The Dajin Agriculture Leisure Area

This slow-paced and peaceful village is mostly suitable for going on a peaceful trip that allows travelers to forget about the hustle and bustle of the city while fruit picking, cycling, and having fun experiences with DIY programs. Accompanied by a fruity aroma and floral scents, visitors are ensured to have a trip that creates fragrant memories.

Although this region is not a well-known tourist attraction, the Dajin Village of Dongshan Township is the frontrunner of Yilan’s fruit industry. On the plain surrounded by low mountains on the two sides, the alluvial gravel soil provided by the Fanshekeng River builds up the optimum natural conditions for cultivating fruits in Dajin. The whole village is like a large orchard that is clustered with plum trees, wax apples, and citrus plants like no other plantation in the area. Being the most important fruit production area of Yilan, Dajin produces all types of fruits yearly. It is truly a refined pleasure to explore and discover Dajin by following the fruity aroma and floral scents that infuse the air.

The Dajin Tourist Information Center provides tourist information, bicycle rentals, group guided tours for over 6 people, and the exhibition and sales services of the native cultivated products. Visitors can participate in different kinds of intriguing DIY programs and activities according to their interests from the experience of slab painting, handmade soap creations, and fruit-flavored tanghulu production. These diversified farm tours are offered to satisfy tourist preferences.

The closed terrain of Dajin, originally the territory of the Atayal people, is the newest development region in the Lanyang Plain. It was not until the early 20th century that the Hans began to immigrate for in this area for the reclamation of land. During previous times, the ancestors of the Hans used to build stone slab houses using black slates on the creek bed as their residence. This kind of home was eradicated in modern times because of the decrease of stone material sources and the damages caused by a typhoon. Together with the remake of the stone slab houses built across the Dajin Community, the slate house escape game program was launched by the Dajin Tourist Information Center to allow visitors to understand the features and specialties of Dajin Village. This region where knowledge is integrated with entertainment and experience is certainly worth a visit.

Lin Wen De, the owner of the “Santai Organic Tea Farm”, is indifferent towards the award-winning plaques and congratulatory red papers that read the praise, “expert in black tea”, which is hung on the wall of the farm. Rather, his attitude is firm and non-negotiable regarding the planting of organic tea. The tea garden that is operated by Lin Wen De is Yilan’s first tea plantation that passed organic certification. Previously, when Lin Wen De took over the tea garden from his father, he discarded habitual farming and replaced it with organic farming. Having undergone the obstacle of a sharp decrease in yield and the inability to produce fine tea, he finally recognized that the way of developing lowland organic tea is not exactly the light fermentation guideline that is found in the cultivation of high mountain tea. Thus, he tried to re-ferment organic tea and conducted experiments until he finally produced soothing and aromatic organic tea.

Santai’s business fully relies on word-of-mouth exposure carried out by its customers. Even workers from the neighboring factories purchase the remaining fannings (commonly-knowns as tea bones or broken tea) and the remains of tea production. They acclaim that the tea bones produced by Santai are better than other good tea that is advertised outside the area. Lin Wen De also has his own particular personality and style of tea-making. He is not interested in pursuing high production, so the tea that he sells is always in limited quantities. If the farm is confronted by poor sales, he will always use the teas himself. For him, the quality of the tea is above all.

Although it is located in an alley, many people enjoy visiting the “Happiness 20 Farm” because of their appreciation for the region. The farm owner, Yu Yuan Hui and Tseng Xin Yi returned to the homeland from Taipei and slowly built every tree, bush, brick, and tile on the farm with their own hands in their spare time when they completed taking care of the orchard. While relying on novel marketing strategies and the attitudes of showing respect for nature, the popularity of the farm has gradually improved. The special wood-baked pizza DIY program, where participants can put their own pizza into the brick kiln for baking upon spreading the sweet and salty toppings on the cold-fermented pizza crust, is open to the public on weekdays. Seasonal fruit products are also provided during different fruit harvest seasons for the fruit vinegar and candied fruit DIY activities, these include lemon vinegar in summer, pomelo vinegar in autumn, and the candied kumquat experience. Both adults and children can learn about food and agriculture from the farm to the table by participating in these experience programs.

Tsai Song Mao, the owner of the “Song Mao Tourist Orchard”, has been operating his family’s orchard for over 20 years. Visitors are welcome to visit the Song Mao Tourist Orchard to pick different types of fruit including kumquats, pomelos, Fremont, dragon fruits, and sweet peaches. Tsai Song Mao wakes up at five o’clock every morning to make his rounds in the orchard and begin weeding. Though farming is not an easy task, he never complains and his only concern is for the strike of a typhoon that may damage all the fruits that he has meticulously planted.
Since the soil texture at Song Mao belongs to the grit that lacks moisture content, Tsai Song Mao uses the water from the Dagou Creek from the upstream of the Luodong River to irrigate the orchard. The fruits that he produces have the perfect sweetness and visitors always buy the entire yield in season once having savored these fruits. You have to be quick with your purchases if you wish to relish the luscious, pleasant fruits.

Sharing the communal space with the Dajin Tourist Information Center, the “Big Nose Carpentry Workshop” is a happy place where Lin Yong Ren, the expert carpenter also known as “Big Nose”, provides free creations with children. Born in a poor family, Big Nose did not have any toys to play with during his childhood. However, he understood very well about the recycle and reuse of old and discarded materials upon having witnessed recycling activities conducted by his neighbors. While practicing his creative ingenuity, Big Nose makes various kinds of lovable puppet figurines by exploiting the remaining corner materials of woodworking and instructs children on choosing the appropriate materials from wood and eco-friendly materials. He also provides help on the handling of woodworking machinery to create the imaginative look of an action figure. Since most of the materials are based on a geometric figure, it is particularly suitable for inspiring the dynamic creativity in young children.