Tainan’s Yujing District is renowned the world over for its brilliant red and wonderfully succulent “Irwin” mangos. Before its fields were given over to mango cultivation, it was a center of sugarcane production.
Sitting at the western end of the Southern Cross-Island Highway, Yujing has borne witness to 100 years of Taiwan’s transportation history. During the Japanese era, the town was also the site of the Tapani Incident.
In recent years, popular films delving into Taiwanese history that were either produced or directed by Wei Te-sheng, including Cape No. 7, Seediq Bale, and Kano, have thrust the locale’s historical legacy into the spotlight. Yujing has become a rich resource and source of inspiration for filmmakers, and a destination for travelers interested in “in-depth tourism.”
Taiwan Provincial Highway 20 (the Southern Cross-Island Highway) and Routes 84 and 3 intersect in Yujing. Bicycle and heavy motorcycle clubs often travel here on holidays and weekends.
When visiting Yujing, make sure to see the Douliuzai settlement near Zhongzheng Bridge, because that’s where Irwin mangos were first planted in Tawain.
Typhoon Morakat deposited large piles of driftwood near the mouth of the Gaoping River. The wood was later used to construct the Galilee Church, giving it a unique appearance that has made it a tourist attraction.
Building bridges for Irwins
According to the Council of Agriculture (COA), more mangos are grown in Tainan than any other county or municipality in Taiwan. In fact, Tainan accounted for half of the island’s total in 2012. Known as “the homeland of mangos,” Yujing alone produces 17,000 metric tons a year. Zhu Quanzhe, head of promotion for the Yujing Farmers’ Association, notes that plantings of Irwins account for 45% of the district’s 1800 hectares given over to mangos. Whether in terms of area, bushels produced, or crop value, plantings of Irwins here far exceed those of other varieties such as “Jinhuang” and “Kiett.”
Up until the 1950s Taiwan only had the unimproved mango varieties that had been imported from Southeast Asia in the 16th century. But in 1954, Taiwanese agriculturalists went to Florida to research the potential for growing better mangos and came back with Irwins, Hadens and Keitts. Trial plantings showed that they were well adapted to soil and climatic conditions in Taiwan, so they were planted in large quantities and given Chinese names.
In the early period, agricultural experts selected 11 areas of central and southern Taiwan for trial plantings. They concluded that Yujing was best suited to planting Irwin mangos. Irwins are especially fragrant and have a smooth mouthfeel. They’ve been hugely popular ever since they hit the market.
In 1962, on the suggestion of agricultural experts, Zheng Hanchi, a farmer in Douliuzai who is now aged 85, planted 100 Irwin mango trees in fields where he had previously grown sugarcane and sweet potatoes. In the first year, before he had a full grasp of how best to care for the trees, they almost all died when temperatures dipped too low. But he gritted his teeth and refused to give up. The following year he planted another 100 trees. Taiwan’s first crop of Irwins went to market in the third year. They were an immediate hit. Back then, a typical daily wage in Taiwan was only NT$60, but Irwins were fetching NT$18 per Taiwanese catty (600 grams). The high profits convinced most of the sugar cane farmers in the area to plant Irwins instead.
In 1973, Premier Chiang Ching-kuo designated Yujing as a special zone for planting Irwin mangos, and the Zhongzheng Bridge was built to provide local growers with better transportation.
The Douliuzai community is where Irwins were first planted in Taiwan. Local farmer Wu Qingjin anticipates a big harvest this year.
Pilgrimages of Japanese mango lovers
At the beginning of summer every year, when you look out from the Zhongzheng Bridge onto the neighboring hills, the slopes are covered with Irwin mango trees bearing red fruit. This year Wu Qingjin, foreman of crew No. 30 of the local fruit growers’ association, has nearly finished the work of placing protective bags over fruit on his two-hectare orchard, in preparation of picking the fruit in the middle of July. He used to plant some Hadens, Keitts and Jinhuangs as well, but after selling his Irwins in large quantities to Japan, he revised his strategy and has gone over almost entirely to growing Irwins.
Wu’s mango orchard has been recently certified by the COA’s Agriculture and Food Agency as an “outstanding orchard” for meeting certain guidelines in the safe use of pesticides and herbicides. The picked Irwins are first graded and packed, and sent off to a distribution center. The A-grade fruit is then taken by their exporter. After fumigation, inspection for chemical residues, and other procedures, the mangos are shipped off to Japan.
In 2011 the Yujing Farmers’ Association established a mango ice shop, which is packed with tourists on summer holidays and weekends. Xu Xiuyu, who heads the association’s sales department, explains that Yujing’s fruit are prized for being “sanitary, safe and natural.” The mango ice shop uses exclusively Irwin mangos, and its employees clearly tell people that fresh mangos are only available during the summer months. When mangos are out of season, the shop shifts to using frozen mangos.
