Qixing Fort Park Introduction
The Songbailing area is situated at a high altitude, where the military established numerous artillery positions of varying sizes for defense during wartime. However, many of these artillery posts have been dormant for years. The local township office applied to the Ministry of National Defense to repurpose the military anti-aircraft bunkers into tourist attractions, allowing visitors to experience a different leisure environment. Initially, to safeguard the strategic military site of Zhuoshui Creek, the Ministry of National Defense constructed 11 positions and command posts (including 27 bunkers and 3 buildings) in the Songbailing area. Now, due to the cessation of military use, the bunkers scattered among tea gardens have become a unique local landscape. In order to transform these bunkers and align them with the development of local tourism, they have been re-planned and reconstructed into distinctive groups of bunkers. The Shoutian Temple is the most important center of faith in the area and also the key tourism resource of Songbailing. The temple dedicates its main deity, Xuantian Shangdi, as the northern chief god, with the Big Dipper and Polaris representing its constellations. The planned route features seven points whose distribution corresponds to the stars of the Big Dipper, creating a synergy with the Shoutian Temple, leading to the naming of the location as "Big Dipper Position Park." Each bunker has been reconfigured based on attributes such as Yin-Yang, five elements, zodiac signs, and colors, using elements like planting, paving, stone arrangement, carving, and collages for renovation and coloring, highlighting the uniqueness of each bunker. The seven bunkers near Shoutian Temple have been planned to become a new landscape among the tea gardens. Since Xuantian Shangdi is the northern chief god and the Big Dipper and Polaris represent his constellations, the bunkers have been planned to resonate with the Big Dipper, utilizing the "Five Elements" and "Big Dipper." The exteriors of the seven bunkers are designed in white, green, yellow, black, red, gray, and purple to express the characteristics of each position. They are named: "Yaoguang," "Kaiyang," "Yuheng," "Tianquan," "Tianxuan," "Tianji," and "Tianshu." Travel recommendations suggest that, although the roads are narrow, they are ideal for cycling to explore, allowing tourists to experience the historical significance of the bunkers along the seven distinctively styled structures. The first bunker features a bold "Big Dipper Position Park" sign, with the bunker itself designed in a black-and-white camouflage pattern. Inside, the stalactite-shaped formations are said to have been designed to minimize the effects of artillery vibrations. The other bunkers share similar designs, but their outdoor landscape designs vary greatly, making the area a significant attraction in itself.
