In Yuli, Hualien—Awakening Never Apart: a prayer-vow with every step I take. 🌹

Today, Dr. Chen Chun-ming came to Yuli, Hualien, and shared lunch amid the rice paddies—at “Chi Po-lin’s Giant Footprints.”
This was a classic shot from director Chi Po-lin’s Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above (《看見台灣》)—
nine enormous footprints laid out across the spring fields with the help of local farmers.
Each footprint is a living mark of symbiosis between people and land,
reminding us: step by step, footprint by footprint—cherish the earth beneath our feet.

Today, our guide was Mr. Chen Qinglian—the li chief of Chunri Li in Yuli, and also the tribe’s headman.
He led everyone to an 80-plus-year-old mango tree. Known locally as the “Chi Po-lin Tree”—also called the “Prayer Tree”—this was the very spot where director Chi Po-lin once filmed and paused to rest.
After his passing, local tribal community members dedicated the tree in his memory, honoring a director who cherished the land,
and praying that the spirit of safeguarding the earth may remain ever-abiding.

Before lunch, the tribal headman led a blessing rite in honor of the ancestral spirits.
Dr. Chen then played a recording from Awakening Never Apart, offering prayers of blessing for Hualien, and personally presented the headman with a copy of the book—so that this teaching might take root as an auspicious affinity.