Aside from being a buffer zone for ecological conservation, the Homeland Guardian Circle of Taijian National Park also has communities which have developed unique industry patterns and life styles due to geographical changes and thus are a shopwindow of the culture of the Taijian inland sea.
Once a vast inland sea, Taijian has silted up and become part of the land. Nonetheless, with the tides flowing and ebbing, seawater keeps flooding in along tidal creeks, creating a unique and ideal fish farming environment, which is home to plump and tasty aquatic products such as milkfish, groupers, and meretrix. The dried milkfish floss sold by the Lu'er community tastes like the sea. The community ecological itinerary provided by Chengxi community and Mazugong community lets tourists experience the pleasure of harvest by allowing to net fish by themselves.
In addition to fishery products, dry farmed crops like shallots in Sangu and watermelons in Chengxi, are also abound. Our ancestors cherished materials; they made the abundant shallots into fried shallots to prolong the edible period and ease the preservation and sale; they pickled the young watermelons picked during the thinning period into pickled watermelons, which may serve as a dessert if fried with sugar, or as a tasty broth if cooked. If you come across the stalls in Sangu or Chengxi, don’t forget to inquire about the cooking mate handmade by community connoisseurs.
The most special part is Yantian community. The salt fields cultivated during the Japanese reign used to be paved with tiles, producing clean and even-quality salt. As time elapsed, nowadays even the Taiwan Salt Company which had taken over the salt business from the Japanese also pulled out. Even so, the old salt workers couldn’t bear to let go of the snow-white ground under the fiery sun; they picked up the traditional tools and pulled the salt rake after rake, as if to collect the century-old flavor. At the holiday bazaar, they also sell the crude salt suitable for pickling and making gratins, the fine salt for daily cookery, and the fleur de sel for fancy cuisine.
If you come to Taijian Homeland Guardian Circle Holiday Bazaar, in addition to buying the scarcely-seen agriculture/fishery/salt specialties, do not forget to also ask where the specialties come from, what the ideal way is to eat the specialties, what stories the specialties have, and what the traditional culture of Taijian inland sea is.