—"A Story of the Land of Peach Bloom," by Tao Chien (372-427 A.D.)
On this drizzly autumn morning, the scenery along the freeway from Taipei to Hsinchu was brushed with misty grey. After an hour's drive, the broad freeway intersects with a country road; a half· hour more down this lane is a sign: "Staff Recreation Center of the United Daily News Group." The turn, this time, is up a winding, single-lane mountain path, across a slope set with plantations of tea shrubs amid bamboos, morning-glory, hibiscus, and many others. The traveler may well lose track of both distance and time, as did Tao Chien's fisherman of old.
In the short story by Tao Chien, the fisherman comes accidentally upon a hidden village whose inhabitants are clad in strange attire. They tell the fisherman that their ancestors fled here during the ancient Chin (221-207 B.C.) Dynasty, escaping from the terror and confusion of that regime, and that they and their progeny had never since set foot into the outer world.
They were, thus, completely unaware that over the live centuries they had settled their pretty village, the Chin Dynasty had given way to the Han, and the Han to the Wei and the Tsin. The villagers led very happy, complacent lives, to a degree that was unattainable in the outside world. After a few days, the fisherman returned to his home. Later, when he went again to find the village, he could not, no mailer how hard he tried.
Dubbed Nan Yuan (Southern Land), the recreation center is almost as unaccessible as the legendary Peach-Blossom Village, and approaches the fictional village as an out-of-the-world Utopia as well. Its beautiful selling and exquisite grounds, designed by a distinguished architect, Dr. Han Pao-te, are reserved for the general appreciation of staff members of the United Daily News Group. Ours was a rare outsider visit. Indeed, the general public has only a dim idea of Nan Yuan from the rather limited reports that have appeared in the publications of the United Daily News Group.
Through a gate, around a sharp curve and past the hills and mounts that crowd the access road, a carefully designed, open ground suddenly appears; Nan Yuan's fine buildings are suddenly and exquisitely silhouetted against grey skies and a verdant cliff. First at hand is a large building known as the Central Region, which provides 36 guest rooms, a basement restaurant, and a children's playhouse (in back). There is also a second-floor recreation room, where guests chat over tea, play at cards, or just enjoy the view through the windows.
In front of the building, a large swimming pool is still under construction. Past it, there is a forest of orange, peach, and wax apple trees, several strawberry and vegetable gardens, and a large fishing pond. Up-turned eaves and pretty pavilions loomed hazily among the trees 200 meters further on, through a misty rain.
An external living space of Nan Lou shares the ambience of the pool.
Out an arch-door, down several hallways, and up wooden stairs to a second-floor balcony in the Central Region, there is a vantage of Nan Lou, the lodging reserved for News Group President-Director Wang Tih-wu. Apart from this residence, all structures are accessible to News Group staff members.
Nan Yuan is surrounded by hills on three sides, and on the other, opens to a gentle, spacious slope. Nan Lou, close against the cliff, occupies the highest point of land in the rec-center itself. In the distance, there is a verdant basin at the far end of the slope, and then consecutive mountain ranges extend in layer upon layer to the brinks of the earth.
A pavilion in the very middle of Nan Yuan overlooks an exquisite pool, the landscaped grounds and cottages surrounding it, and the distant mountains. A bamboo table and chairs in the pavilion blend with the traditional Chinese building materials—wood, bamboo, and red brick.
Down wooden stairs and stone-paths to the pool, one halts at three pavilions, each named according to its vantage—the East, West, and Middle Pavilions. Since they stand at different heights, the views afforded vary dramatically.
Around to the south, there is a clutch of family suites, each with several bedrooms, a livingroom, and a complete kitchen. Most ingeniously designed here are two hsuan (balconies with windows) constructed directly over the waters of the pool.
In the Yu Le Hsuan (the Balcony of Bright Fish), two glass panels wedged in the floor can each hold up to 500 kg. From a chair, you may watch the fish through the glass.
The Shui Feng Hsuan (the Water and Wind Balcony) was named by scholar-artist Chang Fo-chien, at the behest of News Group President-Director Wang. Chang named twenty structures at Nan Yuan and composed 25 couplets to remark the beauty of specific locales. The various titles and couplets are inscribed on poles, wooden walls, bamboo, stones, and even glass.
The waters of the Orchid Garden control its mood, sparkling or somber, in appropriate blues and greens.
Along the narrow, winding stone paths, there are more pavilions and balconies, and three gardens named according to the featured plants growing in them: the Kuei Yuan(Laurel Garden), Lan Yuan (Orchid Garden), and Chu Yuan (Bamboo Garden). Seeming deadends on the path turn at corners and new scenes spread out, to be seen from progressively different angles.
