The Toushe Basin is the third largest basin in Yuchih Township, with an area of 1.7 square kilometers. This used to be a lake, but it gradually became silted in and the water slowly retreated, causing it to became a swamp. So while the early Chinese settlers never had to worry about water for irrigation, the swamp made the land difficult to cultivate.The oxen that the farmers normally used to till their fields were useless here, because they would sink into the mud. Everything had to be done by the farmers themselves. So in their free time the farmers hauled soil from the mountains in oxcarts, and used it to fill in the swamp. But after some time, a strange kind of geological phenomenon developed, with an upper layer of soil and a lower layer of swamp. Elderly people in the area say that in the old days, if you jumped up and down on the soil, you would create waves in the land around you. And if you stuck a long bamboo pole into a soft spot in the soil, the whole pole would sink out of sight. Even now, on the east side of the basin, there is a road running through a group of betel nut trees that was paved with concrete, causing the land to sink and create a pond.【Traditional Clothe-washing Pool】In the southern part of the Toushe Basin are two villages, Neiaozai and Mianzaiyuan, which have traditional clothe-washing pools. The villagers use pools fed by water from springs and streams, with several flat stones and simple awnings to keep the sun off. These are places where the village women wash clothes while catching up on the latest gossip.Very few of these traditional clothe-washing pools remain in Taiwan, so the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area Administration has allocated a budget to renovate them along with the stone walls and steps. These features, and the sloping-roofed wooden sheds, make the clothe-washing pools unique sights in the area.At the entrance to Neiaozai on Provincial Highway 62, there is a rustic ...