Beautiful old trees bring shade to the new green lawn.
Spacious views extend the reach of one's studies.
Elegant buildings echo the sound of reading...
　

Tachi Secondary School

Using the traditional Chinese U-shaped building, the architect links the buildings with corridors to bring the teachers and students closer together. (Photo: Hung Jui-chin)

Changho Elementary School

The architect replaced a bridge that used to connect two pieces of land with a smooth slope. The slope divides the campus into a classroom area and sports field area. (Photo: Hsiao Chin-tan)

The earthquake knocked down old buildings. The new campuses use traditional Chinese architecture to create a closer feeling between teachers and students.

Wufu Elementary School

The school is designed in the traditional northern Chinese style of two U-shaped houses to organize the space so it won't look too rigid or solemn. (Photo: Hung Jui-chin)

Peikang Elementary School

Pebble-dashed walls, sloping tiled roofs, a bell tower on the building's west side, and a huge expanse of green lawn give the children a nice place for studying. (Photo: Ku Ting-ho)

Peishan Elementary School

The U-shaped school has mountains in the back and a river at the front. The campus emphasizes special windows, open corridors, and open balconies that give people a much wider view. (Photo: Ku Ting-ho)

Chichi Elementary School

The railway tie walkway reflects a special feature of the town of Chichi--it's old narrow-gauge railway. The walkway goes straight to a new auditorium built in the traditional style. It gives people a chance to examine the humanity of a hundred-year-old history. (Photo: Yen Lin-chao)

Shuangwen Middle School

The conversation corner is a place for students to rest and chat. (Photo: Yen Lin-chao)

Hsinshe Elementary School

The corridor connecting the school entrance and the classroom building shelters students from sun and rain. It is also a perfect place for sketching. (Photo: Hsu Ming-chiang)

Special old buildings and objects hold a significant history in people's memories. The architects designed the campuses to retain certain features while combining them with new buildings. Here, old trees still live, local features are protected, and people's memories about the earthquake are still deeply engraved.
　

Sheliao Elementary School

Old trees with thick trunks and abundant leaves still bring enjoyment to the teachers and students who occupy the new campus after surviving the earthquake of the century. (Photo: Hsiao Chin-tan)

Taoyuan Elementary School

The open design creates a special effect when framed by an opening in a corridor wall. (Photo: Hsu Ming-chiang)

Tunglin Elementary School

The carvings on the handrail are fascinating when viewed through the sunlight.

(Photo: Lin Yen-huang)

Sheliao Middle School

The old handicrafts classroom, which extends a history of gentleness, is enclosed between two U-shaped buildings. In the future, the old workshop will be used to hold the school's archives.

(Photo: Cheng Chin-ming)

Wufeng Elementary School

Shaped like a Mongolian yurt, this building is the oldest one on campus. The architect added a pebble-dash surface to its walls, and it now serves as the school's archives. It is also the school's memorial hall for the September 21 earthquake. (Photo: Liu Chun-chieh)

SEEING THE RESULTS OF PROJECT HOPE

By Reynold Hsieh
Translated by Lin Sen-shou

Whenever I see children happily running up and down the stairs and showing their satisfaction and joy in the classrooms, I am always moved to tears. At last, after two years of being stationed on the Project Hope sites to help build the schools, we can finally see the results.
　

On September 21, 1999, I was in Los Angeles watching TV news reports of the devastation wreaked by the earthquake. I was completely speechless. I wanted to fly back immediately to help with disaster relief. Three days later, I took a plane back to Taiwan after living in the States for eighteen years.

At that time, the Tzu Chi Foundation was planning to build prefabricated houses for earthquake survivors. I recommended myself to Master Cheng Yen. With my expertise as a construction engineer in the United States, I took charge as the general engineer to build Great Love Village One in Nantou, central Taiwan.

After September 29, when we broke the ground, 19 villages--1,741 houses--were completed in a little more than two months. Because more and more earthquake-damaged schools were being added to Tzu Chi's assistance list, I again told the Master that I wanted to continue my assistance, and the Master agreed. Thus, I closed my business in the States and devoted myself wholeheartedly to Project Hope.

Actually, I had already been involved with the construction industry in Taiwan more than 20 years ago. However, I saw how bad construction quality was back then, so I went to America to learn high-quality construction skills. I also spent five years to get my construction engineer license, and I opened a business there.

I was very glad to offer my expertise to Taiwan this time, keeping an eye on the construction quality of Project Hope schools so they could be perfect. This was my hope at the construction sites for the last two years.

