Though right on top of the great urban market, Taipei's suburban agriculture also courts significant disadvantages so near the bustling city. For instance, because of the scattered nature of suburban farmland distribution, marketing operations are piecemeal; wages are generally higher, because the city's industry and commerce compete actively for manpower; and other costs of agricultural production are also higher.
Another negative for Taipei area farmers, since the great South-North Freeway opened to traffic, has been the efficient transport of agricultural products from the productive farmlands of middle and south Taiwan, since this reduces the suburban advantage of geographical proximity to Taipei markets.
Among the special pluses, the most obvious is a concentrated population of active consumers; another is a recreation habit of city denizens, who go to the green lands on the outskirts to relax on holidays.
How to take advantage of such favorable conditions and diminish the effects of the unfavorable ones have been the core questions for policy planning for greater Taipei's agricultural development. One response has been the concept of kuan kuang nung yuan (recreational farmland), formulated to link suburban agriculture more directly to city residents' holiday excursions.
The "recreational farmland" concept seeks to appropriately open suburban farms to outside visitors for tours and recreation and/or direct purchase of agricultural products. In this way, not only are costly distribution problems overcome, urban recreation opportunities are enhanced.
According to the Reconstruction Bureau of the Taipei City Government, to assure the goals of the new program, participating farms must meet specific criteria for inclusion: the farm must be conveniently accessible; its scenic setting must be attractive; the existing scale of its agricultural production must, to some extent, be linked with others in a central area; and the Chinese traditional agricultural ambience must be explicitly preserved.
Once designated, through the active efforts of the Taipei City Government and the district farmers' associations, tea plantations, citrus orchards, ornamental plant nurseries, truck gardens, and strawberry and mushroom farms have been opened for the tourism-purchase program, one by one.
Each year from Ching Ming Day (Tomb-sweeping Day, April 5), on the hillsides of Chihnan Borough, Mucha (in Taipei's southern suburbs), straw-hatted men and women in groups, bamboo baskets at their waists, pick the tender tea leaves from carefully tended plants in the green, ordered plantation beds. Each tea-farming household, taking advantage of the bright spring sunshine, then rushes to dry the newly picked tea leaves in the courtyards fronting their houses. Passersby are heady with the special fragrance of the new tea leaves.
A "full picture of spring tea" is ready for visitors to the Mucha plantations, from the picking of the leaves through every processing step.
Arborvitae shrubs await gardeners at a participating Shihlin nursery.
This plantation tour, the first Taipei "recreational farmland" operation, is centered in Chihnan Borough, Mucha, on the hillsides between the famous Chih Nan Temple and National Cheng-chi University.
This is the only locale in Taiwan growing tieh Kuan Yin ("the iron of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva," Goddess of Mercy), one of the great tea varieties of China, cultivated extensively in Anhsi County, Fukien Province, in the 18th Century.
A legend handed down from old Anhsi describes the origins of tieh Kuan Yin:
Some 200 years ago, an Anhsi villager named Wei Yin, a pious Buddhist, habitually dedicated a new cup of tea each morning to the Kuan Yin image at the temple on the nearby mountain.
One morning, as he was on his way to the temple, he spied a small tea seedling near a boulder; in the rays of the morning sun, its leaves radiated a golden light—very different from the green tint of ordinary tea plants.
He felt wonder, transplanted it to a pot at home and cared for it carefully. When the tea plant matured, he picked the leaves for tea, finding its fragrance especially good.
Wei propagated the tea plant by layering—rooting its branches—and its cultivation flourished. And he cherished it the more because he considered it a gift from the goddess Kuan Yin. The addition of "iron" to its otherwise otherworldly name is thought now to be because its leaves are heavier and denser and the infused tea color thicker than the ordinary—as iron differs from bronze and copper.
