An ordinary road that is full of historical significance

Sheng-Chan Road of Tainan City, in the memories of many old Tainan people, neighbored on some fields. In the early years, the laboratory and vast pieces of land, both belonged to Taiwan Sugar, stayed next to the road. Taiwan Sugar grew their experimental crops on these lands. Further away is the famous “double vacant” area. Sheng-Chan Road is a local name “Niu chou zi,” which means having both cows and land. This name makes some senses since “Shengchan” means “to produce” in Chinese.

In those days, Sheng-Chan Road was the center of its nearby areas of agricultural industry. You could hardly find anyone around in the morning, and at night all you could hear were the frogs and bugs. However, these were not just pieces of insignificant yellow earth with no humanistic feature. Most of the land were Taiwan Sugar’s or Office of Taiwan Sugar Kabushiki Gaisha’s in times under Japan colonial rule.

In contrast to the hilly northern Tainan urban area, the terrain of this area is less steep like a shallow dish descends gently. Hence, with the moderate weather, the land is very suitable for farming. In year Showa 7 (1921), Japanese spotted the land and made it the experiment and research center of sugar industry of the north. The translation lasted until the Republic of China period and the seed of humanities was sowed.

Stay close with people’s life

More and more citizens made use of their leisure time to relax on Sheng-Chan Road.

It was around the 1990s, the population of Tainan City started moving to this area. Residential buildings were built one by one in the neighborhood.

It all began with some families with elderly and children bringing simple ingredients to the abandon land near the laboratory of Taiwan Sugar where they set up earth ovens and cooked to enjoy their holidays. Later, Taiwan Sugar tried growing sunflowers on the land as green manure. Their original purpose was to keep the soil fertile, but the sunflower field soon attracted more urbanites.

Due to the praises it received, people flowed in wave after wave during holidays. They stood still to watch the sunset with their families. Earth oven cooking soon became popular. Taiwan Sugar thus opened the land to the public. Providing firewood and water and asking for a clearing fee in return, Taiwan Sugar ran the place as the “Backyard of Tainan.”

Beauty Pageant

After sunflowers, Taiwan Sugar grew coreopsis also. The flower field expanded from two to three hectares to ten to twenty hectares. Years later, the green manure turned red whenever winter arrived and the blossoms were like participating a beauty pageant where they explored their beauty.

A benevolent living environment

In recent years, because of the media exposure, many people come to Sheng-Chan Road for adventures or taking wedding photographs even on weekdays. Whenever the flowering season comes, the flower sea and the people sea contrast with each other and make the beautiful natural scenery even more famous.

Hoping to construct a benevolent living environment, Taiwan Sugar offers a leisure spot to visit in the south. As they run the place attentively, it gradually becomes a well-known spot for travelers in northern Taiwan.