Changhua County: The Agricultural Giant That Beat Dupont but Can't Keep Its Young People

30-second overview: In 1709, Shi Shibang dug the Babao Canal, diverting water from the Zhuoshui River to irrigate over 19,000 hectares — completed 211 years before Hatta Yoichi's Chianan Canal. In 1723, the first year of the Yongzheng era, the county was carved out from Zhuluo County, "bounded by the Huwei River to the north and the Dajia River to the south," and named Changhua, meaning "to establish learning and teachers to manifest civilized transformation." In 1786, during the Lin Shuangwen Rebellion, Changhua city fell but Lukang held. In 1788, the Qianlong Emperor ordered the construction of an official-funded Mazu temple (Xinzu Gong) in Lukang. In 1922, the Changhua Roundhouse opened. In 1986, Lukang residents launched the anti-Dupont movement — Taiwan's first environmental movement. In April 2026, Changhua County's population stood at 1,206,458, less than 50,000 short of the 1.25 million threshold for special municipality status. Taichung's magnetic pull has been relentless, but this county had a county seat as early as 1723.

The Chrysanthemum Sleepless City — 40 Million Stems a Year

If you ask a Changhua local "when is Changhua least like what you'd expect," they won't tell you daytime on Lukang Old Street (daytime Lukang belongs to tourists). They'll tell you nighttime in Tianwei.

Tianwei Road Garden stretches along both sides of County Road 145, with over 140 businesses spread across a 3.6-kilometer commercial corridor. In 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture designated it as a recreational agriculture zone, covering nearly 297 hectares¹. Provincial Highway 1 is the main artery of Taiwan's western corridor, and Road Garden is a field of chrysanthemums that grew out of that artery.

But go at night, and you'll see something uncanny. The entire chrysanthemum field lights up. Hectare after hectare illuminated, from a distance it looks like a galaxy that landed in the fields.

It's not decorative lighting. Chrysanthemums are short-day plants — when summer daylight exceeds 12 hours, flowering is suppressed. Taiwanese growers use artificial lighting to extend the "day," tricking the chrysanthemums into thinking it's still winter, thus avoiding the supply glut that comes when all the flowers bloom at once. The entire Tianwei chrysanthemum district therefore stays awake all night. Locals call this spectacle the "Chrysanthemum Sleepless City." The chrysanthemum fields cover 120 hectares, producing 40 million stems of various chrysanthemums annually².

Forty million chrysanthemum stems. Among Changhua County's 26 townships, a single township — Tianwei — shoulders half the burden of Taiwan's flower industry by "not letting the chrysanthemums sleep." Meanwhile, 120 kilometers away, Dutch flower auction centers are using the same strategy to compete for global market share. This is Changhua's contemporary structure: an agricultural giant that had a county seat in 1723, finding cracks to survive in global agricultural competition every single day.

"Bounded by the Huwei River to the North and the Dajia River to the South"

In the first year of the Yongzheng era (1723), the Qing court made a decision.

The Changhua County Government's official "Chronicle of Establishment" reads: "The court divided over a hundred li from the middle of Zhuluo County, bounded by the Huwei River to the north and the Dajia River to the south, establishing Changhua County, with the county office at Banxian — present-day Changhua City. This was the beginning of Changhua's establishment."³ Wikipedia similarly records: "Given the vast territory of Zhuluo County was beyond effective governance, in 1723 (the first year of Yongzheng), the Yongzheng Emperor carved out the land north of the old Huwei River and south of the Dajia River to establish Changhua County."⁴

The origin of the county name: the Yongzheng Emperor took the meaning of "establishing learning and teachers to manifest civilized transformation" and "manifesting the Holy Emperor's great flourishing transformation at the edges of the sea," naming this land Changhua³. "Banxian" is the Chinese transliteration of the Babuza tribe's Banxian community. This group, along with part of the Hoanya tribal system, were the original inhabitants of this plain for thousands of years⁵. After the county was established, Banxian city became the county seat, later renamed Changhua.