The tieh Kuan Yin cultivated at Mucha was reputedly introduced toward the end of the Ching Dynasty through the efforts of two brothers, Chang Nai-miao and Chang Nai-chien, who were dispatched by a local tea company to specifically bring back tieh Kuan Yin seedlings from Anhsi. These seedlings were planted at Chang Hu Hill, Mucha (in today's Chihnan Borough), because the soil and climate of this area are similar to those of Anhsi.
Ever since, tea has been the main, indeed almost the sole agricultural crop in Chihnan Borough, through the Japanese occupation to the present. The traditional tea processing techniques of the area have been passed down from one generation to the next.
Splendid sub-tropic blooms beckon from all directions.
Since the 1980 designation of the Mucha tea plantations as recreational farmland, city funds have been budgeted annually to improve access roads, and city small-bus service inaugurated. To reward quality tea production, agricultural agencies conduct competitions among grower-processors. And such public facilities as wayside pavilions, route signs, and the newly opened Tea Demonstration Center directly service tourism.
Home improvement funds have been made available to area farmers, and the area's once ubiquitous "mud-block" houses have given way to comfortable, dual-purpose buildings. Usually, a first floor is utilized as the family tea processing workshop and sales facility, and an upper floor accommodates family living.
The designated Mucha recreational tea-farming district covers about 80 hectares, cultivated by some 60 households. With up to five area tea harvests each year (the two in spring are the major ones), supply is endlessly refurbished. "And now, all the tea I produce is bought directly by tourists, never sold through distributors," underwrites tea producer Chang Fu-sheng.
Visitors not only inspect his plantation but enjoy the surrounding mountain scenes. They are warmly received by all plantation proprietors with fragrant, new-made tea, and witness demonstrations of the art of tea infusing.
One particular advantage of tieh Kuan Yin is that it can support repeated infusing. Actually, the best brew is from the third infusing. It is a very different case for other tea varieties, which become progressively weaker with each use.
Although almost all the participating tea farmers have now invested in tea-processing machines, "the best tea can only be produced semi-mechanically, because machines cannot fully supplant hand-processing," maintains tea farmer Chang Yin. From the very beginning—planting the seedlings to picking of the leaves, spreading and turning the harvest for sun-drying, the rubbing operation to break up the leaves, and careful fermentation to produce specific flavors and aromas—it is really demanding work. Though visitors can not pick tea leaves or otherwise test the process themselves, they leave with first hand knowledge of tea growing and processing, a real comprehension of the farmers' total task.
Potted plants are a Peitou specialty year round.
But it is clearly a two-way street: According to city statistics, tourist visits have added an annual average of NT$300,000 (US$7,500) to the income of each tea-farm household.
In March 1981, a second recreational farmland district was opened, this time to exploit the greater potential of the Peitou citrus orchards, near the hot spring resort's scenic Ta Tun and Chung Cheng Mountains.
At some 600 meters above sea level, the climate here is cooler—just right for the "Yangmingshan tankan," which is famous for its specially delicious flavor.
The tankan looks like an orange, though its peel is rougher and not so fine-textured. Its sweet taste is its special attraction. The local orchardists habitually note to customers that the tankan is "ugly outside, sweet inside."
Because these orchards are on hillsides, it is difficult to harvest the matured fruit, and both labor and transportation are comparatively expensive. Joined to these factors, improvements in cultivation techniques finally resulted in overproduction. These definite marketing headaches have now been cured by the organization of a recreational orchard district.
"Too many people, no doubt, still nervously recall the stealthy excitement of picking a farmer's oranges or pineapples for a quick treat. In a recreational orchard, they can now enjoy picking the tree-fresh fruit openly, without fear or guilt," joked Kuo Chung-chin, section chief of the implementing city Reconstruction Bureau.
The designated Peitou orchard area covers about 150 hectares and involves more than 100 growers, most of whom, at the beginning, took a cool "wait-and-see" attitude toward the new operation.
