Think of the source of your water when you take a sip; the annual autumn harvest cultural festival in Changhua County is the “2017 Love Ershui Water Marathon”, which took place in Ershui Township during November 4 to 5. With Changhua County supervising, a series of exciting events will be co-organized by Changhua County Cultural Affairs Bureau and Ershui Township Office. The opening ceremony and Zuntou ritual will be conducted at Mr. Lin's Temple in Ershui Township in the morning of the 4th. County Magistrate Ming-Ku, Wei also attended the function. Deputy County Magistrate Ming-Yu, Lin, Tri-Mountain National Scenic Area Headquarters Deputy Director-General Hsi-Piao, Liao, Ershui Township Mayor Tsang-Yang, Cheng and various elected representatives attended the opening ceremony, followed by exciting activities at Babao Canal, such as Tongshui ceremony, sacred sedan water marathon and the waterway marathon creative show. Changhua County Magistrate Ming-Ku, Wei visited Mr. Lin’s Temple to pray for blessings and expressed his support for the event. “Love Ershui Water Marathon Evening Party – Folk Song Concert” will be held in the evening of the 4th, and a series of dynamic/static activities took place in the morning of the 5th, including the “water marathon”. County Magistrate Wei wishes to promote the spirit of “thinking of the source when taking a sip of water” through the event and extends his invitation to the public to experience the unique water marathon culture. County Magistrate Wei quoted the proverb “worship the orchard tree bearing the fruits that you have eaten”. This year’s Love Ershui Water Marathon is cohosted by the county government and township office, increasing its appeal to the public. As the only event of its kind in the country, everybody has a great deal of sentimental attachment to the Love Ershui Water Marathon, and so it is organized in a way that is similar to a wedding reception, where everyone in the community gets involved. The event serves to commemorate our ancestors in developing the Babao Canal to irrigate the Changhua Plain, which in turn fostered abundant crops in the region, providing the public with sustenance. According to County Magistrate Wei, the Love Ershui Water Marathon will be held in the early morning of the November 5, and it is the second marathon on Changhua County’s Marathon Month calendar. Being able to run in water in Babao Canal has attracted a large number of participants, and more people are signing up for the event. In welcoming runners from all across the country participating in the Love Ershui Water Marathon, “Love Ershui Water Marathon Evening Party – Folk Song Concert” is held at the athletes’ evening party tonight in Ershui Elementary School, and everyone is invited to listen to folk songs. Furthermore, Love Ershui Water Marathon runners are also invited to experience the warm hospitality of Ershui community. The aim is to market Ershui and enhance its visibility through the event, so that people can visit the region to appreciate its’ picturesque landscape and monkeys (macaque), as well as purchase Ershui’s specialty agricultural products. Besides inviting various elected representatives to join the “2017 Love Ershui Water Marathon” opening ceremony, the “Love Ershui Water Marathon Evening Party – Folk Song Concert” will be held at Ershui Elementary School this year, inviting renowned folk song singers such as Tai-Yen, Yu, Chih-Ning, Wu, Yulao.Yukan, Armed Youth and Nung Chiu from Chiu Chiu to perform popular folk songs and songs from their regions in order to cheer on the marathon athletes and bless to help them achieve great results at the “2017 Love Ershui Water Marathon” on November 5! The “2017 Love Ershui Water Marathon” is co-hosted by Ershui Township office and Tianzhong Town Tourist and Shopping District Development Association. Starting from November, the words “2017 Love Ershui Water Marathon” will be created as part of the earth art installation on the farmland between Jiji Line, Huimin railroad crossing (convergence of bikeway and railway) and North-South Line railroad using plants, flowers and windmills. The objective is to let travelers admire art from the train. As the train passes by, windmills driven by the wind pressure begin to turn, complementing the imagery of cyclists riding leisurely through Ershui to restore the former glory of the Ershui cycling route. The Zuntou Water ritual of Love Ershui Water Marathon involves displaying specialty products of each town and township at the Zuntou in correspondence with the event theme “celebrating abundant harvest, water marathon, searching for roots and paying homage to the land”. Moreover, bamboo gabion-shaped lantern art installations are created at Babao Canal along