As far as the Japanese travel writer Mari Katakura is concerned, being able to eat cheap and delicious mangos is the greatest joy of visiting Taiwan in the summer. It’s true that in Japan you can buy mangos from Okinawa and Miyazaki, but a single fruit costs ¥3000 (the equivalent of NT$900). Some cost as much as ¥10,000, which is simply unaffordable for most people.
In her book Ultimate Impressions of Taiwan, Katakura explains how much she enjoys eating mangos in Yujing. She also describes the mango-mad habits of a Taiwan-loving Japanese couple who are friends of hers. In order to satisfy their hunger, when they come to Taiwan for only a three-night stay, they stash their luggage in their hotel room and then immediately head south to Yujing to gorge on Irwins.
Currently, many Japanese hope to follow in Mari Katakura’s footsteps and experience Yujing first hand. All-inclusive mango-picking tours are in the works.
The Yujing Farmers’ Association ice shop, with a Chinese name that means “Passion Kid,” uses local Irwins for its mango ice.
History from the Japanese era
Apart from mangos, the area offers many historical sites for tourists to discover.
The area offers a few “must-sees” for tourists. Yujing was a center of sugar cane production in the years after World War II. Sugar processing plants were built here, and sugar cane’s sweet odor floated in the air all year round. What’s more, a railway was built from Tainan’s Shanhua to Yujing to serve the sugar industry. It was in operation for more than 20 years, not closing until 1975.
Paying a visit to the memorial to Yu Qingfang, a martyr of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, or to the Tapani Memorial Park on the way into Yujing, prompts visitors to consider the tragic history of opposition to Japanese rule that played out here.
Yujing was originally the Tapani community of the Tsou Aboriginal tribe. Later Sirayan Aborigines and Han Chinese migrated to the area. Thus Tapani was Yujing’s earliest name. In 1920, the Japanese renamed Tapani as the similar-sounding “Tamai,” using the characters for “jade well.” Those characters are pronounced Yujing in Mandarin.
Standing on Mt. Hutou provides a nice view of the Zengwen River snaking through the mountains. In 1915, during the early years of Japanese rule in Taiwan, the Tapani Incident, which was Taiwan’s fiercest act of rebellion against the Japanese, occurred here. So much blood was shed that the Zengwen River ran red, say local elders.
Tainan, then the administrative and cultural center of Taiwan, was home to a group of Taiwanese patriots, led by Yu Qingfang, who resented Japanese rule. They often gathered in secret at Tainan’s Xilai Temple to plan resistance activities. In August of 1915, the resistance battled with Japanese forces in Tapani on the slopes of Mt. Hutou, resulting in many casualties. Yu fled for his life, but was apprehended several days later and executed. Consequently, the uprising is also called the “Yu Qingfang Incident” or the “Xilai Temple Incident.”
When you add up both the grown men who died on the battlefield, as well the many others, including women and children, who would later die of illness as a result of displacement, the total death toll is estimated at over 1000.
In anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the Tapani Incident, it’s a particularly good time to gain a better understanding of its history. Also worth a look is the Jiang Family Compound in Yujing, which is the only Minnan-style architecture that has survived here from before the Tapani Incident. More than 200 years old, it’s a site that tourists interested in “in-depth travel” will definitely want to explore.
“Many of the farmers cultivating Irwin mangos here are descendants of those who resisted the Japanese during the Tapani Incident,” says Huang Chengqing, secretary-general of the Yujing Farmers’ Association.
Emblazoned across the memorial on Mt. Hutou to Yu Qingfang, who died resisting the Japanese, are characters that mean “loyal and righteous.”
The charms of mangos and history
During the last 50 years, the mango industry has caused the mountain town of Yujing to become known as the “homeland of mangos.” Mangos have come to be a symbol of Yujing for the tourist industry, but Huang believes that if visitors’ understanding of the area is to have meaning and depth, the history of the Tapani Incident must also be told. Only by so doing, he believes, will the town see the full benefits of “narrative tourism.”
Taiwan’s small towns have a great variety of special qualities that create a whole greater than its parts. Arranging for “in-depth travel” in Yujing during the mango season in July and August, so that one can gain a real sense of history and enjoy the color, scent and taste of mangos, will please both the intellect and the senses.
With their succulent flesh and fragrant aroma, Irwin mangos are extremely popular.
@List.jpg?w=522&h=410&mode=crop&format=webp&quality=80)
@List.jpg?w=522&h=410&mode=crop&format=webp&quality=80)