📝 Curator's note: The establishment dates of Taiwan's administrative districts are often confused. Changhua County was carved out from Zhuluo County in 1723 (first year of Yongzheng), nearly 90 years before the Kavalan Subprefecture of 1812, and 152 years before Shen Baozhen's establishment of Taipei Prefecture in 1875. In other words, Changhua is one of the earliest counties established in Taiwan. But "which number plain is the Changhua Plain" is often misreported. The Chianan Plain at 4,550 km² is Taiwan's largest plain, the Pingtung Plain at 1,210 km² is the second largest⁶, and the Changhua Plain at approximately 900 km² ranks third or smaller. Changhua County itself is the smallest county on Taiwan's main island (1,074.39 km² — the Changhua Tourism Information Network describes itself as "the smallest in area, yet rich in the reputation of 'Taiwan's Granary, the Great Agricultural County'"), with plains accounting for 87.68% of the county⁷, making its agricultural density far exceed its area.

The boundaries set in 1723 still hold today. Changhua County's 26 townships are divided into three terrain tiers: plains (Changhua, Yuanlin, Hemei, Beidou), coastal (Lukang, Fuxing, Erlin, Fangyuan), and tableland (west side of Bagua Mountain). The Bagua Tableland covers approximately 210 km², with its highest point at Hengshan, 440 meters, stretching from the south bank of the Dadu River in the north to the north bank of the Zhuoshui River in the south. The coast is home to Wanggong's oyster farms and Erlin's oyster farms; the tableland is the Bagua Mountain raptor-watching route.

Mr. Lin: The Hydraulic Legend of the Babao Canal, 1709

Before the county was established, this land had already been rewritten by one person.

In the 48th year of the Kangxi reign (1709), Shi Shibang began construction of the Babao Canal in the Banxian area, diverting water from the Zhuoshui River. The project was completed in the 58th year of Kangxi (1719)⁸. The Babao Canal predates Hatta Yoichi's Chianan Canal, completed in 1930, by a full 211 years.

But the project stalled at the beginning. The legend recorded on Wikipedia goes like this: "It is said that during the initial excavation of the Babao Canal, attempts to divert water into the canal repeatedly failed. Legend has it that an old man came to see Shi Shibang and gave him hydraulic diagrams and instructions. Shi Shibang followed his methods and re-excavated using the 'earthwork method,' and succeeded. After the canal was completed, the old man refused payment and would not reveal his name, only calling himself 'Mr. Lin.' Later generations, grateful for his kindness, built the Mr. Lin Temple at the canal head in Ershui to commemorate him."⁸

Babao Canal. Photo: Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA via Wikimedia.

Mr. Lin's true identity remains unsolved to this day. But every November, the Babao Canal waterway in Yuancun Village, Ershui Township, hosts the "Water Running Festival" — a ritual revived after the 1995 "Legend of the Babao Canal" event organized by the Council for Cultural Affairs. The water runners, "heads bound with red cloth, wearing straw raincoats, feet in straw sandals," follow ancient rites to run barefoot into the freshly released flow, welcoming the new year's irrigation water⁹.

The Babao Canal, together with Taipei's Liugong Canal and Kaohsiung's Caogong Canal, are known as the "Three Great Hydraulic Works of the Qing Dynasty," with the Babao Canal being the earliest. The existing Babao First and Second Canals together irrigate approximately 21,400 hectares¹⁰. Today's triple-harvest rice on the Changhua Plain, Yuanlin starfruit, Ershui honey pomelo, Tianwei chrysanthemums, Erlin grapes — all this agricultural density is built on that 21,400-hectare waterway from 1709. A project whose legendary old man refused payment has sustained the land with the highest agricultural density among Taiwan's 22 counties and cities.

Spanning the Changhua-Nantou border, the Babao Canal is a shared heritage of both counties. Shi Shibang's water source comes from the Zhuoshui River weir between Jiji Township and Ershui Township in Nantou County, then diverts to the Changhua Plain.

After "One Prefecture, Two Lukang, Three Mengjia"

The year after the county was established (1724), a port emerged from the maps in the Zhuluo County Gazetteer: Lukang.

The Zhuluo County Gazetteer, completed in 1717 (Kangxi 56), is the earliest recorded map appearance of Lukang. In 1728 (Yongzheng 6), the Lukang Township Office website records: "In the 6th year of Yongzheng, Changhua County established granaries and a school on the west side of Lukang's Rice Market Street, with a plaque reading: 'Heaven's Granary, the Official Provision' (recorded in the Daoguang-era Changhua County Gazetteer, totaling 16 granaries and school rooms)"¹¹. Lukang's 16 rice granaries — the port's Rice Market Street took shape from here.

