Students: Hello.
Mr. Chang: Where are you from?
Student: We are from Zhuwei Elementary School Zi-Qiang branch.

Mr. Chang: Zhuwei Elementary School ! It was the branch campus of Pingding Elementary School . Pingding Elementary School is already eighty or ninety years old. Students from Zhuwei studied there before.
Student: Zhuwei Elementary School is far from here.
Mr. Chang:  No, it's not. It took half hour to walk along mountain road from here to Zhuwei. It's near.

Student: How was Xiao Ping Ding?
Mr. Chang: When Lin Yang-Gang came to Xiao Ping Ding, he saw the view from Da-Tun Mountain and enjoyed it very much.
Student: Zhuwei Elementary School was the branch campus of Pingding Elementary School . It must be developed earlier.

Mr. Chang:  The development here was early. Many people lived here in the early stage. However, the development was limited because of courts exploitation. If Xiao Pingding was developed effectively at that time, it must be crowded and noisy now because it's near to Taipei City . You can notice it from tall buildings here.

Student: Are there lots of farmland here that are fallow?

Mr. Chang:  Lands were bought for courts exploitation which influenced farming. At that time, one third of lands were bought by court company. They planned to buy whole farms to build an amusement park. After locals got this information, they stopped selling lands to court company.
Student: Excuse me, when was the catchment channel at the origins of Xiao Pingding were built?
Mr. Chang: It's easier to illustrate the origin area by drawing pictures.
Student: We went there already.
Mr. Chang:  Then I can explain it directly. Upper of Plum Tree Creek is the Wu’s house. The water source of Wu’s house flowing down from the big pond beside Guo-Hua Golf club. The big pond was irrigated from the Pingding reservoir, and Pingding drainage was irrigated from Gui Zi Keng River.

Student: Where is the water from?
Mr. Chang: The origin is at Gui Zi Keng River, passing through Pingding channel and then divided into two ways. One to the big pond of Guo-Hua golf club, another to the big pong of Xiao Pingding, offering the water for farmlands. The sewage then flow into Plum Tree Creek. The origin of Plum Tree Creek also has two parts, one is from here, Xiao Pingding and another is from Wu’s house.

Student: Do rivers flow into the Plum Tree Creek?
Mr. Chang: Yes, the rivers all flow down into the Plum Tree Creek along mountain slope.
Student: Which era was Pingding reservoir and canal built in?
Mr. Chang:  It was built when our ancestors came. The water source here are not sufficient so they built the reservoir for Xiao Pingding. Our ancestors came to Xiao Pingding and found the feng shui here was quite good, if there’s water source here there’ll be a fam.
Student: At what time was Pingding reservoir and canal developed?
Mr. Chang: Quite earlier. My ancestors moved to Xiao Pingding 250 years ago. It's believed that Pingding reservoir and canal was built at that time. It's because local feng shui was influenced by court exploitation.

Student: Was there abundant water in Pingding reservoir and canal?

Mr. Chang: It was. However, staffs from Water Resources Bureau do not manage it actively. Holes are all over it which makes water flow become little. It was rebuilt by cement again. Some water flows down then caught by pipes. Therefore, only little water flows to river.

Student: Was the river full of water?

Mr. Chang: It was. Otherwise the farmlands couldn’t work. There were two other pools for irrigated the farmlands. There were many ponds here, three big one, two of them are Xiao Pingding ponds and the other is at Guo Hua golf club.

Student: Are there other water resources?

Mr. Chang: There were mountain spring behind the restaurant but it’ gone. Maybe it’s because the community deepened the well so the water resources were gone.

Student: We found that there was abundant water in the Plum Tree Creek before but it becomes less now. Is there any relationship with what you said?

Mr. Chang: Of course. Here was plenty of water but the reservoir and canal didn't be fixed for years, it can not diverts water anymore which makes water flow become less. Furthermore, numerous pipes stealed water so it decreases a lot.

Student: Water flow becomes less. Do farmers still cultivate?

Mr. Chang: It's hard to cultivate for most of farmers because of less water. They only cultivate some vegetable and some of water comes from pond.

Student: Who are the owners of the pipes?

Mr. Chang: Mostly private, Guo Hua golf club also set a pipe. There is just one that built by townhouse to offered water to the residents around Wu’s house.

Student: Is there an old house here?

Mr. Chang: It's said that the old house is already 200 years old.

Student: What are the effects that the Plum Tree Creek have on Xiao Pingding?

Mr. Chang: The Plum Tree Creek didn't influenced Xiao Pingding. Conversely, the origins from Xiao Pingding influenced water flow of the Plum Tree Creek.

Student: Which facilities have an effect on the Plum Tree Creek and what kind of effect it is?

Mr. Chang: Guo Hua golf court discharged dirty water before but they seem to have water purification facilities now.

Student: Do pig farms in Wu’s house pollute the Plum Tree Creek?

Mr. Chang: The pig farms are legal and they have sewage disposal facility. Therefore, they make little pollution to the Plum Tree Creek.

Student: Were there plum trees around the Plum Tree Creek?

Mr. Chang: There were. However, there are no more now for lacking of management.

Student: How to make the Plum Tree Creek become better?

Mr. Chang: The remediation is important. We had lots of paddy which has inpoundment funtions so the waster in Plum Tree Creek was more. Now the paddy has gone so the origin has also gone. If we want water of Plum Tree Creek to increase, we have to remediate the headstream of Plum Tree Creek.   

Student: Was there any pollution here?
Mr. Chang: No. Nowadays, because of water reduction and sewage from family and pig farms, the river is polluted which also make the Plum Tree Creek be contamination.

Mr. Chang: Any questions?

Students: No. Thank you.
Reflection：

Mr. Chang knows well about historial culture, historical sites and environmental changes of Pingding village. After the interview we learned that the origin of Plum Tree Creek has two parts, one is at Xiao Pingding another at Wu’s house which become part of Plum Tree Creek later. Plum Tree Creek had lots of water before. But without proper organize, it’s broken everywhere and the water is reduced. So to make it better, we must do the remediation at headstream. Or the domestic and hoogery sewage would pollute Plum Tree Creek seriously. We hope everyone could care about the environment, have the proper sewage disposal facility and help to remediate Plum Tree Creek so it can be our proud in the future.