With help from the entire construction team, of the 50 schools that Tzu Chi planned to rebuild, we finished 48 by September 2002. Construction at two schools has not been completed because of campus problems. Still, the completion rate was 96 percent, breaking many previous records in Taiwan.

If people believe that Project Hope construction was the silent revolution of the century in the construction industry, then they are right. It changed the deteriorating construction culture and created a new campus culture and community spirit of love.

Tzu Chi took on three major objectives as its main goal for Project Hope: the lowest construction cost, the shortest construction period, and the highest quality. If people say Project Hope was the silent revolution of the century in Taiwan’s construction industry, then they are right. It improved the deteriorating construction culture and created a new campus culture and community spirit of love.

When Project Hope started, the contractors were under great pressure because Tzu Chi had set up a special four-level quality control. The first level consisted of the contractors themselves; the second was the architects; the third was the Tzu Chi Construction Department; and the fourth level consisted of Tzu Chi senior construction commissioners and advisors. In addition, all schools were required to use the SRC (steel-reinforced concrete) method of construction.

The SRC method was quite difficult to implement because the spacing between steel bars and steel wires had to be extremely narrow. It took longer and more people were needed than with the traditional RC (reinforced concrete) method. For instance, a laborer working eight hours a day could tie one to one and a half tons of steel reinforcement using the RC method, but only 0.5 to 0.8 tons of wire with the SRC method. Thus the SRC method took twice as long as the RC method.

Furthermore, construction site workers were prohibited from smoking, drinking alcohol, or eating betel nuts--all common features on Taiwan's construction sites. The workers had to wear safety hats and to constantly recycle trash. Because of this, the workers felt we were hounding them from the beginning.

One time six workers were tying steel reinforcement at a school, but they didn't do the job correctly. We immediately told them to redo the whole thing. But the workers immediately assaulted us with curse words. We stood our ground and didn't talk back. We found the construction manager and told him about the incident, and he later solved the misunderstanding.

Another incident happened at another secondary school. It was raining when we were pouring cement for the foundation. The general contractor knew that the rain would delay the process, but he still called eight trucks to the construction site. Some trucks had to wait idly while others were pouring cement. It became dark in the evening and we couldn't see clearly, so we had to slow down the work even more. Five cement trucks had been waiting two hours overtime, and if we continued, the cement would become set inside the trucks. Therefore, I told them to dump their loads at a proper dumping site and go home. The general contractor was not pleased with this because it still cost them money; even their on-site quality controller scolded me in person. But in order to maintain high quality construction, I still kept my ground.

The next day, the company manager and the quality controller came and apologized to me, promising that it wouldn't happen again. After that, the cement trucks from this firm worked very well, contributing much to Project Hope.

In addition to the hard work of these contractors, the Tzu Cheng Faith Corps also did a wonderful job throughout the construction period.

The Tzu Cheng Faith Corps is famous for its tight organization, strict discipline, and high efficiency. Sung Li-sheng, deputy manager of the New Asia Construction and Development Company, who was responsible for three schools, said, "The Tzu Cheng Faith Corps is like a powerful Tzu Chi train that, upon entering a construction site, doesn't stop working until it has completed the task. We really admire those abilities!"

When Tzu Cheng members were landscaping Tungkuang Elementary School, they repaired walls around the school gate, planted trees and grass, laid down interlocking paving bricks, and dug out drainage ditches. They even finished more difficult tasks like the revetments, sports field, and ponds.

The presence of the Tzu Cheng Faith Corps also brought out local residents, loving mothers, and environmental protection volunteers to work together for Project Hope. The campuses became works of art with beautiful gardens filled with chirping insects and birds. The schools have become the best places for students' outdoor activities and for learning about nature.
　

I lived on the construction sites for the past two years and did my best to work hard. Finally I saw the results of Project Hope. These schools are grand and magnificent, the best places in Taiwan for nurturing love and human character.
　

Hard work always pays off. The first school that moved to its new campus, on April 26, 2001, was Tungkuang Elementary School in Puli.

It was raining. Accompanied by members of the Tzu Cheng Faith Corps and students' parents, principal Tu She-hua, led all the teachers and students as they moved desks and equipment from the temporary prefabricated classrooms to the new school buildings. Although the campus was not yet completely finished, the students' eagerness to move to the new buildings really touched us.

In May, Fukuei Elementary School was finished, but Li Keng-hsun, the school's principal, was not in a hurry to move to the new buildings. The school held a special graduation ceremony in mid-June. The ceremony site, where the teachers and students personally decorated it, was filled with joy. The students screamed and jumped with spirit. The new campus stood like a huge mansion on a hill in Fukuei Village. When the sun set, it turned the school so golden and beautiful that no one wanted to leave. The students didn't move in until September, though.