The real turning point came in 1784. Wikipedia's original text: "Its rise was triggered by the Qing government in 1874, following the model of Lu'ehmen and Xiamen, establishing a specialist administration to open trade between 'Hankou River mouth under Jinjiang County, Fujian Quanzhou Prefecture' and 'Lukang, Changhua County, Taiwan Prefecture.' After this, merchant guilds gathered and commerce flourished, rapidly becoming the largest port in central Taiwan."¹² During Lukang's heyday from the Qianlong to Daoguang reigns, the "Eight Guilds" trading houses and 300 merchant ships traveled back and forth, and Lin Zhensheng of Lukang's Rimao Hang was the wealthiest merchant in the entire port. The saying "One Prefecture, Two Lukang, Three Mengjia" (Tainan Prefecture, Lukang, Mengjia/Bangka) was Taiwan's commercial map from the late 18th to early 19th century.

Lukang Longshan Temple, 2017. Photo: Outlookxp, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia.

In 1786 (Qianlong 51), two things happened simultaneously. One was the relocation of Lukang Longshan Temple to its current site by director Lin Zhensheng and commandant Chen Bangguang. Wikipedia records the architectural features: "The caisson ceiling structure above the stage of Lukang Longshan Temple is the oldest and largest surviving work of its kind in Taiwan. The octagonal caisson ceiling above the stage serves as a resonance chamber during performances." The three-courtyard, two-compound, seven-bay architectural layout¹³ makes it one of the oldest and most complete surviving Qing dynasty temples in Taiwan. The other was the outbreak of the Lin Shuangwen Incident — Changhua city fell, but Lukang, due to its geographic position and commercial power, held. The Qing court dispatched Fukang'an from Lukang to suppress the rebellion, and this campaign became an opportunity for the Qing court to reassess Lukang's strategic position.

In 1788 (Qianlong 53), after Fukang'an suppressed the rebellion, the Qianlong Emperor ordered the construction of an official-funded Mazu temple in Lukang to commemorate the divine assistance of Mazu in quelling the rebellion. This officially funded temple is called "Xinzu Gong" (New Ancestral Palace), formally named "Imperial-Ordered Mazu Temple" (敕建天后宮). It is the only Mazu temple in Taiwan built by imperial decree with government silver, with the shortfall in construction costs donated by Lin Zhensheng of the Rimao Hang¹⁴.

📝 Curator's note: Lukang has two famous Mazu temples that are often conflated. One is "Lukang Mazu Temple" (鹿港天后宮), whose predecessor dates to the late Ming, expanded in 1725 (Yongzheng 3), and is "the only temple in Taiwan that enshrines the founding Mazu from Meizhou Ancestral Temple" — the one most familiar to tourists today. The other is "Xinzu Gong (Imperial-Ordered Mazu Temple)" (敕建天后宮), built with official funds in 1788 under Qianlong. The former is an accumulation of folk belief; the latter is a monument to state power. The two temples represent Lukang's simultaneous possession of two kinds of Mazu culture: "the folk guardian deity of seafaring" and "the imperial merit of quelling rebellion." Treating "1788 Lukang Mazu Temple" as a single temple would flatten these two entirely different historical threads.

Then Lukang began to decline. Three blows came in succession.

The first was harbor silting. Wikipedia's original text: "Lukang's port advantage gradually declined due to sedimentation. After the mid-Jiaqing reign, merchant ships gradually shifted to the southern Wanggong Port."¹² The second was the trunk railway. When the Taiwan Trunk Railway was completed in 1908, the route passed through Changhua City but not through Lukang. The Lukang Kids website writes: "During the Japanese colonial period, Lukang had a low administrative level (it was then Lukang 'Street,' a basic unit in the administrative hierarchy), and major public transportation systems such as Provincial Highway 1 and the trunk railway did not pass through."¹⁵ The third was the 1934 Japanese colonial port consolidation strategy: the Japanese concentrated port operations in Keelung and Kaohsiung, and Lukang's port functions were eliminated.

