Heping Village:和平新村 Dachen Village: 大陳新村

Heping New Village 和平新村 in Dashe District 大社區 is another mostly abandoned village of people from the Dachen Islands in Kaohsiung. As seen in my post on another village in Kaohsiung, people from these islands were evacuated to Taiwan in 1955 and resettled in villages all around Taiwan after the PRC moved in to take over the islands.

Although given some help from the KMT government and the Red Cross, many of these villages were placed in remote locations, so life was pretty hard. The people generally didn’t last in the villages for too long. Many moved to big cities or to the USA looking for better work. So many of the villages, especially the more remote villages are mostly abandoned.

This village is located in a small valley outside of Dashe 大社 town. Going into the village there are some nasty dogs, but luckily they are chained up pretty well. But be careful.

In Heping Village, there were 64 households, with houses ranging from 4 to 9 pings. (13-30 square meters) A family of five or six was crowded into the limited space, making life difficult. Out of the original 64 households, only a couple remain. They mostly live in the houses at the beginning of the little valley.

As you can tell, most of the houses have long been abandoned.

I believe that there were communal stoves. Maybe a few families in the row houses would share one kitchen.

The kitchen area.

An old bedroom and living room area. I have a picture of the mattress. Trust me you don’t want to see it.

Rocky!! This is one of the more interesting leftover things in the village. I like to think of the guys and gals who used this for exercise after a morning of farming to keep in shape. And it’s still in pretty good shape, too. I did a few rounds on it.

This is the temple for the villagers in and from the village 大社和平新村威武廟 Weiwu Temple. It was rebuilt in 1994.

End of the road.

So if you’re out driving around (the underrated) Dashe District 大社區 and want to see the village. Google the nearby temple (大社和平新村威武廟) The village is right down the road from it. Go see it and say hi!