Sheipa Leisure Farm, located at an altitude of 1,923 m and close to the Guanwu Recreation Area, is a time-honored leisure farm in Taiwan. The Founder Fan Zen-da used to work at the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, and has served as a Technical Representative of the BASF Pesticide Division and in the Marketing Division of Sinon Corporation. More than 20 years ago, he resigned from a well-paid job and started a farming life in the mountains with his wife. During the initial eight years without water, electricity, and traffic connection, they could only light candles at night, manually carry the fruits they grew and transported down the mountain in a small truck. Such difficulties led many people to regard his decision as unrealistic and short term. However, Sheipa stands firm in the mountains with the tradition now being undertaken by a second generation.
Besides the paradise-like environment and modernized comfortable accommodation on the Farm, the most commendable are the beautiful flowers and trees in the garden as well as the high-quality blueberries and kiwifruits. As early as 1985 when kiwifruit was still a specialty imported fruit, Fan Zen-da successfully cultivated the first local kiwifruit. In 1989, he even successfully introduced and cultivated blueberry seedlings from Germany, once again setting a new record in Taiwan’s agricultural history.