✦ "Lukang later declined from its peak. The main reasons were harbor siltation making berthing difficult, plus the trunk highway and railway did not pass through, making transportation inconvenient." (Taiwan Panorama, "Lukang"¹⁶)

The "Two Lukang" era of "One Prefecture, Two Lukang, Three Mengjia" ended by the mid-19th century. Lukang's most prosperous period lasted only about 70 years.

Lukang Old Street alleys. Photo: Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA via Wikimedia.

1986: Lukang Said "No"

But Lukang wasn't finished. It still had one more chance to speak.

In 1985, the American firm Dupont planned to build a titanium dioxide production plant in the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park in Lukang. This was a high-pollution chemical operation, with raw materials from mineral sand and byproducts of sulfuric acid and heavy metal wastewater. Lukang's coastal waters were home to Wanggong's oyster farms and Fuxing Wetland, and residents feared marine pollution would directly destroy the fishery.

The resistance ignited in 1986. Lukang residents launched petitions, street protests, and direct confrontations with Dupont. This was still the martial law era in Taiwan (martial law was not lifted until July 15, 1987), and residents taking to the streets to protest foreign investment was no small thing in that era. In March 1987, Dupont announced its withdrawal from Lukang. That same year, the Executive Yuan established the Environmental Protection Administration.

The EPA's Chemical Knowledge Map records: "Taiwan's first street-level environmental movement — the Anti-Dupont Movement."¹⁷ The same article continues: "After the success of Lukang's anti-Dupont movement, anti-petrochemical wars ignited across the island, including Houjing's anti-Fifth Naphtha Cracker, Linyuan's anti-Third Naphtha Cracker, Yilan's anti-Sixth Naphtha Cracker, and Qigu's anti-Seventh Naphtha Cracker."

📝 Curator's note: The historical significance of the anti-Dupont movement is often underestimated. Framing it within "Changhua's local issues" is entirely insufficient: this was the beginning of Taiwan's environmental movement. Before 1986, Taiwan's social movements primarily revolved around the political system (the Dangwai movement, the Kaohsiung Incident); anti-Dupont brought "environmental rights" to the street for the first time. The subsequent Houjing anti-Fifth Naphtha Cracker (1987), Linyuan anti-Third Naphtha Cracker (1988), Yilan anti-Sixth Naphtha Cracker (1990), and Qigu anti-Seventh Naphtha Cracker (1998) all extended from this line. In 1986, the people of Lukang opened another dimension of Taiwan's civil society with a single "No": not just democracy, but also the environment. Lukang in 1986 was as significant as the contemporaneous Cheng Nan-jung and the Dangwai movement, but the nation remembered the political movements — far fewer people remember Lukang.

Forty years later, Lukang in 2026 is still speaking, but saying different things.

Chang Chih-yeh (張敬業) of the Lukang Kids (founded 2012) said in an interview: "Many people move to the city for work, but we chose our current work in order to stay and live in Lukang."¹⁸ The Lukang Kids website continues: "Beyond nostalgic sentiment and a solid cultural foundation, the most critical key to discussing place-making in Lukang is the foundation of 'industry.'"¹⁹ Since 2015, they have co-hosted the "Jinchiu Arts Festival" with the Baolu Movement Association, curating around the principle of "local participation first, then local arts festival," and in 2020 established the "Lukang Future Center" to mentor young entrepreneurs to stay in the town.

This small town that defeated a foreign corporation is now using the same industrial thinking to retain its young people. In 1986, it drove out pollution; in 2020, it's trying to keep jobs. But the difficulty of these two tasks is entirely different. The latter has no external enemy to focus against — it must contend with Taichung's magnetic pull, the wage gap with northern Taiwan, and the shift of Taiwan's entire industrial geography.

A Semicircle of 12 Rail Tracks

If you want to see how a city handles its industrial heritage, go to the Changhua Roundhouse.

The Reporter's in-depth coverage records: "The Changhua Roundhouse, which opened in October 1922, has officially entered its centennial year."²⁰ During the Japanese colonial period, the roundhouse was a steam locomotive turning center: 12 rail tracks arranged in a semicircular radial pattern, with an 18-meter-diameter turntable at the center. Trains would come in, be turned on the turntable, then directed to various tracks for maintenance or resupply. Each track's roof had smoke exhaust pipes, because steam locomotive smoke had to vent upward.

