The village of Luo-shan has an area of 25 square kilometers, and its mountain slopes have long been terraced for farming. Two-thirds of the land has a slope of 30 degrees or greater. Of the more than 200 people that live in the village, some 80% are Hak-kas whose families migrated here during the Japanese era. Most are still engaged in farming.

Before daybreak on a March day, Wen Xiu-chun, 63, takes his three-year-old grandson out with him to patrol the fields. It's the season for transplanting rice seedlings. All that the eye can see is lush green organic rice fields. There's no acrid smell left over from the application of fertilizer. "Here, even the air is organic," laughs Wen.

Lin Yunzhi, the proprietor of the Life Nature homestay, demonstrates how to create "mud volcano tofu" by adding filtered volcanic brine to soya bean milk. After the liquid condenses with boiling, he then presses on molds to create the desired shape. The resulting tofu (right) feels smooth and warm going down and has a faintly sweet aroma.

Luo-shan's natural geographical advantages caught the attention of the Council of Agriculture's Hua-lien District Agricultural Extension Station, which aims to guide agricultural transformation. The station began to push the cultivation of various organic crops (including vegetables, wet-field rice, and fruit) in Luo-shan in 1994. But when organic crops are grown near fields of conventionally grown crops, the organic fields inevitably suffer some degree of run-off pollution from chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Consequently, citing successful examples in Germany and Japan, the station invited the -Fuli Township Farmers' Association and the Luo-shan -Community Development Association to collectively establish an "organic village promotion committee." The goal was to turn Luo-shan into an organic village that lived up to the designation in terms of its agricultural production, daily life, and ecological environment.

First of all, how would it be possible to get all 35 farming families in the village to give up chemical fertilizers and pesticides and employ organic principles for farming all 63 hectares of the town's paddy fields? It would mean changing farming habits held for half a century.

Wen Xiu-chun, an important behind-the-scenes mover and shaker in this transformation, was well aware of the damage that chemical agriculture inflicts on people and the soil, and believed that continuing in that manner was no option at all. In 1998, he and two or three other farmers started to farm organically, offering the best kind of example. The remaining farmers of the village noticed that the growers farming organically were avoiding the hard labor involved in frequent chemical sprayings. They also couldn't help but consider the plight of local farmers (all non-smokers and teetotalers) who succumbed to liver cancer due to their exposure to agricultural chemicals. That too sparked their interest in healthy organic farming.

Wen Gui-ping, the executive director of the Luo-shan Community Development Association, smiles when he says that peer pressure among the farmers also played a role. With the slogan "don't spread chemicals and we'll help you weed," the association encouraged farmers not to spray chemical herbicides. If farmers forewent spraying chemicals, the association would pick up the tab on the labor costs for weeding. With other incentives, such as price guarantees provided by the local farmers' association, and certification expenses subsidized by the extension station, farmers began one after another to go organic.

Lin Yunzhi, the proprietor of the Life Nature homestay, demonstrates how to create "mud volcano tofu" by adding filtered volcanic brine to soya bean milk. After the liquid condenses with boiling, he then presses on molds to create the desired shape. The resulting tofu (right) feels smooth and warm going down and has a faintly sweet aroma.

Nevertheless, receiving organic certification requires a three-year transition period. Apart from shunning chemical fertilizers, farmers must employ green manure cover crops, such as rapeseed, to replenish the soil's nutrients. Meanwhile, they also must write daily entries in a farming journal, noting clearly when they've transplanted seedlings, when they've harvested, and all the other details about that season's crop.

By 2004 the entire village had returned to traditional organic methods of farming. But because they lacked sufficient experience, they made mistakes with their use of organic fertilizers. The crops leaned unsteadily. Harvests were only half their previous size. Many growers considered giving up on organic farming, but somehow they all summoned the courage to confront the challenge another year.

The still of the night in Luo-shan is punctured now and again by the sound of exploding chains of firecrackers. Farmers sacrifice their sleep to scare off ducks and geese. Moreover, because they shun chemical fertilizers and herbicides, they have to spend much more time weeding under the harsh sun.

To keep the rice fields well aerated, thereby bolstering the immunity of rice plants and keeping them from succumbing to disease and pests, farmers leave a greater distance between seedlings when planting organic rice. Consequently, the fields yield only 60-80% as much rice.

There were inspiring reports of success in 2005, just a year after the production and marketing group was established. Passing 127 Japanese tests for chemical residues, the rice produced in Luo-shan was accepted for export to Japan. It was the first time that rice from Taiwan was deemed acceptable since toxic residues had been detected on Taiwan-grown rice some 32 years previously.

Wen says that the soil used to be very sticky due to the application of herbicides and chemical fertilizers. They'd use straw to scrape their feet clean, and it was very time consuming. Now the soil is soft and loose, and a quick rinse upon leaving the fields promptly washes all the soil off feet. "Farmers deeply understand the advantages of going organic."

Luoshan's beautiful natural scenery and ecological diversity are its greatest assets for developing eco-tourism.

Rice, day lilies, log-grown mushrooms, free-range chickens, and plums are known as the "five jewels of Fuli." The day lilies require higher elevations, but the other four can all be found in Luo-shan.

Chen Huomu, the 73-year-old head of the fruit tree group, already has 40 years of experience of planting organic plums, jelly figs, tangerines, pomelos, and gold fruit on five hectares.

Chen is very knowledgeable about growing fruit trees. He used to spray Roundup and other herbicides in quantities so large that he didn't dare eat much of his own fruit. In 2003, when the Hua-lien County Government began to promote pesticide- and herbicide-free farming as being healthy for people and good for the soil, Chen immediately answered the call to sign up. He totally transformed his practices: spraying the leaves with tobacco water instead of chemical pesticides, weeding by hand, and applying organic fertilizers.

