The Siraya National Scenic Area (SNSA), located in southwestern Taiwan, has a rich variety of geographic features, including plains, mountains, hot springs, badlands, and reservoirs. Taiwan’s second-largest scenic area, it takes its name from the Siraya indigenous people, who have long lived in the area. Today there are still a number of Si­raya communities scattered through the SNSA, adding cultural richness to the area’s gorgeous natural beauty.

The Siraya National Scenic Area’s Guantian Visitor Center features rounded structures whose design was inspired by the ritual vessels of the Siraya indigenous people.

The window frames at the Guantian Visitor Center are painted in different colors, creating a fun atmosphere. Yellow represents rice fields and the sunlight that reflects off the reservoirs, while red and navy blue are colors often seen in Siraya indigenous attire.

Understanding the Siraya

If you want to learn about the Siraya people, a good place to start is the SNSA’s Guantian Visitor Center, located in Tainan’s Guantian District. This green building, opened in 2020, incorporates Siraya elements into its ex­terior design. The walls are decorated with the eight-petal flower motif that is so common in the cross-stitch embroidery of the Siraya. The building also includes rounded elements modeled on Siraya ritual vessels. The Siraya fill various types of vessels, including bottles, earthenware jars, and cans, with water or wine as offerings to Alid, the ancestors and ancestral spirits that are central to their religious beliefs, and these vessels are a defining feature of traditional Siraya culture.

The Guantian Visitor Center houses a permanent exhibition on Siraya culture. It introduces the traditional Siraya diet and customs and displays clothing and handi­craft items.

The site on which the visitor center and the SNSA Adminstration buildings now stand was previously a military field operations training ground that had lain disused for many years. The site’s original hilly ­topography has been retained. On the third floor of the visitor center there is an observation platform where one can take in the outdoor plaza. On a large meadow close to the plaza the word “Si­raya” is sculpted in outsize capital letters, and there is outdoor installation art inspired by the Formosan sika deer, symbolizing the deer herds that once roamed the Jianan Plain. It offers a setting where visitors are sure to take photographs.

Chang Li-jung, chief of the recreation section at the SNSA Administration, states that over the past several years they have been holding hiking and cycling events along the Mountains to Sea National Greenway. They have also mapped out the Lingbo Guantian cycling route, which is especially suitable for family outings. Along the way one can see pheasant-tailed jacana active in the water caltrop fields, and learn how Yoichi Hatta pio­neered the development of the Jianan Plain irrigation system. This route offers an in-depth taste of Guantian’s natural en­viron­ment and cultural history.

Looking out from the Guantian Visitor Center, one can see a large pool of water, a broad meadow, and blue skies. The view puts the observer in a carefree and happy state of mind.

Playground in a rural community

About ten minutes’ drive from the visitor center, we arrive at the Daqi Creative Art Village Base, adjacent to Tainan National University of the Arts (­TNNUA). It looks like an ordinary rural community, but when you walk into the information center (known as “The House of Art Grower”) and pick up a map, it takes you into a magical world in which “village life is fun!”

Following the map along the path that winds among the old houses, just around a corner there is a meticulously designed children’s games area. For example, at “Island Hopping 123” one can play Monopoly by throwing small sand bags; at “Flying Catapult” there is a competition to see who can cast a ball the farthest; and at “Diediele Valley” there is a colorful large-sized Jenga set. Other activities include slingshots, quoits, and old-style pinball. Moreover, these facilities are made mostly from materials that were thrown away when the old houses were renovated. For example, water pipes and pieces of wood were nailed together to make catapults, and discarded food steamers were painted bright colors to make decorative targets. Thanks to these creative ideas, Daqi is alive with the sounds of laughter.

The founders of Daqi are two young people, Lin Jian-­ruei and Lo Wan-tsz. Formerly students in the Graduate Institute of Architecture at TNNUA, the two became involved in community revitalization in Daqi when they were still students. Lin’s MA thesis was about renovating Zhongshan Hall, a Japanese-era building in the village, to turn it into a community library. Today it is also a craft classroom where visitors who have gathered natural ma­teri­als from the village can combine them into items such as pinball tables that incorporate the community landscape.

Lin Jian-ruei (left) and Lo Wan-tsz (right) put their expertise in architecture to good use to renovate derelict buildings in Daqi Village and use them for fun games.

At the Daqi Creative Art Village Base, one can experience a combination of rural lifestyles and a children’s play area. The photo shows a catapult made from reclaimed building materials.

Defining an aesthetic for ruins

The village of Daqi grew up in the 1920s as local residents were displaced by the flooding of Wushantou Reservoir, but was later largely abandoned. The House of Art Grower, created by renovating an idle rice mill in Daqi, opened in 2020 and applies the boutique concept to showcase and sell local produce and crafts. It is also the starting point for family experiential activities in the play area, and after getting a card stamped at the various games spots in the village parents and children can return to the house to exchange the card  for ice cream or try out shaved ice with locally grown fruits.

