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Narrative》Overview
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▌Descriptions
of “Our Local Community”
Houbi Township, commonly referred to
as Houbiliao is situated at the northern tip of Tainan County. It is
bordered by Bachiang River and Chiayi County in the north and west. It
is connected to Baihe Town in the east and Yenshuei Town in the
southwest. It neighbors Dongshan Township in the southeast direction and
Sinying in the south. Geographically, the northeastern parts are
elevated and rush down the west in torrents. The relative height
difference is not great. It is flat in landform is flat consisting of
mostly Chia-Nan Plains.
Geographically, Houbi Township is
located at the border between Tainan and Chiayi Metropolitans. The
location determined the rural role Houbi Township played later on.
Therefore, in terms of humanity, culture, and landscape, Houbi Township
displays features of a rural town on the plain. Fields are seen
everywhere particularly rice fields. In addition, business activities in
this township are slow paced especially when compared with neighboring
towns and townships.
Since it is a rural based township, Chia-Nan Canal is an important
facility for farmland irrigation. It passes through our school fences,
our houses, and our relatives’ rice fields. As we come cross the canal
every day, water here is of special importance to us. It is a landscape
that we can not erase from our memory. It is also an important tool in
our daily lives. Therefore, it is essential that we learn about its
history, facility, and organization in order to understand more about
our hometown.
▌Topic
Research Project Summary
As its name implies, Chia-Nan Canal is
seated on Chia-Nan Plain. It is the mainstream of agricultural
developments. It mainly obtains its water source from Zenwun River,
Guantian River, and Jhuoshuei River to irrigate over 100,000kah of
farmlands in Yunlin, Chiayi, and Tainan.
The construction of Wushantou Reservoir was the major task to
accomplish. Te river valley of Guantian River is the water catchment
area. Then, an embankment is constructed at Wushantou to form artificial
water storage. The reservoir engineering was done using state-of-the-art
technology, “Semi Hydraulic Fill.”The engineering work took almost 10
years to complete. It was the largest reservoir in Southeast Asia at the
time. It is now known as Wushantou Reservoir. (AKA: Shanhu Pond)
Engineering
Although the purpose of constructing Chia-Nan Canal was to solve the
problem of rice shortage in Japan, it can not be denied that this
facility proves to be the most beneficial one for residents on Chia-Nan
Plain. Chia-Nan Canal is the result of advanced technology and the hard
work of Hachitayoichi. He spent 10 years of his life on it and brought
benefits to thousands of people. Here, we would like to extend our
gratitude to this admirable “Father of Chia-Nan Canal.” He truly
deserves this good name. Hopefully, when we stand before Hachitayoichi’s
Statue one day and stand on the land of Wushantou Reservoir, we will
remember the beautiful story behind it during the Japanese Colonial
Period.
The topic covers an introduction of this irrigation engineering, the
largest construction work in Taiwan. First, the natural environment of
Chia-Nan Plain is first introduced. Then, the background and
construction process of the canal are explained. The
three-year-crop-rotation is also covered in the topic. Finally, the
respected Father of Chia-Nan Canal, Hachitayoichi is introduced.
Students will be able to understand agriculture. It is more than just
cultivating crops, there are many techniques involved as well.
▌Our
Internet Environment
There is a computer classroom in our school. Almost every classroom is
equipped with a computer. All the computers inside the school have
internet access. Internet connections are generally good. The campus
internet is a regional internet and resources can be shared by every
computer.
▌Problems
Encountered and Solutions
(1) Topic setup:
At first, we intended to focus on Hachitayoichi as our topic and
introduce Chia-Nan Canal later on. However, we discovered that although
Hachitayoichi was the Father of Chia-Nan Canal, he and Houbi Township
had little in common. Chia-Nan Canal designed by him was actually the
factor that influenced industries in Houbi Township. Therefore, we chose
Chia-Nan Canal as our research topic. Since Chia-Nan Canal was eligible
for a number of categories in the cyberfair, after we registered to join
the contest; the cyberfair committee wrote to us and gave us advice on
the category most suitable for our topic. After discussion, we decided
to drill on the topic from local organization perspectives. We would
like to extend our gratitude for the kind advice cyberfair committee has
given us.
(2) Group member schedule:
Since the school schedule is
fixed, we had to use our break times on Wednesday afternoons and after
school to discuss the topic structure, interview questions, and
visitations.
(3) Transportation:
Other than the canal nearby,
interviews with work station staff or visitations to Wushantou Reservoir
are quite far from our school, so, transportation was a big problem for
us. The group consisted of many people so we had to send representatives
for interview conductions.
▌Review
The canal is nearby us, yet, we had little knowledge of its functions.
Through this topic research, we learned the importance of irrigation in
farming. Every drop of water distributed is the result of many people’s
hard work. Water is transported from the mountains to rice fields for
plant growth. Like the transportation network, there has to be a
comprehensive system to allow vehicles to travel to and from places. It
might seem like common sense, but there is more to it.
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