After the war, Taiwan had six roundhouses (Keelung, Taipei, Hsinchu, Chiayi, Changhua, Kaohsiung). The other five were demolished and rebuilt as modern roundhouses during the 1990s. Changhua's is the only one that survived.

Survival was the result of activism. The Reporter records: "Twenty-seven years ago, together with a group of partners concerned about railway cultural assets, watching Chiayi's roundhouse be demolished... unwilling to let the roundhouse and turntable be demolished and rebuilt into a modern roundhouse, they launched a roundhouse preservation campaign, and finally in 2000 the Changhua Roundhouse was designated a county-level historic site."²⁰ On August 1, 2022, the Ministry of Culture announced its upgrade to a national historic site.

Changhua Roundhouse. Photo: Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA via Wikimedia.

But the fight isn't over. The Changhua urban railway elevation project passed its feasibility study in 2021, with a total budget of NT$39.95 billion, the central government covering NT$29.63 billion. This plan would "exclude the 'coal and water platform,' 'oil depot,' and 'maintenance depot' — three key facilities witnessing the transition from steam power to diesel power to diesel-electric power — which would be used as construction zones for the railway elevation project."²⁰ The body of the national historic site is preserved, but three key ancillary facilities have no place in the elevation project.

This is the contemporary state of the Changhua Roundhouse: a semicircular structure the Japanese built 100 years ago to turn steam locomotives, still in 2026 negotiating its boundaries with a NT$40 billion elevation project. The water on the turntable still turns active diesel locomotives every day.

Erlin, 1925: The Price the Japanese Paid for Sugarcane

There is another undervalued chapter in Changhua's story. It is the origin of Taiwan's farmers' movement.

In June 1925, Dr. Ying-Chang Li (理事 of the Cultural Association) founded the "Erlin Sugarcane Farmers' Union" in Erlin, demanding that the Lin Ben Yuan Sugar Manufacturing Company raise sugarcane purchase prices and abolish the "raw material district" system (sugarcane in designated areas could only be sold to designated sugar factories). On October 21, Lin Ben Yuan Sugar Factory sent workers to forcibly harvest sugarcane from non-union members' fields. On October 23, a large number of police surrounded Dr. Li's clinic and arrested him.

Wikipedia's "Erlin Incident" records: "A total of 93 people were arrested" and "subsequent raids brought the total number arrested to over 400."²¹ After the incident, local farmers' unions were established in Fengshan Street, Madou Street, and other places; in June 1926, the island-wide "Taiwan Farmers' Union" was established — the first island-wide farmers' organization in Taiwan.

The Erlin Incident is often glossed over in Taiwan history textbooks, but its significance echoes the anti-Dupont movement. Both movements took place in Changhua, and both were the starting point of a social movement in Taiwan: the 1925 Erlin Incident was the beginning of the farmers' movement, and the 1986 Lukang anti-Dupont movement was the beginning of the environmental movement. Changhua County is a place where "firsts" repeatedly appear in Taiwan's social movement history. How is it that an agricultural giant that was digging canals in 1709 became the starting point of social movements twice? Perhaps precisely because the people of this land depend so concretely on water, on land, on crops — when these are threatened by outsiders, the reaction is fastest.

Thirty-six years after the Erlin Incident, Taiwan experienced the post-war period, the February 28 Incident, the White Terror, and the Ten Major Construction Projects. Then another thing happened within Changhua's borders.

Bagua Mountain Great Buddha: A 22-Meter Concrete Bodhisattva

Post-war Changhua did something distinctive. It built a giant Buddha on top of Bagua Mountain.

The year was 1956. The first Changhua County magistrate, Chen Xi-qing, initiated the construction of "the largest Buddha in the Far East." The 1958 August 7 Flood interrupted construction, and the project was completed in 1961²². The Buddha stands 22 meters (7.2 zhang) tall, with a lotus seat 14 meters in diameter, reinforced concrete, designed by Lin Qing-yao. The interior is divided into six levels that visitors can walk through.

The China Times reported: "After the Great Buddha was completed in 1961," local residents developed a saying: "Changhua 'has wind but no typhoons, has rain but no disasters,' all believed to be the Buddha's blessing."²²

Bagua Mountain Great Buddha. Photo: Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA via Wikimedia.