Walking around the community, every tumbledown building has its own story. For example, there are beams torn out of an ancestral home that was lost to the reservoir, which were brought to Daqi and used along with woven bamboo wattle-and-daub walls to build an old-fashioned house that tells of Daqi’s early history. The aim of renovation is not to restore the buildings to their original condition, but rather to transform them into play areas. For example, an old house with a collapsed roof was repurposed by installing a slide. The founders, who cherish old things, often find treasures (such as a sewing machine or radio) in the old houses, and they use such items to decorate the House of Art Grower. Lo Wan-tsz also came up with the idea of DIY classes for making coasters and hanging planters out of discarded red ceramic roof tiles.

The two founders are thinking of holding an arts festival this autumn. Lin Jian-ruei states that Japan’s Setouchi Triennale art festival has the sea and the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale has the mountains, while Daqi is close to Wushantou Reservoir with its, mountains, water, and small islands, and has the artistic resources of ­TNNUA on its doorstep. Lin and Lo have plenty of ideas for the festival. For example, perhaps artists can install artworks on the reservoir’s small islands, and people can take boat tours to view them. From water resources and village culture to artistic creativity, there are many ways for Daqi to make the most of its charm.

Old ceramic roof tiles are being remade into coasters and hanging planters, giving them new life.

The House of Art Grower is the information center for Daqi. It sells local produce and cultural and creative items, and also serves shaved ice with seasonal local fruit.

From betelnut grove to eco-farm

Dream River Explore Farm, an ecological farm located in Chiayi County’s Zhongpu Township, was previously a disused betel nut orchard. Due to past use of herbicides, all that remained on the site was betelnut trees and dead vegetation. But after more than a decade of cleanup and restoration work by husband and wife River Liu and Feng Tang, today it has a vibrant ecology and butterflies dance through the air.

“Look, this golden birdwing caterpillar is turning into a chrysalis. It looks as if it is tying itself up with string.” As we follow Liu on a guided nature walk through the farm, he catches a plain tiger butterfly to introduce its coiled mouthparts. A little later he picks up a caterpillar of the common rose butterfly and lets us touch its “osmeterium,” a defensive organ that the caterpillars of swallowtail butterflies use to repel predators. Liu’s motivation for creating this environmental education venue is: “People need guidance to understand the environment.”

Embracing the idea of sustainable coexistence with nature, Liu has planted all kinds of edible and nectar-­producing plants, including kaffir lime, blue snakeweed, and Kusukusu eupatorium. On the farm there is even a plant that Liu jokingly calls “the tree that snores”—the rainbow eucalyptus. He loves to invite visitors to put their ears up against the tree trunk and quietly listen to the noise of water being transported through the vascular bundles, which makes the tree sound as if it is snoring.

To encourage people to get out into nature, Liu uses Dream River Explore Farm as a mountain forest educational venue. He takes visitors river tracing and tree climbing, and in the summer organizes inner-tube rides down the Yunshui River, which runs past the farm. Liu has also built an environmentally friendly pizza oven where people can make their own pizzas using local produce. Liu and his wife have turned this abandoned betelnut farm into a paradise that both adults and children can enjoy exploring.

On the large meadow at the SRNA’s Guantian Visitor Center, the word “Siraya” is spelled out in giant letters and there are sculptures of Formosan sika deer. It’s a scene that cries out to be photographed.

River Liu (left) and his wife Feng Tang (right) have transformed an abandoned betelnut orchard into a natural paradise for everyone to come and explore.

Little town of driftwood violins

Within the Siraya National Scenic Area, next to the Zeng­wen Reservoir, there is a small town that is famous for its violins made from driftwood. Violin craftsmanship has become a highlight of the town, and not only have young people originally from this place returned home, even outsiders and foreigners have been attracted to settle there.

“Here we can admire the beautiful scenery of the reservoir and get an up-close view of eagles diving to catch fish, or we can go to Shanzhu Island to see wild boar attracted by the sounds of opera....” Wu Yihao, chairman of the Heping Community Development Association, enthusiastically informs us of possible itineraries in his hometown, Chiayi’s Dapu Township. Although he has always found his hometown beautiful, he always felt there was something missing. It was only when a friend performed extemporaneously beside the reservoir that he realized what it was: music.

Taking his cue from Cremona, the Italian city of violins, Wu decided to try to drive local development by promoting the making of violins. He invited Huang Shengyan, a violinist and highly experienced violin maker, to come to give classes in violin making three times a week. Wu’s efforts have provided local residents, who had previously all been farmers, with a different kind of lifestyle.

Several years have gone by, and the fame of the driftwood violins made in Dapu’s Heping Village has gradually spread. Many people who came here to study violin making have been won over by the local scenery and lifestyle, and decided to stay. Local elders have even organized a string orchestra that does benefit performances. In the future they plan to establish a violin story house, where they will display violins and the stories of their makers, who have carved images of boar heads or eagles on their works, or painted them with colorful patterns. The violins made in the town are not for sale; instead the instruments are used to build connections between people in hopes that even more visitors will come to this community and see its entrancing scenery.

A redbase Jezebel butterfly.

A golden birdwing caterpillar.

Press your ear to the “tree that snores” on the Dream River Explore Farm, and you can hear the gurgle of water passing through its vascular bundles. It’s a sound that expresses the joy of being alive.