In an effort to protect the old trees of Taipei, Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs is set to release Taiwan’s first interactive e-book application at the end of the month. Besides making a record of the most representative trees throughout the 12 districts of Taipei, the app also includes a GPS tool for locating the old trees nearest to you. It also includes a game and tree-blessing activities. The e-book can be used to guide you around the old trees of Taipei.
The agency is offering 12 guided tours of Taipei’s old trees. During the first tour, which took place at Songshan Elementary School on Oct. 31, around 30 elementary school students, aided by the interactive old tree e-book, listened to stories about 100-year-old banyan and tiger’s claw trees along a wall around the school. There was also an indoor hands-on activity during which students created imprints by mashing plants onto fabric.
Many of the children thought that the tiger’s claw should be a woman because of her blooming red flowers, and therefore they gave her the nickname “grandma tiger’s claw.” For the two banyan trees standing side-by-side, they said the trees look like two old grandpas playing chess together. After voting they named the banyan trees “immortal god” and “the old man with 10,000 lives.” Apparently, there had initially been plans to allow the two trees to serve as a “natural school gate,” where students could enter through a “tunnel of greenery,” but the plans never came to fruition due to concerns about damaging the leaves and branches of the old trees.
Photo: Wang Hsiu-ting, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者王秀亭
Lee Hsin-ping, a planner at the department, says that starting in November there will be experts of old trees guiding people around the city to visit old trees in all of Taipei’s districts on weekends to learn about the local culture and history of its old trees. At the end of the month, the Taipei’s Good Ole Trees e-book will be available to download free of charge on the agency’s Web site. The book introduces all of the most representative old trees around Taipei, offers a GPS tool for finding the trees nearest to you, as well as an interactive game for adults and children to play, saving old trees and blessing them.
Online registration for the activities has already begun. People are invited to take the opportunity to travel back in time and protect these living historic spots of Taipei. The event’s Web site is: https://www.facebook.com/Taipeioldtree, or you can call (02)8866-6258.
(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)
為了守護台北市的老樹,台北市文化局十一月底將推出全台首本APP互動式電子書「台北好憶樹」,除了記錄十二個行政區的老樹代表,也能透過GPS 定位找到最近的老樹,另有小遊戲和祈福活動,帶領民眾跟著老樹遊台北。
台北市文化局一連舉辦十二場的「台北好憶樹」老樹實地導覽體驗,十月三十一日首場在松山國小登場,卅名小學生在老樹互動電子書的輔助導覽下,聽著學校圍牆邊三棵百歲榕樹爺爺與刺桐奶奶的故事,同時也在室內DIY體驗植物拓染。
許多小朋友認為,開紅色花朵的刺桐老樹應為女性,索性暱稱為「刺桐奶奶」;兩棵並立的榕樹,學生們則認為很像湊在一塊下棋的老爺爺,票選命名為「不老仙」及「萬壽翁」。據說松山國小曾有意讓兩株老榕成為「天然的校門」,小朋友可由兩棵老樹間的「綠色隧道」出入學校,因怕損傷老榕枝葉、並未付諸實現。
文化局規劃師李欣蘋說,十一月起每個週末都有老樹達人帶領民眾實地探訪各區老樹與在地文化歷史,月底前更將推出「台北好憶樹」電子書,開放民眾免費下載,書中包括介紹各區老樹代表的「台北好憶樹E Book」﹔「遊覓老樹影」則可GPS 定位找到距離最近的一棵老樹;「護樹小尖兵」是透過遊戲邀請大小朋友一起搶救老樹,也替老樹許願祈福。
「台北好憶樹」活動即日起開始網路報名,邀民眾免費搭乘老樹的時光機,一起守護台北市的活古蹟,活動網址:https://www.facebook.com/Taipeioldtree,或洽電:(02)8866-6258。
(自由時報記者邱紹雯)
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