Chihsing Tan Keng Park (Bunker) Introduction
The Songbailing area is elevated, where the national military established various artillery positions for wartime defense; however, most of these forts have been abandoned for many years. The local township office applied to the Ministry of National Defense to repurpose the military air defense bunkers into tourist attractions, allowing visitors to experience a different leisure scenery. Early on, the Ministry of National Defense built 11 positions, including 27 bunkers and 3 buildings, in the Songbailing area to defend the strategic military location of Zhuoshui River. Now, with military use no longer needed, the scattered bunkers amidst tea gardens have become a unique local landscape. To transform the bunkers and align with local tourism development, they have been re-planned and renovated into distinct groups of bunkers. Shoutiangu is the most important religious center in the area and also the primary tourism resource of Songbailing. It worships the main deity Xuantian Shangdi, the northern god, with the Big Dipper and Polaris as its representative constellations. The planned route includes seven sites, whose locations correspond closely to the Big Dipper, integrating with the local important resources, thus named "Big Dipper Position Park." Each position has been reconfigured according to its attributes of Yin, Yang, five elements, zodiac signs, and colors, employing elements like planting, paving, stone arrangement, carving, and collage to transform the existing fort buildings and embellish them with colors that express the unique characteristics of each position. The seven bunkers adjacent to Shoutiangu have been planned into a new landscape in the tea gardens. Since the deity worshipped at Shoutiangu is Xuantian Shangdi, the northern god, with the Big Dipper and Polaris as representative constellations, the bunkers have been designed as the Big Dipper positions to resonate with Shoutiangu, aligning with the "five elements" and "Big Dipper." The exterior of the seven bunkers is designed in colors representing their unique attributes: white, green, yellow, black, red, gray, and purple. They are named: "Yaoguang," "Kaiyang," "Yuheng," "Tianquan," "Tianxuan," "Tianji," and "Tianshu." Tourism recommendations suggest that although the roads here are narrow, they are very suitable for cycling, allowing you to explore the seven uniquely styled bunkers and experience their historical significance. The first bunker, marked boldly by the "Big Dipper Position Park" sign, features a black and white camouflage design, with the interior filled with stalagmite-like spikes, said to have been designed to reduce artillery shock effects inside the bunker. Other bunkers also share similar designs, but the external landscape designs differ greatly, making it a major highlight for visitors in this area.
