Quick understanding history about Yuanling
Text/Teacher Mei-tu 2015.2.2
Yuanlin Township is located in central Changhua County, with Fenyuan Township and Nantou City on the east, Shetou Township on the south, Yongjing Township and Puxin Township on the west, and Dacun Township on the north.
Hakka street in Yuanlin was called Linzai Street in the past
Yuanlin belongs to the alluvial fan plain of Jhuoshuei River. In 1723, Changhua became a country, and the name of the place Linzai Street appeared, and most of the people reclaiming land here were Hakka of native Guangdong. In 1751, Yuanlin became a street, because of its location in Linzhong Street, it was always been called “Linzai Street”. In 1895, the Japanese took over Taiwan, in 1905, Taiwan Railway Fengyuan-Ershui Line was opened to traffic, Yuanlin Station was established, promoting the prosperity of the triangular area of railway, Datong St. (now Zhongzheng Rd.) and Minsheng Rd. and the saying “Yuanlin train is extremely ordinary” was well known. In order to transport the special agricultural products, handicrafts and other materials in Yuanlin County, light rail station was established in 1912, Taiwan Sugar Yuanlin Station was established in 1919, and Taiwan Sugar South Yuanlin Station was added in 1933. Because of the gathering of the three railways, the fruit, canned food and preserved fruit were in full flourish at that time.
Stable growth of Yuanlin after the war
In 1945, after the war, Yuanlin was renamed Yuanlin Township, under the jurisdiction of Yuanlin District, Taichung County (today’s administrative area of Taichung, Changhua, Nantou). The office of Taichung County Government was set up (today’s government housing complex on Yuying Rd.). The waster system of Yuanlin Township includes agricultural irrigation system and Baguashan Drainage System. The irrigation river channels passing through Yuanlin Township include Yuanlin Canal, Babao Irrigation Canal, Shigou Secondary Canal, Wannian Secondary Canal, Longen Secondary Canal. The Baguashan Drainage System includes Tungshan and Chenghsing drainage systems. Since 1950, Yuanlin Township has been under the jurisdiction of Changhua County, with a growing population year by year. In 2003, the population of 127,284 was record high. Later, due to the low birth in Taiwan, the population has been decreasing. As of December 2014, the population is 124,725, which makes Yuanlin the largest township in Taiwan.
184ha urban change and new appearance of elevated railway
According to the statistics of 2014, there were more than 400 billionaires in Yuanlin with total bank deposit of more than 3 trillion NTD, and the saying “Yuanlin is a rich town” and “The money in Yuanlin is like flood” spreads far away. Yuanlin has always been the living center of south Changhua, together with the completion of 184ha urban plan and the elevated railway in 2014, the development of Yuanlin will be prosperous.
Moved by the prospective record of Jingsiou Vanguard Team on the 110 years’ Yuanlin Railway and the rescue of and preparation for “Jingsiou Station” to pass the memory of Yuanlin Railway, we’d like to briefly introduce the history of Yuanlin. It is expected that the story about the memory of Yuanlin Railway is kept in our mind forever and that the railway education in the campus of Jingsiou Elementary School will be splendid.