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The Baileng Canal was built in 1928 (Showa 3). Originally it was constructed solely to irrigate the Governor-General’s sugar-cane nursery at the Ta-nan-chuang Seedling Breeding Station; after retrocession it became the Seed and Seedling Station of the Department of Agriculture and Forestry. In 1927 (Showa 2) the Japanese authorities conceived the irrigation project and the then-legislature approved a budget of more than 1.45 million yen. Work began in December 1928 and was completed in May 1932, a construction period of three years and six months. The total cost came to 1.04 million yen; the trial water run finished in September, and the formal opening ceremony was held on 14 October. At the ceremony Mr. Ueda, director of the Industry Bureau of the Governor-General, christened the Ta-nan-chuang Station’s irrigation conduit “Baileng Canal.” The conduit is 16.5 km long and runs along steep mid-slope terrain. Besides open channels it includes 22 tunnels, 14 aqueducts, and three inverted siphons, one of which—346 m long and 1.2 m in diameter—spans a valley and ranks as a major hydraulic feat. After the 1999 Jiji earthquake damaged the canal, the Irrigation Association laid a new blue-painted pipe alongside the old one, creating a side-by-side vista. Because the siphon is inverted, its principle is the reverse of an ordinary siphon, hence the name “inverted siphon.” Designed on the principle of communicating vessels, the green-painted steel pipe clings to the mountainside; the difficulty of the project is beyond words. The beautiful and majestic No. 2 inverted siphon is the largest in the entire Far East and was voted 26th among the nation’s Top 100 Scenic Spots in 2001.