The author Chou Fei-li, who grew up in a sugar factory dorm, wrote that if you want to find the sugar factory, you just need to follow the black smoke.
That's not so easy today. For one thing, there are lots of places spouting black smoke. For another, the sugar factory's smokestacks have already stopped emitting the telltale smog.
"State-run factories have to lead the way in environmental protection, that's the only way!" says Chou Chun, assistant director of the Touliu factory.
Besides the black smoke, you also can't find any of the sugar factory dorms left over from the Japanese occupation era. There are only a few nice ones left for those workers who can't use the company's "construction assistance" or to give single workers living away from home.
"One room of two p'ing (one p'ing is about 36 square feet) is NT$600 per month," says Chiang Shao-hwa of the Touliu factory, who goes home only on weekends and holidays.
For those co-workers able to take advantage of construction assistance, they can buy land cheaply and have their own home in the area of the factory. In 1980, the factory assisted staff to build and own two-story, 27-p'ing homes. Assistant Director Chou notes that demands of modern people for quality of life are high, so that homes in the second stage of construction will be even more comfortable.
The Sun Yat-sen Hall, scene of meetings and collective activities for the staff in days gone by, is now being rebuilt. But the little old sugar factory train, in operation since retrocession, still has its place unchanged. After retrocession, besides being built for intra-factory transport, the train was also opened for public use.
The Sugar Industry Museum keeps old ticket stubs from the trains. In 1961, a ride from Peikang to Chiayi cost nine NT dollars (23 US cents).
Later, as highways developed, train business decreased daily. Finally, passenger carrying was ended over ten years ago. Some factories' trains have been retired altogether. But at Touliu they still transport partly by rail: Though the start-up costs for rails are higher than for highway, "since the resources aren't being otherwise used, why waste them?" asks Chou Chun.
As we walked into the train station, we just caught a small train filled with sugarcane about to set off for a factory in Pingtung. From Touliu to Pingtung takes more than 10 hours.
The little train sets out. The train has been on this journey before, and the factory has gone along for the ride.
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