The 16 members of the fruit tree group grow mostly plums on a total of about 60 hectares. They harvest large crops of high-quality fruit, which they had been exporting to Japan for many years. Unfortunately, Taiwanese businesspeople introduced plum growing techniques to mainland growers several years ago. With the rising quality of production across the strait, Taiwan greengages lost their competitiveness. Japan turned more and more to the mainland for its purchases, resulting in a falling price for plums in Taiwan. In the early 1990s, farmers could sell at NT$20 per kilo; now they can only get NT$5-6.

Yet this crisis has also pushed more and more local fruit growers to turn toward organic farming. They have also begun processing greengages for plum wine, perilla plums, tea plums and other products. They sell these processed plum products to the farmers' association and throughout Taiwan via distribution channels for organic products.

Zhou Chongfu, proprietor of the Luo-shan House Homestay, has been planting genetically unmodified organic soya beans and adzuki beans since 2006.

Zhou points out that even plants from the same crop of soya beans can mature at different times. Typically, as plants near maturity, farmers that are engaged in conventional chemical agriculture spray defoliants to force all the pods to mature, and then they shell the pods with a machine. Zhou, on the other hand, manually picks and sorts the pods. The year before last, he produced 1500 catties (900 kilograms) on 0.4 hectares. But last year, due to odd weather and a lack of water, the crop yielded only 1000 catties (600 kg). When you're relying on the weather to eat, you've got to work twice as hard. "Farming organically is a joyous and virtuous endeavor, but it's hard to make money!" he says with disarming frankness.

"Weeds are a treasure," says Chen Huomu, head of the local organic fruit tree group. Weeds help to maintain the soil's water content and prevent erosion. They then decompose into a nutrient-packed organic fertilizer.

Because Luo-shan sits on a fault line between the Eurasian continental plate and the Philippines plate, it features a lot of subterranean thermal activity. Methane-infused slurry is constantly bubbling forth from mud volcanoes. The town is the site of 100 mud volcanoes of varying sizes-the largest a meter across, the smallest no larger than a pin hole.

The Loshan mud volcanoes are unusual because they produce both mud and fire. Locals call the area around them the "salt flats," because the highly alkaline mud contains a lot of mineral salts and is relatively impermeable to water, meaning that very few plants can grow here. Surprisingly, there is some salt-tolerant vegetation of the kind usually found along the seashore or in swamps. Among these is a protected plant regarded as a national treasure: the mangrove fern. These ferns can only be seen here, in Tai-tung's Guan-shan and in Ping-tung's Jia-le-shui.

The unusual geology is also responsible for Luo-shan's most unusual culinary delicacy: mud volcano tofu. Back in the Japanese era, resources were scarce. Consequently the residents used filtered volcanic brine to substitute for gypsum in the making of tofu.

To provide better aeration and reduce insect damage, organic farmers space their transplanted rice seedlings widely.

Apart from good mountains and water, good social relations are another charming feature of life in Luo-shan.

In 2009 the married couple Zhang Qi-huan and Leng Meng-zhen (both born in 1975) left their respective jobs as an MRT driver and a travel consultant, taking their six-year-old daughter to open a homestay in Luo-shan: the Lotus of Moonlight.

Leng says that the two had long dreamed about going back to the land to live an organic, healthy life. In 2007, they participated in a "Stray Birds" camp put on by the Council of Agriculture to teach farming skills. But busy with their jobs, they had to set aside their dreams of leaving the city. Then one day, when the two were drinking coffee in a hospital cafe as they waited for an appointment with a doctor, they asked themselves what they really wanted out of life.

Leng recalled their earlier experiences visiting Luo-shan: "In the afternoon we brought our daughter outside and walked along the embankments of the rice paddies hand in hand, smelling the aroma of the mud and the rice. The sun was warm, and we felt blessed." At that moment of recollection, they decided to move to Luo-shan and start a new life as farmers.

The friendly neighbors warmly embraced these new residents. Upon rising in the morning, Leng often discovers freshly cut bunches of vegetables placed at the door of their house. The neighbors even come to their garden to help weed and water.

The Jiming ("cockcrow") Garden employs traditional Hakka cooking methods. Visitors can watch as their hosts prepare puffed rice in woks.

The author and blogger "mymass" recalls that when she first came to Luo-shan and saw the sea of rice stems bending with the wind in the mountain valley, she gasped in awe. From a high vantage point, the swaying rice resembled soft threads that had been woven into a vast mountain carpet, quietly nourishing multiple generations. A quick look at the low-key and laid-back lifestyle of Luo-shan made her quickly come to regard it as "the place in Taiwan best suited to long-stay tourism."

Wen Gui-ping, director of the Luo-shan Community Development Association, says that Luo-shan attracts about 60,000 tourists a year, with a dozen or so farms offering room and board and hands-on experience in making mud volcano tofu and other local delicacies.

With its beautiful and varied natural scenery, Luo-shan offers views of high mountains, hills, terraced hillsides, streams and rivers, waterfalls, a sag pond (the Luo-shan Big Fishpond), and hot springs. With the addition of the mud volcanoes and badlands created by the volcanic activity, the area truly stands out as one of Taiwan's geographical marvels.

With the establishment of the organic village, the ecology of the rice paddies has been reviving. Nightfall, says Wen, strikes up a "symphony of frog croaks" that sometimes makes it tough for tourists to fall asleep. The area's precious natural resources and biodiversity constitute a priceless treasure. Visiting tourists can experience the luxury of walking through a blessed country village and verdant mountain forests. Luoshan is Taiwan's first sizeable organic village. Successfully leveraging for tourism the simple life of a traditional farming village while maintaining its own unique character, Luoshan has realized our modern dreams for a Shangri-La.