【Taiwan’s Slow Micro Travel】A Green Island Elephant Purchased Online

Adapted from “Beauty Within Reach – Scenic Lives Along the Eastern Coast” Compiled by Glasha

 

What can you buy for one hundred dollars? Coffee? A lunchbox? Just enough to top up your scooter’s gas tank? Or perhaps an elephant?

Back then, in his early thirties, Ah Fa—Li Mengfa—was a finance industry high-flyer with an annual salary exceeding a million dollars, yet he was captivated by the elephant slide on Green Island. “This slide has carried so many children, accompanied them through joyful times, and yet it’s doomed for the landfill.” As Ah Fa stared at his computer screen, his mind wandered to the elephant slide at his alma mater. It was that simple thought that made him place a bid—100 dollars. “Congratulations, you’ve won the bid.” A text message arrived on Ah Fa’s phone: Green Island Elementary School informed him to come and “collect” the item himself. If it were you, would you be willing to spend money on a crane and truck, cross the Pacific Ocean, and transport a hundred-plus-kilogram slide to your apartment in Taipei?

 

Just then, Ah Fa, a native of Taitung, had returned to his hometown to volunteer in disaster relief after Typhoon Morakot when he met Yao Lijyi, the principal of Green Island Public Guguan Elementary School. When he mentioned the issue with the elephant slide, Principal Yao readily agreed: “Let’s move it to Guguan Elementary School.”

 

The Green Island Elephant Travels Across Taiwan

The elephant slide was given a fresh new look after being jointly painted by students from Guguan Elementary School and Green Island Elementary School, its ocean-blue color transformed into a vibrant orange reminiscent of Green Island’s sunny warmth, and it happily moved into its new home. The event made the news, and the Green Island elephant became a new landmark on the island. Ah Fa even overheard a conversation among children—hoping the Green Island elephant could play with them too, travel around Taiwan, and even see the world. Elephant Dad Ah Fa decided to take action to help the children fulfill their dreams, beginning to plan the shipment of the elephant to Taiwan and organizing the travel itinerary.

Though the idea was wildly unconventional, luckily, Lin Yongfa, the director of Taitung Living Aesthetics Museum at the time, Professor Ye Xincheng from National Normal University, and Principal Yao Lijyi supported the project all the way. They actually managed to get the elephant packed into a crate, loaded onto a ship, and even had strong helpers get the elephant onto a train as it traveled with the children of Green Island across five major cities: taking a ferry ride along the Love River, visiting the elephants at Muzha Zoo, and even making the Green Island Elementary graduation trip a visit to the Flower Expo alongside the Green Island elephant. Everywhere they went, media coverage turned it into a hot topic, and the initiative to repurpose waste turned the Green Island elephant into the perfect ambassador for environmental education.

 

Ah Fa enabled the Green Island elephant to reach even greater potential. Schools across Taiwan sent invitations, the National Normal University’s Environmental Education Research Institute proposed research projects themed around the Green Island elephant, and a publisher even adapted the story into a picture book titled 《The Green Island Elephant》. The eco-conscious values symbolized by the Green Island elephant aligned perfectly with the Eastern Coastal National Scenic Area Administration’s active promotion of low-carbon tourism, which is why the third edition of the Travel Talents recruitment campaign even featured “Finding the Green Island Elephant” as one of its challenge tasks, planning to make the “Green Island Elephant” the spokesperson for low-carbon tourism on Green Island.

Transformed into a Picture Book Protagonist

When 《The Green Island Elephant》 returned to Taitung for its book launch, its first stop was Ah Fa’s alma mater, Ren’ai Elementary School. The Green Island elephant was used to show children that many things you think should be thrown away can actually have more uses if you just put in a little more thought. Ah Fa also specially introduced the white cement elephant at Ren’ai Elementary School—he had spent countless childhood hours playing beneath its belly, and this old friend was the very origin of Ah Fa’s decision to buy the Green Island elephant.

Thanks to an introduction by Professor Ye Xincheng, the story of the Green Island elephant caught the attention of the Danish Office in Taipei. Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, also has the famous Little Mermaid landmark, and both sides hoped to promote environmental education by bringing the Green Island elephant and the Little Mermaid together. The “Green Island Elephant Environmental Education Promotion Plan” was also awarded the “2012 Earth Environment Season” Outstanding Project Award by Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration—a clear affirmation for Ah Fa. In 2013, 《The Green Island Elephant》 was selected for display in the New Titles section of the Taiwan Pavilion at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy, and Ah Fa embarked on an environmental education journey across Taiwan with the Green Island elephant, carrying the elephant and his enthusiasm to share the story of Green Island—an ecological island from the eastern coast.A story.