, the latest surveys count 6,603. Taiwan is the major wintering habitat for these birds, with the number here reaching 4,228 in 2023, or two-thirds of the world total.

There are geographic and environmental factors underlying black-faced spoonbills’ choice of Taijiang as their main wintering ground. Tai Tzu-yao, executive director of the Taiwan Black-Faced Spoonbill Conservation Association, relates: “The environment of the Taijiang Inland Sea area includes the intertidal zone, lagoons, aquaculture ponds, and salt flats. By its very nature it’s an excellent spot for aquatic birds to make a home.” He adds: “Taiwan lies on the migratory routes of many East Asian aquatic birds. It is a paradise not only for black-faced spoonbills, but for all water birds.”

Black-faced spoonbills in flight.

When resting, black-faced spoonbills stand on one leg with their heads turned backward and their bills tucked into the feathers on their backs.

From endangered to protected

Philip Kuo, executive director of the Wild Bird Society of Tainan, who has been involved in black-faced spoonbill surveys for decades, tells us that birders in Southern Taiwan were always aware that these birds are regular winter visitors. Unfortunately, back in the day there were no scientific surveys, and it was only in 1988, when the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society announced world population figures, that people realized they were so endangered.

“The development plan for the Binnan Industrial Park came along just then,” notes Tai Tzu-yao. The plan envisaged a land reclamation project to site an oil refinery and steelworks on the Tainan coast at Qigu. The selected location was an important wintering habitat for aquatic birds, and an intense conflict broke out between advocates of development and of conservation. In July of 1992 the Council of Agriculture (now the Ministry of Agriculture) declared the black-faced spoonbill a protected endangered species. In November there was an incident of black-faced spoonbills being killed by hunters, drawing concern from home and abroad. Domestic NGOs including the Wild Bird Societies of Kao­hsiung, Taipei, and Tainan, as well as university birding clubs, all advocated for conservation, and they were supported by the international group Spoonbill Action Voluntary Echo (SAVE). In the end they blocked the development of the industrial park.

In 1994 the government laid out the 515-hectare Sicao Wildlife Refuge, and in 2002 it established a major wildlife habitat, of which 300 hectares was a protected area for black-faced spoonbills at the mouth of the Zengwen River. Taijiang National Park was founded in 2009.

Allowing conservation groups to adopt idle state-owned salt flats to manage them as habitats is a major step forward in conservation work. The photo shows staff and volunteers of the Taiwan Black-Faced Spoonbill Conservation Association, with executive director Tai Tzu-yao at right.

Starting point for conservation research

“Because black-faced spoonbills only exist in East Asia, and with so few of them being recorded in the first surveys, Taiwan has played an important role in their conservation and study,” says Tai.

Counting birds is an essential basic task: From changes in population numbers one can learn about alterations in their habitats. New information also came with the advancement of scientific technology. “In the past the whole world knew that black-faced spoonbills migrate south for the winter, but we weren’t sure where they went in summer. Later, satellite tracking transmitters were attached to them, with the first device successfully fitted at the mouth of the Zengwen River in Tainan, and finally we discovered that they return to breeding grounds around the border between North and South Korea,” explains Tai.

In 2002 a mass poisoning of black-faced spoonbills occurred in Taiwan, with 73 birds dying. The cause of death was confirmed as botulinum toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum bacteria. This added a new element to conservation work: patrols to ensure that aquaculture ponds are kept clean of dead fish. Philip Kuo explains: “Clostridium botulinum is an anaerobic bacterium, and carcasses provide an excellent growth medium. When black-faced spoonbills mistakenly eat the dead fish, the toxins cause muscle paralysis.” If a spoonbill is discovered with weakness in its legs, it needs immediate help.

This sign indicates that a fish pond is part of Taijiang National Park’s program to create eco-friendly habitats.

Taijiang is a paradise for aquatic birds.

Observing the black-faced spoonbill

It is known by locals alternatively as the “spoon goose” or the “black-faced stir-cup,” names derived from its spoon-shaped bill and its habit of sweeping its bill through water to find food. Black-faced spoonbills mainly sleep in the daytime and fly off to hunt in the evening. Kuo teaches us how to identify their resting posture: They stand on one leg with their heads turned backwards 180 degrees and their bills tucked into the feathers on their backs. He also asks us to take note of the multicolored bands on the birds’ legs. These identify the year and location where the bands were attached, in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, or Russia.

Black-faced spoonbills arrive in Taiwan in October and stay until March of the following year. When their crest feathers and breast feathers turn yellow, this means that they have reached sexual maturity and can breed, and their time to return north is near.

Philip Kuo, executive director of the Wild Bird Society of Tainan, has been involved in black-faced spoonbill conservation for many years.

Government, citizens, and NGOs

As we arrive by an aquaculture pond in another location, Kuo points to a sign that marks the pond as a participant in Taijiang National Park’s program to create eco-friendly habitats. The park authorities encourage aquaculture operators to leave 20 centimeters of water in their fish ponds after harvesting, along with sundry unharvested fish on which the black-faced spoonbills can feed.

Acting under the recently amended Principles for Provision of Non-Public-Use Marginal National Land for Adoption for Environmental Protection Purposes, a number of environmental groups have thus far adopted 1,230 hectares of state-owned salt flats in several locations along the Chiayi and Tainan coast, to manage as bird habitats. Tai says: “I think the National Property Administration is being very forward-­looking in its thinking, and I feel that these regulatory provisions are very important and really great.”

The successful conservation of black-faced spoonbills is a triumph for Asia and a model for the world. However, Kuo also reminds us of the broader significance of this effort: “The black-faced spoonbill is an umbrella species: Protecting it and its environment also protects all the species that live in that environment, thus conserving biodiversity.”