Once littered with trash, the coast of Potou Village (坡頭) in Hsinchu County’s Sinfeng Township (新豐) has been transformed by years of cleanup efforts led by local residents.
Sinfeng’s coast stretches about 7km, making it the longest in Hsinchu County. While the southern part of the township is famous for its scenic sites, the northern coast along Potou had been inundated with trash, as garbage carried downstream or washed ashore became trapped among rocks and breakwaters.
Since 2003, local volunteers have worked to restore the coast, forming patrol teams, protecting local rivers and founding two civic associations.
Photo: Liao Hsueh-ju, Taipei Times
Led by Wu Chuan-chan (吳傳鋋), the team steadily grew, expanding their patrols from rivers to the coast and reaching Potou Fishing Harbor (坡頭漁港) by 2017.
Potou Village Warden Chu Chin-chang (朱錦常) said that the early days of beach cleanups were difficult, with many volunteers twisting their ankles or being injured by sharp objects.
“At its worst, I once hauled 700 discarded tires by myself,” Chu said.
After years of weekly cleanups, the rivers and coast improved, allowing volunteers to scale back their efforts, while growing environmental awareness encouraged schools and businesses to join in.
In January last year, a new coastal bike path linking Sinfeng and Taoyuan’s Sinwu District (新屋) was completed, along with an embankment road along Potou’s coast.
The improved access has drawn cyclists and joggers to the area, connecting the once-overlooked coast to the broader Taoyuan-Hsinchu tourism area.
Volunteers are also restoring traditional stone weirs and turning driftwood into art installations, with one featuring marine debris from Japan’s Yonaguni Island.
The Sinfeng Township Stone Weir Cultural Development Association has 60 volunteers who conduct monthly beach cleanups and repurpose marine debris and driftwood collected along the way.
One piece of driftwood shaped like a heart was named “Heart of Potou” (坡頭之心) and another, resembling two hearts joined together, was dubbed “Love of the Stone Weirs” (石滬之愛), association chairman Yeh Chi-chung (葉期忠) said.
The most remarkable find was a piece of fishing gear that drifted about 150km from Yonaguni before washing up on Potou.
Volunteers turned it into a bench with a solar-powered light along the Sinfeng-Sinwu bike path.
The Potou coast, which features eight traditional stone weirs at ancestral fishing grounds, is now listed as a cultural asset by Hsinchu County.
Yeh said the weirs are still used by fishers, but years of neglect and shifting shorelines have damaged them and created hidden hazards for visitors.
With support from the local government, the association has launched a year-long restoration project to preserve stone weir fishing culture and promote marine ecology education.
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