A couple of trails in Zhuzihu have been renovated and connected by Taipei’s Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) to serve as a reminder of the local rice culture in the old days.  

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/12/11
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—Most people know that Zhuzihu (竹子湖) ) is home to

A couple of trails in Zhuzihu (竹子湖) have been renovated and connected (photo courtesy of GEO)

Yangmingshan’s calla lilies, but few have any idea that the valley tucked between Taipei’s Mt. Tatun and Mt. Qixing was the earliest breeding base of Ponlai Rice (Japonica rice) when Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule (1895 to 1945). A couple of trails in Zhuzihu have been renovated and connected by Taipei’s Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) to serve as a reminder of the local rice culture in the old days.

During the Japanese colonial period, a Japanese engineer found that the Zhuzihu area was very suitable for planting short-grained Japanese rice cultivars because the area was situated on high terrain, the temperatures were low and the water quality was good. Therefore, cultivation of rice began in the area as early as in the 1920s.  [FULL  STORY]