Hakka settlement in Nantou

Puli Township is located in the center of Nantou County and is known as the "Heart of Taiwan." There are many popular attractions in the area, such as Puli Brewery (埔里酒廠), Guang Xing Paper Mill (廣興紙寮), Taomi Ecological Park Paper Dome (桃米生態園區紙教堂), Chung Tai Chan Monastery (中台禪寺), etc. Puli also has a unique Hakka settlement.

New Era Art Resort & Spa∣牛耳藝術渡假村

New Era Art Resort & Spa is the first stone-themed leisure park in Taiwan. It was built in 1987 and covers an area of about 660 acres. It overlooks the township of Puli. The park displays the sculptures of artist Lin Yuan (林淵). More than 200 tung trees are planted in the park. In April and May each year, the white tung blossoms fall on the lush green lawn, forming a white tung blossom carpet, which is like a fairyland on earth. From June to October during the popular season of viewing butterflies, as many as 1,000 butterflies can be seen here. It has now developed into a resort that combines food, art and accommodation.

Guangcheng Hakka Culture Park∣廣成客家文化園區

Located in Puli, Guangcheng village is a Hakka-based settlement. In 2014, it was subsidized by the Hakka Affairs Council to establish the first “Hakka Cultural Park” in the county. This place was commonly known as Xiaopu Community in the era of Japanese occupation. It was originally a primitive forest that had not yet been developed. Later, a large number of white sugar cane were planted for Taiwan’s sugar production industry. For the convenience of transportation, a small train was built to travel from the Puli Sugar Factory to Xiaopu Community, and the sugarcane was transported by a small train to the sugar factory to make granulated sugar. At present, the landmark of a train engine sits next to the entrance of Xiaopu Community, which is used to highlight the history of the local railway.

The park completely preserves the early sugar mill’s train engine, the railroad track, and the round switch. It also displays a retired F5E fighter aircraft and vehicle, which are not to be missed by military fans. Another feature is that the park is full of tung trees. When the tung blossoms are in bloom, you can enjoy the beauty of what is known as “May snow.” This is also one of the hot spots for seeing Nantou’s popular tung blossoms.

Nearby, there is also the attraction "Xiaopu Community Bridge.” Since the surface of the bridge is made of glass, it’s also known as the “Glass Bridge". It is lit every Saturday night and offers a beautiful view of Xiaopu’s rural area.

Yixin Community∣一新社區

Yixin Community is located in the northwest of Puli. In the early days, the area was used by indigenous people. The Han people began living here about 120 years ago. More than 90% of the Han people moving to the area were Hakka people. They came from Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli in Taiwan. In the past few years, as the community continued to promote green conservation, rehabilitating aphyocypris moltrechti, which is a kind of precious and rare fish in Taiwan, and striving to promote local crops such as white bamboo shoots, coffee beans, and loofah, gradually enriched the Yixin Community.

When you think of Hakka culture, you will think of pickled vegetables. The typical Hakka village mainly pickles dried radish and dried cabbage. However, the eco-farm in Yixin Community chooses to pickle the locally famous "white bamboo shoots," which is also called water bamboo shoots. The deliciously pickled white bamboo shoots gradually developed into a healthy souvenir that visitors to the area like to buy. The deliciousness of the white bamboo shoots in Puli is well-known and attributed to the excellent local water quality. The farm has now been transformed into an organic production facility. When you visit Puli, in addition to enjoying the beautiful pastoral scenery, you can also experience the fun of harvesting white bamboo shoots.