A 22-meter concrete Bodhisattva, alongside the 1786 wooden-carved Bodhisattva of Lukang Longshan Temple, the 1788 officially funded Mazu of Xinzu Gong, and the Tudigong shrines beside Tianwei's chrysanthemum fields — the objects of faith within Changhua's borders, from the Qing dynasty to the post-war period, do not continue along a single timeline. Each is a concrete answer from its era to the question "what kind of power do we need protection from?"

✦ "Many people move to the city for work, but we chose our current work in order to stay and live in Lukang." (Chang Chih-yeh, Lukang Kids¹⁸)

1.206 Million — Below the Upgrade Threshold

In April 2026, Changhua County's total population was 1,206,458, already below the 1.25 million threshold for special municipality upgrade²³.

⚠️ This number will continue to fall. Changhua County's population has been in sustained decline from 2024 to 2026, with projections indicating it will drop below 1.2 million by the end of 2026. Changhua still holds the position of "the most populous county outside the six special municipalities (the seventh-largest administrative district nationwide)," but the distance between "most populous county" and "upgraded to special municipality" is widening.

Population distribution (data from the end of October 2024):

• Changhua City: 223,933 (the most in the county, the county seat)
• Yuanlin City: 122,733 (second most)
• Hemei Township: 87,509
• Lukang Township: approximately 80,000

The relationship between the county seat Changhua City and the second-most-populous Yuanlin City is often misunderstood. Changhua City is the administrative center; Yuanlin City is a commercial center along the central corridor railway. Yuanlin's chicken leg bento station culture is entirely different from northern Taiwan's pork chop bento, and Yuanlin starfruit and Yuanlin bananas are food cultures that grew out of the agricultural belt. The functions of these two cities are asymmetric, but the population tug-of-war has lasted 30 years.

The causes of population outflow are clear but hard to solve: Taichung's "magnetic effect" (young people moving to Taichung to work and live), declining birth rates, fewer job opportunities, and insufficient medical resources. Changhua County lacks a single driving industry like the Hsinchu Science Park. Agriculture, traditional industries (Hemei textiles, Yuanlin footwear), and tourism (Lukang, Tianwei) prop it up on three legs, but each leg is pressed down by global competition.

📝 Curator's note: The prevailing online narrative is "Changhua is a great agricultural county." This narrative correct but incomplete. The other side of Changhua is "the central corridor hub that hasn't been upgraded to a special municipality." Its position (sandwiched between Taichung and Yunlin), its population size (first outside the six special municipalities), and its history (county established in 1723, before Taipei Prefecture) all suggest it should have been upgraded. But it never was. During the 2010 five-municipality restructuring (Taipei special municipality retained / New Taipei / Taoyuan not yet upgraded / Taichung merged city-county / Tainan merged city-county / Kaohsiung merged city-county), Changhua was a "close but not quite" candidate; when Taoyuan was upgraded in 2014, Changhua was passed over again. The political economy of upgrading involves three dimensions: population, tax base, and administrative resources. The core question is whether "the special municipality hat" can be exchanged for resources. And Changhua, caught in Taichung's shadow, has young people working in Taichung and living in Changhua, tax revenue going to Taichung, and population counted in Changhua. This is a county that is always "close but not quite."

The Gray-Faced Buzzard Over Bagua Mountain

If you want to know how a declining agricultural giant coexists with nature, go to Bagua Mountain.

Every March to April, around the Qingming Festival, gray-faced buzzards (commonly called "Southern Road Eagle," "Tomb-Sweeping Bird," or "Qingming Bird") pass over Bagua Mountain on their northward migration. The transit numbers can reach twenty to thirty thousand, and the spectacle of them circling is magnificent. On March 22-23, 2025, Changhua County held the "Soaring Bagua" raptor-watching event²⁴.

These raptors fly from the Philippines and Indonesia back to Northeast Asia to breed. Bagua Mountain is a rest stop on their western corridor. Below the 22-meter Great Buddha, every spring twenty to thirty thousand gray-faced buzzards trace arcs across the sky. The Buddha was completed in 1961; the buzzard migration route predates the Buddha by tens of thousands of years. But the juxtaposition of the concrete Bodhisattva and the raptors is a spring landscape unique to Changhua County.

Return to the opening scene.