June to September was the peak season for the completion of schools in Puli. Most principals wanted to move in before September 3, when the new school year started, but all sorts of difficulties prevented the general contractors from completing the schools. We were anxious and under great pressure.

By last September, 15 of the 16 schools in Puli had moved to their new buildings. Yenfeng Elementary School, the only one left unfinished, will be completed at the end of this year.

Each time I went to help the teachers and students move to the new buildings, I was always moved to tears to see the students running up and down the stairs happily and to see their satisfaction and joy in the classrooms.

These schools are grand and majestic, and they are the best nurturing grounds in Taiwan for producing love and human character. I was very lucky to be able to follow Master Cheng Yen and to join Tzu Chi so we could work together on Project Hope until the schools were completed.

I want to thank two people besides Master Cheng Yen: my mother and Ms. Lin Pi-yu, vice president of the Tzu Chi Foundation.

My mother gave birth to four children. She worked so hard both at home and in the office that she finally fell sick. I was very naughty when I was a child and caused her great headaches.

My sister became a Tzu Chi commissioner in the United States six years ago, and she encouraged our mother to join Tzu Chi. My mother has been doing recycling work ever since, and she enjoys it very much.

The September 21 earthquake prompted me to come back to Taiwan from the States. When I was in charge of building Great Love Village One, I came across many difficulties, but luckily, the support from Vice President Lin left me with no worries.

Memories from the Construction Sites

By Tu Miao-hsi
Translated by Lin Sen-shou

Chang Ming-kuei: the most beautiful scene

On September 21, Chang Ming-kuei was in Taya. It was 2 A.M. and the power was completely out. As a Tzu Chi commissioner, Chang first went to see the lonely elderly people he had been visiting to make sure they were safe. Then he joined the rescue mission.

During that period, he noticed that many surviving families were forced to live in small tents. As someone who had been in the construction industry for more than twenty years, Chang vowed that he would devote three years in rebuilding the disaster areas no matter what. He would treat the disaster areas as his top priority and even live there.

Five months later, in February 2000, the planning of Project Hope schools approached a more detailed stage, and Chang came to the Tzu Chi Construction Department to inspect the blueprints. In August, as part of the third-level quality control from the Construction Department, Chang went to inspect work at Fengtung Secondary School, Shihkang Elementary School, and Taiping Elementary School, all in Taichung County.

"I discovered that we were looking for good construction companies, and the construction companies were also looking for good customers," said Chang. He couldn't hide his excitement and continued, "I often heard about people fighting at construction sites, but at Project Hope schools, we worked with one mind and one spirit."

Whenever he went to one school, he would set himself as an example by picking up garbage at the construction site. This brought him the nickname of "Garbage Terminator." As a result, the construction manager at Fengtung Middle School placed trash cans at various locations to keep the site clean. This action changed people's impressions about construction sites always being dirty.

Looking back at the period of two years and eight months, Chang really fulfilled his wish: taking the construction sites as his home.

Whenever he was busy, he would place boards at the back of his office and sleep on them at night. In the morning he simply stacked up the boards and stood them upright. He did that for one and a half years.

While living on the construction sites, the people he kept in contact with--laborers, the barbers who cut his hair, vegetarian restaurant owners, car repair shop workers, stationary store owners--all became Tzu Chi members and made their monthly donations through him. Even a local folk temple donates money every month to Tzu Chi because of him.

In Chang's eyes, each and every Project Hope school is alive because it involves people's love. He said, "We had to finish the schools no matter what, but I was more concerned about the human part: whether the participants had love."

What he remembered the most was one winter night at Fengtung Middle School.

They were pouring cement on the fourth floor and it was already 1 A.M. Local Tzu Chi volunteers had just returned from visiting the needy and passed by the construction site. When the volunteers saw them still working, one female volunteer said to them, "Wait for us!" At about 3 A.M. a huge pot of hot porridge was brought over to the construction site.

It was drizzling and it was cold. One worker was shivering from the cold, so a volunteer took of her coat and placed it on that worker's back. Chang said, "That down jacket was white, but she did it so naturally that she wasn't concerned whether it would get dirty."

Chen Yung-wen: Able to explain to local people

On September 21, the day the earthquake struck, Chen Yung-wen, Tzu Chi Construction Department construction manager, was working in Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital. He was concerned about his family, so he went back to Puli the following day.

Many roads were inaccessible at that time. Chen drove his car until the road dead-ended. He then had to walk to Puli. His family was fine, but many local people were dead.

A lot of houses had collapsed. Besides very old houses, even newly built high-rises fell apart because the pillars couldn't support them. "How is this possible? What are the problems?" wondered Chen, who had been in the construction industry for more than ten years.

