Visiting Village Chief of Nanping Neighborhood --- Mr. Feng    
                    Photo and text / Teacher Mei-tu     2014.11.15

      On the morning of November 15, 2014, Mr. Feng who has served four terms as Village Chief came to the Yuanlin Railroad education preparation room of Jingsiou Elementary School on time. He, 64 years old, talked about the ups and downs of the local railroad. He narrowed his eyes, and was able to recall all the families involved. We asked questions and took notes. Mr. Feng hit the points and slowly and considerately answered our questions. He stopped once in a while and then continued to talk.

 Reflection

      Mr. Feng liked to walk along the railroad toward the south in in his childhood to play in Taiwan Sugar Yuanlin Station, which was west of the platform. Sometimes he stole Chinese sugarcane, and sat beneath a big Banyan to eat it. It was nice and sweet. He used to buy monthly tickets and take Taiwan Railroad train to go to his school, Ching Cheng High School, in Zhanghua everyday, so his life depended on railroad very much.

      In the old days, Nanping Neighborhood, Hsinsheng Neighborhood, and Sanyi Neighborhood were all farming villages, and were three brother communities west of the railroad. The comprehensive urbanization for these villages started from 2000. Mr. Feng said that by the end of 2014, the Nanping Neighborhood contained 28 zones, 1908 families, and 6,063 people in total. The most well known places were Nansheng Temple, activity center, Beimen Baixinggong Temple, Changhua Christian Hospital Yuanlin Branch, Land God Temple, Jingsiou Elementary School, Railway Silo, and Yuanlin Farm Produce Market. He thought the living by the station made life very convenient.

      Chief Feng praised the Community Development Association established in 2000, which is located at the activity center west of the railroad. There were 180 members in 2014. They promote diverse community activities. Among these, the most special one was the Nanping Reading Club. For more than 10 years, the chairman of the club, Mr. Mei-shu Lin, has been sharing his reading and life experience every Monday afternoon. About one hundred members graduated on the 23rd graduation ceremony in December 2014. The spiritual growth of villagers highly increased.

      Talking about the Yuanlin railroad overhead project, Mr. Feng is anticipating the result very much. He said his house is on the west side of Railway Silo, so it is very inconvenient for him to go through Jingxiu train crossing every time. It was very dangerous if any accident occurred. Now, with the overhead project, the train crossing will be removed, and the traffic will become very fast and very convenient. This was a great project.

 

       Mr. Feng was very impressed with the preparation of Yuanlin Railway Hall. He said the teachers and students from his old school, Jingsiou Elementary School, are excellent. He suggested that we find more local people and parents to construct the past 110-years in memory of the Yuanlin Railway together. Finally, Mr. Feng told us that he was the fifth graduate of Jingsiou Elementary School, and the previous Minister of Education, Jung-tsun Huang was the third graduate. We are all Yuanlin Railway people, so he hoped that we could work hard together to build Yuanlin Railway culture.