the roads leading to the event venue. The lanterns can be “adopted” by the public, and Deputy County Magistrate Ming-yu Lin has pledged his support by adopting 10 lanterns! The lantern lighting ceremony conducted at 21:00 on the 4th lit up Babao Canal and imbued the event with a creative flair! On the day of the event, activities such as the “water marathon creative show” and public water marathon experience will be held, where Taiwan Changhua Irrigation Association controlled the water level at Babao Canal so that people can enjoy the rare experience of running in the canal, symbolizing the accumulation of wealth and fortune. Visitors participating in the event received reusable shopping bags exclusive to the water marathon. Everyone is welcome, while stocks last! International exchange students from Japan, Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Mongolia and Bolivia will be invited to join the event in order to infuse more cultural elements through international cultural exchange. This in turn promotes the cultural heritage of the water marathon and markets Changhua’s folk festivals. A total of 10 local teams were selected for the most anticipated water marathon creative, with one of the teams consisting of new residents of Ershui Township. Each team pulled out all the stops to showcase their carnival-like creative marathon performance inside the Babao Canal with themes inspired by the local features of Changhua. Together, they expressed their sentiment for the land through running, and they also demonstrated their passion through the creative show that also embodies the fusion of diverse cultures. Over the course of the 2-day event (November 4 to 5), a “small farmers’ market”, “Ming Shi Jie Puppet Theater”, Yuanquan Community Theater “In search of 1719 Zuntou Fairy – Legend of Babao Canal” and “Inkstone Creative Exhibition” will be organized to endow the water marathon event with more cultural meaning. In addition, the community development association will be mobilized to organize the “community carnival” and “water marathon – water pistol fight”, where community residents either made traditional bamboo water pistols by hand or purchased water pistols to engage in water fights while running the marathon. Ershui Township also conducted the “Babao Canal Cultural Tour”, allowing the public to gain in-depth information about the towns and townships that Babao Canal flows through aside from just partaking in the water marathon. Everyone is invited to visit Ershui in autumn to experience local farming culture. The “2017 Love Ershui Water Marathon” combines the resources of the industry, government, academia, and the private sector. In terms of academia, National Changhua University of Education (NCUE) has conducted an in-depth study on local history and culture by inviting international scholars to host the “Baisha History and Geography International Academic Seminar”. The seminar focuses on discussing the association between Babao Canal’s development and agriculture in Changhua County, making it a dialogue between irrigation and territory in society. Speakers of the seminar, include Japanese scholars Akira Morita and Misato Shimizu, Korean professor Chang-Yuan, Cheng, Chinese scholars Mao-Li, Han and Rui, Liu also took part in the water marathon. At the age of 88, Professor Akira Morita is an honorary professor at Osaka City University and an authority in the field of Southeast Asian irrigation history. He is the first Japanese scholar to study the Babao Canal, thus has become an internationally renowned academic. Citizens traveling to Ershui will benefit from convenient transport. Board a Taiwan Railways train and disembark at Ershui Station, where shuttle bus service will be available during November 4 to 5 from 08:00 to 17:00. A bus will depart every 20 minutes. Those who choose to take Taiwan Railways Jiji line can disembark at Yuanquan Station and walk to the event venue within 5 minutes. Due to limited space of the venue, please utilize public transport as much as possible. Changhua County Government invites citizens nationwide to come to Ershui in Changhua on November 4 and 5 to participate in the Babao Canal Water Marathon and its associated, unique wealth and fortune accumulation activities. At the same time, they can also appreciate the beauty of the Luoxi inkstone sculpture, enjoy pomelos – a specialty product of Ershui – and experience the only canal festival in Taiwan. Everyone is welcome to participate in “2017 Love Ershui Water Marathon”, a cultural feast with intellectual and emotional appeals. For more event information, please browse the official website (https://enixyoung.wixsite.com/2017water). Information courtesy of Changhua County Government official website.