As once-reluctant orchardist Lin Ting-tu recalls, "My family, for one, had been engaged in growing and selling tankan in traditional ways for four generations. It seemed outlandish to permit visitors to go directly into the orchard and pick their own fruit. What if the tourists were to damage the trees? What if they were to sneak out large quantities of fruit?"
However, the Reconstruction Bureau and district farmers' association persisted in promoting the new operational style, materially assisting by providing new public facilities along the access roads.
The initial experiment proved eminently successful. "Above all expectations, we increased our income by 20 to 30 percent each year," said Lin.
Bounty from a sojourn in Neihu.
Each adult orchard visitor pays NT$30 (about US$0.75), and children half price, for all the fruit they want to eat in the orchard. If they want to pick tankan to take home, the price is set well below the corresponding market price.
The harvest season for tankan is, felicitously, from December to February, coincidental with the year-end holidays, and the recreational orchards then have no dearth of tourists.
Parents like to bring their children to see the fruit-loaded trees—and to let them pick. Many visitors speak of the distinct pleasure of eating fruit fresh from the trees, selected by themselves. "After climbing the slope and sweating, picking, and biting into the fresh fruit, it is all more enjoyable than buying some at a market," an orchard visitor, Mrs. Wang, averred.
The orchardists are really quite concerned about the trees and caution visitors not to damage them while picking fruit. It takes many years for citrus trees to grow and bear; if branches are broken, that can negatively influence the following year's harvest.
The proprietors show tourists the correct way to pick before they begin: cut off the twig and its leaves along with the fruit, about three centimeters from the junction. The tree is thus protected, and in this way also, pickers will not strip a section of peel nor hurt their hands.
Also in the Peitou district are the Yangmingshan recreational ornamental plant nurseries, in a three-part area of 28 hectares cultivated by some 60 growers.
Each year when the blossom season begins in Yangmingshan Park, tens of thousands of people crowd access roads to view the great variety of plants in full bloom. On their way back home, they will often visit a nursery and buy young ornamental plants.
The focal plant at these nurseries is the azalea, in countless varieties. According to nursery proprietor Tsao Chun-cheng, he has so far grown more than 200 azalea varieties, which show marked differences in size, shrub appearance, and blossom color. He pointed some out: "That is Good Moon; this is Happy ; this one is Eight-chih (about Two Meters) Mirror; here is Dark Rose...."
The offerings go far beyond azaleas, including camellias, black pines, blossoming trees such as the flowering Mei, cherry, and peach, the dragon juniper, golden cypress, chrysanthemums, and more.
The recreational nursery district is more conventional than the others: no ticket is necessary to enter.
At the northeastern corner of suburban Shihlin, the Shihlin recreational farmland district covers 400 hectares in four boroughs.
Over the four seasons, this sloping area produces citrus, strawberries, various vegetables, wax apples, and ornamental plant varieties. At almost any time of year, there will be one or more crops mature enough for harvesting. The area is referred to as a comprehensive recreational farmland district.
The citrus orchards and ornamental plant nurseries here were the first to be opened to visitors, in July 1982.
The fruit produced here, as at Peitou, belongs to the Yangmingshan tankan species.
Shihlin's recreational ornamental plant nurseries, more vast than at Peitou, cover about 80 hectares. Since the natural conditions at Peitou and Shihlin are similar, the plant varieties offered are also similar.
In February this year, the Shilin district farmers' association linked centered nursery areas in Pingteng and Chingshan boroughs to establish a giant "flower farm"—a tourist destination covering about 30 hectares, involving 30 farm households.
The good-natured horticulturists involved are always busy pruning, and are ready to answer questions as the tourists walk and look around freely. But not until a visitor has selected a young plant will such a worker come over to join a patron. Then, shovel in hand, he will dig and package the plant on the spot.
There are many tourists here on holidays—sometimes access roads are almost blocked—and nurserymen estimate the number of cash customers at about 20 percent of the crowd. But mass purchases by plant dealers from middle and south Taiwan actually account for the bulk of their business.