The general architecture and building materials are those of the traditional Southern Fukien style. Yet the structures offer new touches—wavy tops on walls, and "vases, bottles, fans" and other interesting shapes for windows and gates to passageways.
The pool flaunts small boats, an arched bridge, and a cascade. Surrounding it are stones piled into various shapes, weeping willows bending gracefully, and flowers here and there ... a Western philosopher once noted, "Architecture is stereoscopic poetry."
Wang Tih-wu, a former army general, had been infatuated with newspapers since childhood. In 1951, when he retired from the army, he established the forerunner to the United Daily News, his 120 staff members working in ramshackle, rented facilities; the circulation of his paper was in the neighborhood of 12,000 copies. Through difficult times and low circulations, he encouraged the staff to strive "like a family," and he himself often rode an old bicycle, running errands.
Thirty-live years later, he publishes live newspapers and six magazines, and operates a publishing company, a news agency, and a computer information company. His publications, circulating at home and abroad, well exceed one million daily copies. Some 3,000-plus staff members work in the three modern buildings of the United Daily News Group of the 1980s.
Wang has always been "staff-conscious." In 1955, as the United Daily News was just leaving its hard days behind, he established a staff welfare foundation which provided special grants for weddings, funerals, hospitalization, children's education, retirement, and other special needs. When the government required employee insurance programs a few years later, he provided his staff with a much expanded coverage. His concern for his employees reputedly goes even to daily trivials, as he seeks to keep them free as possible of personal worries-the goal is a vigorous, up-beat, high-morale operation.
Detail of a decorative new column with an ancient heritage.
In 1981, the United Daily News' 30th anniversary, Wang, then 70 and battling liver troubles, finally thought about retiring. But he found complete retirement to be definitely impossible. To ease his lifestyle, though, he planned to build himself a retreat in the country, where he could putter in a garden-a long-harbored dream. He bought the vast slope at Hsinpu Village, Hsinchu County, and invited Dr. Han Pao-te, the well-known architect, to design a simple cottage where he could spend his holidays gardening, reading, and chatting with friends.
When Han came to look the site over, he was awed by its possibilities—a gently downward slope encompassed by cliffs on three sides, it opened to faraway mountains. He was taken with the idea of fuller development in the traditional Chinese style as the ideal treatment for such a site and, when he returned to Taipei, explained the idea to Wang's sons, since Wang, himself, was abroad on business. The sons were receptive, and Han began work on an overall plan.
Earlier, in the United States, Han had done much research on Chinese architecture and landscaping at the famed Oriental Art Library at Harvard. His ongoing research in Taiwan included the collection of architectural information extant in traditional Chinese paintings. Han had also participated in the investigatory and renovation work for the old Lin Gardens, and in other such renovative projects. Yet, he says, it never once occurred to him that he would one day have the opportunity to design such a facility himself.
He determined to make this new complex superior to any private residential garden-complex in the long history of China. On the spacious 20-plus hectare site, ponds, cascades, streams—all would be available to meet the requisites of traditional Chinese design. But the hills themselves were something new: The vantage of the site, amid magnificent mountains, made possible a unique grandeur.
Overwhelmed by Han's submitted design, Wang, after a moment's silence, exclaimed: "I could never enjoy such a wonderful place all by myself. Let's make it into a recreation center for the entire staff."
Han modified the design to meet this purpose, and the construction project was soon under way. He assembled a team of old craftsmen, many of whom had joined him previously in reviving historic sites, erecting the requisite poles, beams, and decorative eaves, and embellishing them with carvings. Another team worked on the landscaping, selecting and carefully positioning the appropriate plants. Even the stone-laying around the pool and in the gardens was carried out by master workers whose devotion was not just to a workmanlike job, but to an artistic challenge.
The Tung Hsin Lou dining hall shares the outdoors.
Two years later, the main structures were finished. Wang was so delighted at the results that he looted his Taipei residence, making use of much of his personal art collection to decorate the halls and rooms at Nan Yuan.
On September 16, 1985, the 34th anniversary of the United Daily News, twenty-three buses transported more than 2,000 United Daily News Group employees—in two circuits—to Hsinpu Village and splendid Nan Yuan. At 10:30 a.m., Mr. and Mrs. Wang Tih-wu cut the ribbon and announced the formal opening of the recreation complex as fireworks burst on all sides.
"As you can see," he told the assemblage, "we have plenty of room for more facilities. Now under construction are camping sites, a large fishing pond, children's playgrounds, golf links, and more fruit and vegetable gardens."
Surely, Tao Chien's lost village has now reappeared.