Taiwan Today

A ride on the small trains used to transport sugarcane in days gone by gives tourists a taste of adventure, history and nostalgia.

At first, the far-off whistle is indistinct, but the sound grows louder and in a short while, a steam locomotive hauling a dozen colorfully painted passenger cars chugs into view. “The train is coming! The train is coming!” several children exclaim with excitement. The train finally pulls into the station at the Wushulin Recreation Park located in Tainan County, southern Taiwan. Tourists who have been waiting in line on the platform eagerly hop aboard to set out on the 50-minute adventure through the woods, with Taiwanese songs from a bygone era playing along the way.

Operated by Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC), the park occupies the grounds of a plant that processed sugar between 1910 and 1983. Today, however, the Wushulin railway carries tourists, not sugar, and the plant has been transformed into a museum. Four other old TSC railway lines and plants in western Taiwan have also been refurbished to welcome tourists, including those in Xihu, Changhua County; Suantou, Chiayi County; Xinying, Tainan County; and Qiaotou, Kaohsiung County.

The sights of small trains carrying sugarcane, and children nibbling sugarcane that fell from the train cars, as well as the sounds of their big engines getting up to speed and the train whistles echoing across the countryside, are unforgettable memories for members of the older generations in Taiwan. TSC’s small trains are a legacy of Taiwan’s sugar industry, which played an integral role in the island’s economic development because sugar was one of the first locally produced commodities to be exported in large quantities for the international market.

Sugar Center

Up until the early 1600s, the local sugar industry operated on a small scale exclusively to satisfy domestic demand. But during the era of Dutch colonial rule (1624−1662), Taiwan became a trade and transshipment center for sugar and other products to mainland China, Japan and the Netherlands. During the early part of Qing dynasty rule in Taiwan (1683−1895), sugarcane was grown mostly in the western plains from Yunlin County in central Taiwan to Tainan County. By the late 18th century, the crop had spread further south and was exported from Kaohsiung Harbor, which prospered from the growing traffic.

Still, it was not until Japanese rule (1895−1945) that sugar-processing techniques were modernized. Under the colonial concept of “Industrial Japan; Agricultural Taiwan,” Japanese authorities sought to develop Taiwan into a stable supplier of sugar and rice. The first modern sugar factory was built at the turn of the century and many more were established subsequently in other areas. During this period, the factories could press more than 300 metric tons of sugarcane per day, compared to only 1,000 kilograms in old-style mills. In addition to cane sugar, the factories turned out useful sugar byproducts such as ethanol and pulp. To ensure quicker delivery of sugarcane from the fields to the factories, the first narrow-gauge (762 millimeter) railway was constructed in 1907.

TSC was established in 1946, one year after the end of World War II and Japan’s withdrawal from Taiwan. The state-run enterprise took over the operation of 40 mills and 15 ethanol factories previously controlled by Japanese companies or individuals and adopted modern techniques to improve farmland cultivation, as well as automated equipment to boost production efficiency.

Consequently, the island’s sugar industry picked up and flourished from the early 1950s through the mid-1960s, a period during which some 100,000 hectares of sugarcane fields produced more than 1 million metric tons of sugar annually. During the industry’s heyday, sugar products constituted around 70 percent of Taiwan’s foreign trade, becoming the leading export commodity.

Meanwhile, TSC constructed more railways to address the rapidly growing need to transport not only sugarcane, but also passengers, as the trains also served as public transportation. The lines gradually stretched out across numerous rural villages, at one point reaching a total length surpassing 3,000 kilometers and forming the most important transportation network in Taiwan at the time.

By the mid-1970s, however, rising production costs had made Taiwan’s sugar products less competitive, while at the same time the island’s rapid industrialization had drawn labor away from the agricultural sector. TSC thus announced plans in the 1980s to close its sugar factories one by one. Presently, only two—one in Huwei, Yunlin County and another in Shanhua, Tainan County—remain in operation. International sugar prices began to fall in 1990, making production of the commodity even less attractive, but the biggest decline occurred following Taiwan’s 2002 entry into the World Trade Organization, which led to an increasing volume of sugar imports. As sugar production dropped and highways were built to facilitate automobile traffic, the small trains transporting sugarcane and passengers largely stopped running.

Diversification Program

To regain its profitability, TSC, which still retains abundant land resources, has since embarked on a diversification program by expanding its line of sugarcane byproducts and venturing into animal husbandry, biotechnology, horticulture, real estate development, petroleum and tourism. The railroad servicing the Wushulin Recreation Park was the first of the five Taiwan Sugar lines to be rehabilitated and opened to the public as part of this scheme.

Wushulin Sugar Plant was established in 1910 and closed in 1983. It remained unused until 1989, when TSC moved to establish an agricultural development center equipped with a greenhouse and related facilities there to cultivate moth orchids. In 2001, the factory and its environs were transformed into a recreational park, with the train cars that were previously used to carry sugar converted to carry tourists and the idled railway warehouses renovated and turned into museum, exhibition and sales areas. In addition to the conservation of a historic train station and railway tracks built when Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the park houses a museum that features an eclectic mix of dinosaur replicas, sculptures, precious stones, folk culture items and an indoor amusement area, together with exhibition halls that showcase historical artifacts, insect specimens and orchid species.

“The train tour is the biggest draw at the park,” says 65-year-old visitor Chang Feng-zhu. “In fact, I saw this kind of small train loaded with sugarcane passing through our village when I was little, but I never had a chance to take a ride. I still remember that my mother and I would go to the fields to pick up the leftover sugarcane leaves. We took them home as cooking fuel or to feed to the pigs.”

