Yong'an Community, Luye Township, Taitung County Introduction
The saying goes, "It takes ten years to polish a sword." Community building is like a marathon, and Taiwan has entered its 30th year of community development. The Yong'an community has not been absent; for 25 years, we have successfully transformed this rural area in Eastern Taiwan—Yong'an community—through community development methods. Yong'an Village in Luye Township, Taitung County, was originally named Luliao, covering an area of approximately 15.1 square kilometers with a population of around 1,500. The village is situated on a hilly plateau, making farming difficult, and was one of the poorest villages in Luye Township in earlier years. To ensure residents could live in peace, the name was changed from Luliao to Yong'an in the 37th year of the Republic of China. In the last twenty years, local residents have launched a series of initiatives to transform Yong'an, making it a nationally recognized exemplary community, proving that "wanting to fly is not a dream." In the 82nd year of the Republic of China, the Yong'an Community Development Association was established, beginning community development work. In the 90th year, several youths returning home, along with many like-minded individuals, initiated community building efforts, proposing the first community development project in Yong'an’s history to the government, starting a groundbreaking rural community movement. To enhance the overall living environment of the village, the Yong'an community revitalized both the soft and hard infrastructure of the community, leading to significant changes in public spaces over the years. Currently, Yong'an community is striving for sustainable development, implementing a user-pay mechanism, promoting eco-tourism and environmental education industries, and constructing a community operational model in preparation for an advanced sustainable community. In the aspect of cultural heritage preservation, the Yong'an community founded the Luliao Community Newspaper in the 90th year of the Republic of China, which has since transformed into the Luye Township Newspaper. The community actively promotes cultural preservation and revitalization, holding events such as making rice cakes three days before Lunar New Year's Eve and fetching midday water from Yulong Spring on Dragon Boat Festival. Over the past 25 years, Yong'an has also published four village history books and two story picture books, alongside numerous media reports and community documentaries, allowing more people to see the stories and achievements of Yong'an's community development efforts. With an indomitable spirit and years of effort, the residents turned a poor traditional rural area into a classic legend of the back mountains. Yong'an community has transformed into a national model community, having been recognized as a top-performing community development team by the Council for Cultural Affairs in 1999 and 2009, awarded the Excellent Tourism Community Prize by the Ministry of Culture in 2010, recognized as one of the first Top Ten Classic Agricultural and Fishing Villages, formally certified as an Environmental Education Facility in 2013, and received the National Environmental Education Award (Community Category) in the special excellence category. In 2018, it won the gold medal in the first "Golden Rural Community" awards. While Yong'an community is not a pioneer in community building in Taiwan, over the past twenty-five years, the Yong'an team has dedicated itself to revitalizing this traditional rural area in Eastern Taiwan. We set challenging goals every year, continuously self-challenging and innovating, evolving into a national gold medal community. Not only have community industries upgraded, but the quality of life for residents has improved as well, with young people returning home for employment and entrepreneurship, making it increasingly popular among new immigrants. Just like the sky of Yong'an, where hot air balloons and paragliders often soar freely, carrying everyone's dreams ever higher.
Luye Plums and Deer Park
9th Hot Air Balloon Festival in Yong'an