The area's recreational strawberry gardens were opened in January 1984, and now cover about 5 hectares. At this higher elevation, the weather is more rainy, and the strawberries are cultivated within tunnel-shaped frames covered with plastic for both protection and warmth.
From January to May, matured strawberries, sensationally red, greet passersby from the orderly beds. Few people in the passing cars, or hiking, can resist the welcome of these lovely strawberry gardens.
The harvest season for wax apples is in July-August. The blushing, cone shaped fruit, juicy and lightly delicious, is indeed a summer treat.
To accommodate the special conditions of recreational orchards, the growers have restrained wax apple tree growth by grafting methods so that tourists can pick the fruit more easily.
Special summertime agricultural items in the comprehensive district are highland vegetables, newly available at Lengshuiken on about 60 hectares.
The island's subtropic climate is not suited to growing many kinds of vegetables. But leaving the lowland plains, the climate changes. Highland vegetables, cultivated here at 750 meters above sea level, now meet a burgeoning demand. Included are cabbages, tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, bamboo shoots, etc., among which the cabbage is in the absolute majority. These vegetables are not only productive in the highlands, but more crisp and sweet than those (which can also be) cultivated on the plains.
In addition to seeing and harvesting fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants in the comprehensive recreation area, tourists can visit such well known nearby attractions as the Cultural City of the China Motion Picture Studio, Shuanghsi Park, the National Palace Museum, and the Mingte Sports Grounds. Branch roads from the farms also reach such beautiful scenic points as Fancy Lake, Sun Valley, the Yangmingshan Pasture, and Yangmingshan Park. Driving or hiking, tourists literally have "their pick" at Shihlin.
Common to the three designated recreational farmland areas is the fact that focal crops—tea, fruits, ornamental plants—were all being cultivated on a substantial scale before the tourism "injection;" the initial changes affected only the operational style. Notably, success in the first experiment, at Mucha, gave credibility to succeeding efforts.
The ongoing program is coordinate with recent public policy to reduce the rice-crop surplus. Crops of high economic value to replace excess rice acreage are being aggressively promoted to reduce rice overproduction—a burden to the nation.
Strawberries, a high value, short-supply crop, are a good example. From the end of 1983, U-pick, recreational strawberry farms have sprouted in the Neihu, Shihlin, and Peitou districts, with Neihu considered to be the most successful, specializing in passion fruit and tomatoes.
Neihu's newest crop, however, is in a different category: Its recreational mushroom nurseries began operating just last year, in a 10 hectare area surrounded by dense acacia groves and green rice paddies. A backdrop of green mountains amid the green fields—all often veiled in mists—creates a "fantasy earth."
In these mushroom nurseries, orderly rows of logs are the "garden beds" for the tasty fungi, which are harvested from September to April. But even though they are a favorite Chinese food, few people have seen them grow. Thus, a "shopping" tour of a mushroom nursery not only satisfies active curiosity, but the gourmet desire for fresh mushrooms (most mushrooms on sale in the markets are dried).
Clearly, after six years, the recreational farmland concept has opened vast new horizons for suburban agriculture. The program has re-established the faith of once buffeted farmers, who can now share in the more affluent lifestyle of their metropolitan neighbors. And not only have they increased their incomes, but on behalf of all the nation's farmers, they are facilitating the rapid development of agricultural technology and of capital-intensive, "delicate" agriculture throughout the ROC.
The Taipei City Government and City Farmers' Association have now jointly programmed a second phase of the recreational farmland concept. Described as the "idyll club" or "holiday pastoral" phase, it involves the dedication of specific land areas for urban resident use—to let them, with the help of farmers, grow their own crops and enjoy the complete pleasures of cultivating and harvesting with their own hands. The city government is preparing a demonstration project. If successful, the prospects would seem limitless.