Datan New Village

A vanished coastal community established to resettle households displaced by the Shimen Reservoir (石門水庫) project. 53 Han Chinese households from Amuping (阿姆坪) and Xinganping (新柑坪) were settled here in the early 1960s, soon joined by Tayal families whose new homes in Zhongzhuang had been destroyed by floodwaters from Typhoon Gloria. Both communities spent years attempting to develop the coastal barrens for agriculture, supplementing meager harvests with shellfish from the shore. In the early 1980s the nearby Gao Yin Chemical (高銀化工廠) discharged wastewater into the nearby creek, contaminating village farmland with cadmium and causing untold harm to residents over subsequent years. Nearly a decade of protests eventually forced the chemical company and government to compensate residents for their losses. After the total depopulation of both communities the land was expropriated and redeveloped into Datan Power Plant (大潭電廠) and the surrounding industrial parks.