Speaking of the Puli location of Taiwan Sugar, today that place is getting more and more famous.

Chinan University, which the government is planning to serve the children of returned overseas Chinese, will be established there. Half of it will thus be occupied in one fell swoop; the other part is the land of opportunity for the transformation of the Taiwan Sugar Corporation.

Because the water quality in Puli is excellent, and the sugar cane produced there is renowned, Taiwan Sugar was able to use these resources to capture territory in the export market for the Taiwan sugar industry in the 1950's and 1960's.

Making a name through cane spring mixed teas: Taiwan Sugar has more than 200 hectares of farmland in Chih-kan and Tiao-mi-kan in Puli. In the early days, they mainly produced white cane for use in manufacturing sugar. Around 1980, the market for exports of Taiwan sugar declined. Hence, Taiwan Sugar moved to develop alternate lines of business, and they turned also to animal husbandry. However, the animal husbandry business also faced the problems of having no easy way to expand exports and of surplus domestic production.

After a series of disappointments, Taiwan Sugar went back to the drawing board to develop other sidelines in an effort to break into the domestic food market. The first thing they thought of was to utilize the wonderful water resources in Puli.

"Water determines the quality of the tea, and beverages made with Puli's sweet water could be the advance party in our assault on the food and beverage market," says Hsieh Chao-cheng, director of operations at the Puli Food Products Division of the Byproducts Department. Puli's water is very good, and if you add in the tea leaves produced in the local high altitude climate, the canned beverage which is consequently developed is definitely something new.

As for hanging out the "Shuishalien" label, this was hoped to achieve the effect of touching an emotional nerve through building on the rich aboriginal ambience of the Puli--Sun Moon Lake area and its image as having exquisite scenery.

In addition, Puli's famous local product, red sugar cane, has also been included on Taiwan Sugar's list of food products to develop. Besides processing sugar cane juice, "we discovered in our research that you can process out 21 types of amino acids that the human body needs from the end of the sugar cane stick, which, not being sweet, has been treated as waste; it thus becomes great material for health drinks," says Hsieh Chao-cheng. If successful, Puli's Taiwan Sugar land could switch over to planting red sugar cane.

Because Puli's climate and altitude are suitable for the growth of fungi, Taiwan Sugar is also designing a series of health foods. They will plant fomes japonica (a medicinal fungus) in the mountains and market capsules of the fungus commercially.

Splitting the food market into three parts: Skill at using local resources and a dedicated management strategy have brought new life to the "old familiar" Taiwan Sugar.

"Puli is right in the geographic center of Taiwan. Some people say that Taiwan's contemporary food market is 'controlled by President in the north and by Wei chuan in the south.' Although Taiwan Sugar is getting off the blocks relatively late, one day you may be hearing 'Taiwan Sugar controls the center,'" says Hsieh with confidence, because "there are still so many treasures to be unearthed at our Puli!" Though his home is in Taichung, because he has worked in Puli for nearly a decade, when you get right down to it, his heart already belongs to Puli.

[Picture Caption]

Taiwan Sugar, taking its materials from the special products of the Puliarea, is promoting its "Shuishalien" beverage series. (photo by VincentChang)