Changhua County has launched the community development for more than 20 years. This year, “Happy Changhua-style Community” was taken as the theme and all the cultural products from each community are integrated and presented here for demonstrating the achievements of the artistic family development and the community theater.

Changhua County government has been dedicated to the promotion of Changhua local fresh agricultural products. The “2017 Carnival Promoting Agriculture Products from Changhua County” was held on November 12th at the Changhua Fruit and Vegetable Market (next to the Rainbow Bridge).

To launch the development of each business circle in the county, business organizations and members are encouraged to promote and participate in the business affairs in order to enhance the regional competitiveness and reach the goal of a prosperous business environment. The business owners can apply for the “2017 sponsorship fund to the promotion of Changhua business circle ” . Those qualified business owners held a series promotion activity on November 1st, 4th, 5th, 11th, 25th and 26th 2017. People are welcome to visit Changhua County!

The Cultural Bureau of Changhua County has hosted the “Drama Book Fair in Changhua Theater Art Festival” at the Yuanlin Performance Art Library. The collection of selected ancient and contemporary drama books are displayed for readers to borrow.

He is the person who reminisces on his life of over the past 80 years! The Cultural Bureau of Changhua County hosted the “A Dialogue between Tradition and Modern-Lin Wei-chen’s 80 Chinese Painting Exhibition” at the Changhua County Art Museum. An Artistic Journey through six decades of Chinese Painting, the artist Tr. Lin Wei-chen dedicated to Chinese Painting for over half a century chooses to hold the retro-exhibition in his hometown Changhua County at his age of 80. His action completely presents his passion and dedication to his art creations.

The 3rd session of Changhua Marathon Month has been started. The “2017 Taiwan Rice Heaven-Tianzhong Marathon” jointly hosted by Changhua County government and Tianzhong Township will be started on November 12th!

In the 2017 Changhua Marathon month, the first session, “Fun in Baiguoshan－the 9th Yuanlin Lion’s Club half-marathon” was held on the 29th in the morning at the sports field of Yuanlin Elementary of Yuanlin City. Changhua County Magistrate Wei, Ming-Ku and other government officials and the VIP guests attended the event, including Yuanlin City Mayor Chang, Chin-kun, the Chairman of Yuanlin Lions Club Chen, Chih-hung, the Chairman of Yuanlin Sports Association Yu, Chen-hsiung and the Director of International Lions Club 300-C3 District Hsueh, Hsuan. Together they fired the starting pistol of the marathon. Magistrate Wei expects that the marathon activity can develop the sport habit not only to improve health but also to feel the beauty of Changhua on foot.

“Teacher, look, is the butterfly I made pretty?” Chen, a student, showed her seed DIY work, painted by her. Led by her teacher, she and her classmates came to the Chenggong Camp Site – Green Environment Learning Camp together to participate in many environmental education courses. They were excited to demonstrate the butterflies they made with plant seeds. In addition, they learned many things about species of butterflies, larval plants, honey plants (nectariferous plants), and more. More importantly, they learned more about environmental ecological education. “Chenggong Camp Site” is located near the Baquashan Great Buddha Statue in Changhua City, neighboring to National Changhua Living Art Museum and the Skywalk. In the past, it has been the artillery camp of the army since 1953. In 1993, the troops evacuated, and the land was handed over to Changhua County Government. It was not until 2002 that Changhua County Government’s proposal of “The Rural and Urban Landscape Plan” was approved by the Council of Cultural Affairs. It attempted to use the model of the “reutilization of idle space” to seek new functions and usages for the land. “Changhua Chenggong Camp Site – Green Environment Learning Campsite” is the first environmental education camp the uses the idle land of army garrisons for education purpose. In addition to retaining the forests and greens, it is also the most special ecological education park in Taiwan. Recently, the Green Environment Learning Camp Site has scheduled a series of environment education courses. They have designed a series of courses covering the areas of the explanation of the environment, course activities, and experiments with the resources and the features in the camp site, with the guidance of the five groups of volunteers: butterfly, herb, indigenous plant, wild vegetable, and water plant. The courses are provided to high school and elementary school teachers and students for school outings, environmental education, nature experiences and other teaching activities. Since accepting applications from schools in early October, it has received many schools that visited and attended courses in the Green Environment Learning Camp Site. This not only includes schools in the neighborhood, such as Zhongshan Elementary School Affiliated Kindergarten, Minsheng Elementary School, but also but also schools, such as Daan Elementary School and others from Tianzhong, located many miles away, also came to experience the beauty of Baquashan and take courses on environmental issues. In addition to the interpretations and guided tours in the campsite, the volunteers there design different theme activities to visitors of different age groups, such as Shennong tasting different herbs, ecology of wild butterflies, frequently seen wild vegetables and more. At the end, we are enthusiastic to offer “DIY activities.” These topics allows teachers and students to use natural materials to make simple souvenirs of their own. The Department of Education expects that by providing a quality site for ecological learning and experience in “Changhua Chenggong Camp Site – Green Environment Learning Campsite”, it allows teachers and students to expand the horizon of their knowledge about the environment so as to treasure it more. Consolidating the concept of life-long learning and environmental education, it aims to construct as “Green Environment Learning Campsite” that integrates the functions of environmental protection, education, culture, and entertainment. Source: Changhua County Government’s website Contact: Inspector Shih, Department of Education, Changhua County Government (04-7250057 Ext. 26) Website of the Green Environment Learning Campsite: https://sites.google.com/a/chc.edu.tw/greencamp/ Fans page of Green Environment Learning Campsite: https://www.facebook.com/chcgreencamp/

“Changhua Xizhou Mud Cultural Festival” took place on October 28th and 29th 2017. The opening ceremony was held on the 28th in the morning at the Xizhou Forest Park (The property of Taitang).