Kaohsiung’s New Huangpu Village (黃埔新村) will be become a national-level culture park dedicated to preserving the heritage of military settlements, and bids for operate-transfer contracts will be opened, Ministry of National Defense officials said yesterday.
The Republic of China (ROC) armed forces in the past housed military families in segregated communities, and New Huangpu was one of the first to be built in Taiwan, where the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government’s rebuilt “New Army” was quartered and trained by General Sun Li-jen (孫立人).
Five hectares of Haungpu New Village’s 10 hectares have been officially designated as a cultural landscape.
Photo: Chen Wen-Chan, Taipei Times
Kaohsiung officials had repeatedly lobbied the central government to designate New Huangpu as a cultural landscape and renovate it as a creative park, said Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑), who has been involved in the process.
“The cultural park should incorporate New Huangpu Village proper and the original site of the ROC Military Academy,” Hsu said.
The Kaohsiung City Government will fully cooperate with the defense ministry in its effort to secure budgets from the central government to preserve the site as a cultural heritage and stimulate tourism, he said.
National Taichung Junior College professor Ku Chao-kuang (顧超光) said that historical heritage sites could bring business to the community as long as its management made coherent plans to work with establishments in the area, citing Tainan’s Confucius Temple as an example.
About 3 hectares of New Huangpu will be renovated, an official from the ministry’s Military Family Service Department said.
An official report on the costs of renovating the park is expected to be completed by April next year, and site renovation, as well as open-bidding for the contract to manage the park, are to begin next July, the official said.
The ministry will request an estimated total budget of NT$1.1 billion (US$33.6 million), subject to adjustments pending on the official report, the service department official said.
Costs will be paid for by the Military Settlements Renovation Fund until a formal budget is approved, the department said.
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