“We’re having a great time on the train,” says Wang Jian-zhong, on a recent visit to the park with his wife and two children. “The scenery along both sides of the railway line is beautiful, and we can appreciate the old trees and different kinds of plants. For adults like us, the train brings back childhood memories, but for my little boys, it’s a novel experience since they usually only get to take normal trains, the high-speed rail or the metro.”

Su Qing-hui, manager of Wushulin Recreation Park, says the old railway station, clusters of old trees and the historical and cultural importance of the sugar industry constitute the most appealing characteristics of his park, adding that stepping into the well-preserved train station in particular is like turning back the pages of history. The trip back in time continues on the tourist train, which is pulled by either a refurbished steam locomotive or one of a pair of old diesel engines. The train tours are available at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. from Monday to Friday, and hourly from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the weekends and holidays, with tickets costing NT$100 (US$3).

Su says that TSC’s shift to the promotion of tourism has preserved precious cultural assets like the trains and sugar factories, which help illustrate Taiwan’s transition from an agricultural, rural society into an industrial, urban one. “Our facilities and package tours are designed to combine recreation with culture and education,” Su says. “We’ve put guides on the trains, in the museum and at the exhibition sites to explain the history of the island’s sugar production. We think our visitors find that their trips have been worthwhile.”

New Era

Of Taiwan Sugar’s railways, the one in Qiaotou is the oldest, as it was the company’s first narrow-gauge line, built in 1907 to connect with the Qiaotou Sugar Plant. The factory opened in 1901, its machinery ushering in a new era of sugar production, which was previously done in traditional mills and by hand. Changing times and changes in the market prevented the factory from reaching the 100-year mark, however, as it ceased operations
in 1999.

As part of the TSC’s tourism initiative, the Qiaotou plant was reborn in 2006 as a museum devoted to Taiwan’s sugar industry. Today, the museum details the sugar manufacturing process, from sugarcane cultivation, harvesting and transportation to the steps involved in creating the final product. Some of this interpretation is provided by film and multimedia presentations, while an old warehouse with a number of restored machines gives visitors a more complete understanding of the process.

Conveniently situated in Qiaotou Township, Kaohsiung County, where the conventional railway and Kaohsiung metro lines converge, the Qiaotou Sugar Plant was officially designated by the Kaohsiung County Government as a historic site in 2000 and by the Council for Cultural Affairs as a cultural landscape in 2006, the fifth one of its kind in Taiwan. Jiang Zhao-cheng, a management section chief at TSC, says that along with two steam locomotives imported from Belgium in 1948, the Qiaotou facility still preserves several parts of its original, century-old, Japanese-designed structures, including office buildings, production lines and dormitories, thus giving it great historical significance.

Like the Wushulin Sugar Plant, the Qiaotou facility has also overhauled its remaining sugar trains to carry tourists. Two notable features of the Qiaotou train tour, Jiang says, are the 25-hectare Taiwan Sugar Museum at one end and the 16-hectare floriculture center at the other end. Whereas the Qiaotou line previously connected the sugar factory to the sugarcane fields, the current route was designed to facilitate tourism. The floriculture center, Jiang adds, is like a recreational farm where visitors not only can appreciate beautiful flowers in different seasons, but also have picnics and barbecues.

Qiaotou runs six train tours each Saturday and Sunday, with a round trip taking 24 minutes and costing NT$80 (US$2.50). Groups of more than 30 people can make reservations for train rides on weekdays.

On a visit to Qiaotou Sugar Plant with her son, Hsiao Mei-ru says that the boy “has been fascinated with any train-related stuff—including rail travel and train models. So he’s excited about coming here. The ride is fun and relaxing—it winds slowly past the rice farm, sugarcane field and fruit orchard so you can see the rural beauty of the area. Plus, my son has learned about Taiwan’s sugar industry in his kindergarten class. It’s good that he can come here and learn more about it from the displays and old railway cars.”

The Xinying line in Tainan County stands out among TSC’s tourist railway lines because at 4.6 kilometers, it is the longest of the old sugar lines in Taiwan. Manager Wu Ming-cheng explains that the Xinying Sugar Plant was established in 1908 and stopped producing sugar in 2001. It was reborn in 2003 as the Xinying Railway Cultural Park with the aim of providing a combined overview of community culture, history and industry.

Big Attraction

Wu says the park preserves train memorabilia, photos, production equipment, the Japanese-style dormitories and railroad cars and tracks. The long train ride, however, is the big attraction. “Tourists can simply sit back and listen to our experienced guide talking about sugar history and culture,” Wu says. “Or they might just want to listen to melodies from the old days to take a trip back in time.”

Like the Qiaotou line, the Xinying line was modified to attract tourists. “Our train travels from the city and passes through a rural village, a bridge over a creek and plantations of rice, mulberries and sugarcane to a dairy farm,” Wu says. “The dairy farm at the terminal stop is the biggest one in Taiwan. It has some 15,000 cows and the daily milk production accounts for one-fifth of the island’s total. Over there, visitors can learn all about dairy cows, feed or milk them, and they can also sample assorted dairy products.”

Wu says that since their debut, the tourist trains at Xinying have become popular not only among residents of Taiwan, but also tourists from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. So far, some 700,000 visitors have taken a ride on the Xinying line.

In the heyday of sugar production in Taiwan, tons of the plump, reddish-brown sugarcane stalks were harvested, bundled and loaded onto trains every day. The trains then hauled the precious cargo on narrow-gauge rails to sugar mills, where white smoke belched from tall chimneys and the sweet aroma of the cane juice filled the air as it was boiled down to produce raw sugar. These are fond memories for many older people in Taiwan, but with the revival of TSC’s sugar trains, the younger generations, as well as tourists from abroad, are now also able to experience a sweet journey into the past.

Write to Kelly Her at kelly@mail.gio.gov.tw