The chrysanthemum fields of Tianwei light up again. Hectare after hectare of artificial lighting turns the entire plain into a sleepless city. The evening rush hour in Taichung's industrial zones, 150 kilometers away, is gridlocked. Yuanlin Station is still selling chicken leg bentos. Lukang Old Street closes at 9:30 p.m. The turntable at the Roundhouse will still be turning diesel locomotives tomorrow.

Xie Bing-ying wrote about the meaning of rain for Keelung people in Rain Harbor Keelung. For Keelung people, rain is part of the body. Changhua people's relationship with "water" is different — water is the lifeblood of agriculture, the legend of the Babao Canal in 1709, the 21,400 hectares of irrigation from the Zhuoshui River, the drip irrigation systems in Tianwei's chrysanthemum fields at night. Without water, there is no Changhua the agricultural giant.

This county's relationship with the nation depends on where you look. From Taipei, Changhua is a collection of three tourist buzzwords: "Lukang Old Street," "Bagua Mountain Great Buddha," and "Yuanlin chicken leg bento." From Taichung, Changhua is "spillover residential area" plus "source of cheap labor." From the perspective of Lukang's people in 1986, Changhua is "a place where we can say 'No.'" From the perspective of the 2026 figure of 1.206 million — about to drop below 1.2 million — Changhua is "a place that had a county seat in 1723 and in 2026 is still learning how to keep its people."

Next time you visit Changhua, don't just walk Lukang Old Street. Go to Tianwei, preferably at 8 p.m. Watch hectare after hectare of chrysanthemum fields light up. And you'll remember one thing: Changhua is the physical structure of Taiwan's western corridor. Lukang is just one era's label.

Further Reading

• Taiwan Old Street Culture and Commercial Districts — The context of Lukang Old Street's Qing dynasty port commercial street morphology compared with other old streets in Taiwan
• Taiwan River Systems and Hydrological Features — How the Zhuoshui River and Dau River shaped the Changhua Plain, the hydrological background of the Babao Canal
• Taiwan Agricultural Landscapes and Industry Distribution — Changhua's position as an agricultural giant on Taiwan's agricultural map
• Taiwan Administrative Divisions — Complete administrative evolution: county established 1723, changed to Taichung Prefecture 1920, re-established as Changhua County 1945
• Social Movements and Civic Participation — The 1925 Erlin Incident and the 1986 anti-Dupont movement in Taiwan's social movement history
• Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development — The 1986 Lukang anti-Dupont as the starting point of Taiwan's first environmental movement
• Taiwan Pastry Culture — Beidou meatballs' 1898 origins, Lukang pastry shops' century-old heritage
• Taiwan Sugar Corporation — The Lin Ben Yuan Sugar Manufacturing Company behind the 1925 Erlin Incident, the Japanese colonial sugar empire
• Keelung City — Another port-shaped county/city in the 22 Counties and Cities series, comparing two different "declining port cities" and their fault lines
• Hsinchu County — 22 Counties and Cities series: Hakka villages surrounding a science park, forming a different population structure within the central corridor compared to Changhua's agricultural giant

Image Credits

This article uses 5 Wikimedia Commons–licensed images (CC BY-SA 4.0), license terms: CC BY-SA 4.0.

The hero image (frontmatter) uses Outlookxp's Lukang Longshan Temple in 2017, presenting the contemporary appearance of Lukang Longshan Temple, relocated to its current site in 1786 — one of the oldest and most complete surviving Qing dynasty temples in Taiwan. The Mr. Lin section embeds Babao Canal, documenting Taiwan's earliest large-scale irrigation system, excavated by Shi Shibang in 1709. The "After One Prefecture, Two Lukang, Three Mengjia" section reuses the hero image to reinforce the Longshan Temple narrative rhythm. The Lukang Old Street alleys section embeds Lukang Old Street Alley 07, documenting 200-year-old urban textures including Touching Breast Lane, Nine Turns Lane, and the Half-Side Well. The "Semicircle of 12 Rail Tracks" section embeds Changhua Roundhouse 07, documenting the Changhua Roundhouse, opened in 1922 and upgraded to a national historic site in 2022. The Bagua Mountain Great Buddha section embeds Changhua Bagua Mountain Great Buddha 31, presenting the 22-meter-tall, reinforced concrete Bodhisattva completed in 1961.

References