Sketch of Archilife Study Tour, March 2019
2019年3月份見識之旅縮影 ![]() For the study tour of March 16, 2019, Ms. Lu Ming-yun led 24 ARF interns and their parents on a tour of old railroad track and learned about organic food and farming in Miaoli. It was clear and sunny on the day of the tour, and the interns and their parents were on time for the departure. At the start of the day's activities, team leader Ms. Lu Ming-yun reminded everyone about things to note and what to observe, and provided the interns some general background knowledge. ![]() The morning's itinerary began with a ride on Miaoli's old mountain line rail bike. After a video explanation of the safety precautions and steering guidelines, everyone cycled to and back from Liyutan Dam, passing Longteng Bridge and Yutengping Iron Railway Bridge, and enjoyed beautiful scenery of the mountain town and appreciated the craftsmanship of early railway from different angles. Back at Longteng Bridge after the ride, chief executive of the local development association, Mr. Chen Chunghe, introduced Miaoli as the only county city in Taiwan with two international "slow city" certifications. Recently, the operation of the old mountain line rail bike has helped the public deepen its impression of Sanyi railway culture. 接著導覽老師講述龍騰斷橋的歷史淵源與價值,因歷經關刀山大地震及921大地震侵襲,僅剩北端六座及南端四座橋墩,部分橋墩亦有受損,十分可惜。隨後步行至南斷橋,可見雀榕盤據於磚造橋墩的特殊景象,呈現人造建築與自然巧妙結合的樣貌,但雀榕氣生根牢牢盤繞,長期而言卻不利橋墩保存,如何維護與取捨,正是當下刻不容緩的議題。 The tour guide, Mr. Chen, also talked about the history and value of Longteng Bridge, which is left with only six abutments at the northern end and four abutments at the southern end, and some damaged abutments, after surviving the Shinchiku-Taichu earthquake in 1935 and Chichi earthquake in 1999. Walking to the south end of the bridge, everyone saw the unique scenery of a red fruit fig tree entwining the brick-built bridge, which is an ingenious combination of manmade structure and nature. However, the entwining roots are unfavorable for preservation of the abutments in the long term. Thus, the urgent issue is how to protect the bridge. ![]() After an organic lunch at Huixiang Organic Farm, the tour guides brought everyone on a tour of the farm and explained that the farm practices ecological farming method. It does not use any pesticide, herbicide or chemical fertilizer, and advocates cultivating plants with unique scents to ward off pests, for example, planting spring onion in the strawberry field, and making use of feeding relationships in the food chain to reduce pests such as ladybugs eat aphids. To control weed, vegetables are grown together with weed plants. If weed plants grow too high, they are cut off without uprooting so as to prevent aggressive weed species from damaging the farmland's ecological balance, and the cut off weed plants are used as soil compost. The farm also has an area where flowering plants are grown and an ecological pond is dug out to provide habitat for insects and to lower the surrounding temperature. In the carrot field, everyone had fun harvesting and tasting freshly plucked and washed carrots. At the end of the tour, the interns tried their hands at DIY tofu for the first time, and felt truly accomplished after completing the pulping, washing and curd making. At this point, the day's itinerary came to an end. Everyone took a group photo before heading back and looked forward to the next study tour. |