Recalling the night when the nation’s worst earthquake in recent memory devastated central Taiwan, Yang Jing-chang (楊景昌) tightened his right biceps to show that he still possesses the power he summoned 14 years ago to rescue two young children from a collapsed building.
A police officer, Yang had just gotten off duty and was still at the station when he felt the ground shake. Then he heard a mother’s desperate pleas.
“Help me, help me,” said Wang to the Taipei Times, citing the woman.
Photo courtesy of 921 Earthquake Museum
With a surge of adrenaline, Yang spent the next four and a half hours with a hammer and shovel, digging through the brick remains of a demolished three-story building, eventually reuniting the mother with her son and daughter.
Yang is now a volunteer at the 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan in Wufeng (霧峰). He believes that the museum helps people not only to understand the natural disaster that claimed more than 2,400 lives and injured another 11,300, but also to learn about future earthquakes.
“I want to help visitors understand how to protect themselves from earthquakes,” said Yang, now 58 years old. “We need to know why buildings collapse so this doesn’t happen again.”
Photo courtesy of 921 Earthquake Museum
For visitors too young to have lived through the devastation of 1999, the museum offers games that teach lessons on earthquakes. Earlier this month, four-year-old Yang Zheng-xun (楊政勳) played with toy building materials in an interactive exhibit designed to show how top-heavy buildings without supportive walls are prone to collapse.
“It’s too difficult for him to understand the power of earthquakes,” said his mother, Lin Chiao-ling (林巧玲) of Taipei. “But we’ll come here again when he gets older.”
The museum, a 30-minute drive south of Greater Taichung, attracts over 300,000 visitors a year, half of whom are guided through on school field trips. On an annual budget of NT$60 million, it is maintained by a staff of 30 employees and 270 volunteers.
Photo courtesy of 921 Earthquake Museum
Opened in 2005 where the Kuangfu Junior High School once stood, the museum also offers visitors a glimpse into the past.
Standing before two classrooms now pancaked in a heap of concrete, museum docent Liu Ching-yen (劉青硯) said it’s fortunate that the 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck in the middle of the night, sparing the students and staff.
“The most important lesson here is how to protect yourself,” Liu said. “It’s not a matter of if a big earthquake happens again, but when.”
Throughout Taiwan, there are more than 30,000 earthquakes annually, hundreds of which are routinely felt, Liu said. Occasionally, she added, the nation will be jolted by an earthquake strong enough to inflict widespread damage and casualties.
Preparing for the inevitable, yet unpredictable, event is Liu’s mission. While encouraged by the number of youths visiting the museum, she called on more earthquake education in schools.
“Most of the kids don’t understand how powerful earthquakes can be,” she said.
“We need to talk more about how to protect ourselves.”
MUSEUM HIGHLIGHTS:
Chelungpu Fault Gallery: Showcases the 2.5-meter rise in earth that occurred when the fault ruptured
Earthquake Engineering Hall: Provides home and public safety tips, along with modern earthquake resistance technology
Image Gallery: Provides a simulated earthquake experience
Disaster Prevention Hall: Presents ways to prepare for a range of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods
Reconstruction Records Hall: Documents the reconstruction efforts in the aftermath of the 1999 earthquake
IF YOU GO:
Where: 46 Zongzheng Road, Greater Taichung (臺中市霧峰區中正路46號)
How to get there by car: Take National Highway No.3 and exit at Wufeng Interchange to Zhongzheng Road and turn right toward Caotuen to reach the museum
Contact: (04) 2339-0906
On the Net: www.921emt.edu.tw
Hours: Open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 5pm
Services: Guided tours are available in Chinese, English and Japanese
If one asks Taiwanese why house prices are so high or why the nation is so built up or why certain policies cannot be carried out, one common answer is that “Taiwan is too small.” This is actually true, though not in the way people think. The National Property Administration (NPA), responsible for tracking and managing the government’s real estate assets, maintains statistics on how much land the government owns. As of the end of last year, land for official use constituted 293,655 hectares, for public use 1,732,513 hectares, for non-public use 216,972 hectares and for state enterprises 34 hectares, yielding
The small platform at Duoliang Train Station in Taitung County’s Taimali Township (太麻里) served villagers from 1992 to 2006, but was eventually shut down due to lack of use. Just 10 years later, the abandoned train station had become widely known as the most beautiful station in Taiwan, and visitors were so frequent that the village had to start restricting traffic. Nowadays, Duoliang Village (多良) is known as a bit of a tourist trap, with a mandatory, albeit modest, admission fee of NT$10 giving access to a crowded lane of vendors with a mediocre view of the ocean and the trains
For many people, Bilingual Nation 2030 begins and ends in the classroom. Since the policy was launched in 2018, the debate has centered on students, teachers and the pressure placed on schools. Yet the policy was never solely about English education. The government’s official plan also calls for bilingualization in Taiwan’s government services, laws and regulations, and living environment. The goal is to make Taiwan more inclusive and accessible to international enterprises and talent and better prepared for global economic and trade conditions. After eight years, that grand vision is due for a pulse check. RULES THAT CAN BE READ For Harper Chen (陳虹宇), an adviser
Traditionally, indigenous people in Taiwan’s mountains practice swidden cultivation, or “slash and burn” agriculture, a practice common in human history. According to a 2016 research article in the International Journal of Environmental Sustainability, among the Atayal people, this began with a search for suitable forested slopeland. The trees are burnt for fertilizer and the land cleared of stones. The stones and wood are then piled up to make fences, while both dead and standing trees are retained on the plot. The fences are used to grow climbing crops like squash and beans. The plot itself supports farming for three years.
RSS