When the construction industry was on the rise in central Taiwan, many construction companies tried to recruit workers from other companies to their own construction sites because of manpower shortages. The workers were paid daily. Chen concluded that as a result, quality control had been sacrificed.

In August 2000, Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital was completed and opened. Chen was assigned to work back home at four major schools and three smaller ones.

When he was working at Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, he was quite impressed with Tzu Chi's construction culture. It was quite different from the experience he had gathered over the past ten years. Chen said that at Tzu Chi construction sites, no water was added while cement was being poured, and the reinforcing steel had to be tied very tightly. Chen had studied such detailed examples of quality control in textbooks at school, but now he had a place to put these theories into real use, fulfilling his youth's dream.

Chen was fully aware of the construction culture in Taiwan, knowing that it was hard to change overnight. Therefore, he applied gentleness in his communication and talked to workers like friends. He knew they had experiences and skills gathered over the years, so he never ordered the laborers directly--he informed the construction managers of the quality control he wanted.

The quality control he demanded became a positive cycle that the general contractors began to demand from themselves, comprising the first-level quality control from the construction firms. Even more fortunate was that he never had any arguments with the workers. A married couple even joined to become Tzu Chi members.

It was a heavy burden to supervise seven schools, but because the schools were in his hometown, he did the job very cheerfully. The one thing that depressed him, though, was that there were constant afternoon thunderstorms in Puli. If the rain was heavy, the work had to stop, delaying construction at these schools.

Wang Shih-ming: Tzu Chi schools are super strong!

Having watched earthquake survivors wandering before fallen buildings on TV, Wang Shih-ming felt their pain. He had been in the construction industry for more than ten years, so he was deeply shocked to see so many schools damaged in the earthquake.

Wang said, "Schools are public works, so they should be very strong! Is there something wrong with our construction industry? If there is, we must change it!"

Wang thus joined Project Hope, a new start for him after 40 years of his life. In July 2000, he came to the Tzu Chi Construction Department to be trained for three months and then joined Project Hope.

Wang said, "I thought I came to offer my skills, but I never expected to learn something new." In Kaohsiung, where he lives, not one building fell in the earthquake, and the buildings there were all built with RC or simple steel bar methods. Not one construction company in Taiwan knew how to use the SRC method, but Wang agreed with Master Cheng Yen to build schools that could stand for hundreds or even thousands of years. "If you give with your heart today, our future generations will benefit from it," said Wang.

In addition to the new construction skills, Tzu Chi's construction culture also demands no smoking, no drinking of alcohol, and no chewing of betel nuts. Wang completely agreed to change these bad habits among the workers in order to preserve their physical health and money. However, the most important thing involved deep-rooted concepts. "Building schools is conscientious work, and quality control is very important. There is a need to let the construction companies and contractors know."

Wang was in charge of five schools, and he had to go to these schools every day.

Kuohsing is a farming town on a hill. People live in houses built with bricks and cement, so many people died in collapsing houses when the earthquake struck. When survivors saw Tzu Chi building new schools, they were very concerned about safety, and they would ask workers if these schools were strong.

Wang would point to the models and tell them about SRC. He used down-to-earth expressions and said to them, "Super sturdy!"

The town was located in a mountainous area, so weather greatly affected the construction. Two typhoons attacked during the construction period and washed out Kuohsing Bridge. Peishan Elementary School was located halfway up a mountain and the main road had been washed out by the typhoons, so workers had to take small side roads to reach the school. It was really difficult for them, but they were encouraged by the services of the Tzu Chi volunteers.

One female worker said, "Carrying bricks was a hard job, but I was very happy to work here because I got respect and care from the Tzu Chi volunteers."

Environmental protection volunteers went to the construction sites to do garbage recycling. They even recycled short steel wires; the recyclable materials would be sold and the money donated for Project Hope. Their contributions greatly impressed local people.

When Wang first went to the temporary prefabricated classrooms, he could feel the heat inside. As a father he felt sorry for these children, and he just wanted to finish the schools as fast as possible so the students could go to their new buildings. Because the prefabricated classrooms were near the construction site, the students were quite curious about the new campus and would ask him all sorts of questions regarding construction. Wang said with a smile, "The students supervised the construction from beginning to end."

When the schools were completed, Wang also brought his family to visit them and to share his joy. They saw campuses surrounded by mountains and brand-new buildings in different styles from different times. Wang felt the mountains were filled with an atmosphere of hope.

Wang was delighted to see students moving into their new classrooms and getting back to their regular classes. What he still remembers the most is the smile on every person's face.