According to “Kavalan Prefecture History authored by Chen Shu-Chun and Li Chi-Sheng in 1852, which was the first official historical records of Yilan, around 200 years ago (1825), the local magistrate of Kavalan Prefecture, Wu Chu-Fang, felt that Yilan had superb mountains and seas as well as beautiful landscape, but its rural location held literati and poets back. Therefore, Wu Chu-Fang specifically selected the most representative eight attractions in Yilan, including the sunrise in Guishan, the evening mist in Longling, the clear and crisp air near Jiaoxi, the tide in Beiguan, the autumn water in Shanan, the boats in Wushi Harbor, the seaside market in Su’ao, and the hot springs in Tangwei. The purpose was to ensure the beautiful mountains and waters in Yilan well-known to people. Guishan Island, the first of the Eight Attractions in Lanyang, stands alone in the Pacific Ocean. Its special landform of “turtle and snake guard the entrance of the sea” is like the turtle and snake guard Lanyang Plain, and it has become the symbol of home spirit among people in Yilan since then.
There is a volcanic orifice on the bottom of the sea under the head of turtle of Guishan Island, and hot springs of high temperature in 140°C gushes out. When it rises to the sea level, it presents multiple layers of blue gradient appearance. It is called dream milky sea. However, under the mysterious and beautiful deep sea, compared to the abundant and diverse ecological systems in the tail of the turtle, the extreme environment full of the toxic substances of high temperature, high sulfur, and high acid caused by the hot springs from the volcano by the head of turtle make it impossible for any living being to survive here. The only living being that live alone there next to the high-temperature springs and carries the home symbol of Yiland people is the special species “Xenograpsus testudinatus” (turtle monster crab), which has a small head as big as the 50-dollar coin and was only announced the new species in the world in 1997.
Biologists in the Seaside Research Station, Academia Sinica are working hard to find out the life secret hidden in this species of crab. They are trying to understand the causes that make them survive in the environment of high temperature, muddy, infertile, and full of toxic substances. In the beginning of the life development on earth, surface activity is also the reason for the extreme poor and infertile environment caused by frequent volcano eruption. If the climate change gets worse in the future and the global warming continues destroying the environment on earth, understanding the gene diversity of extreme living beings might be able to provide a hope for the survival of living beings in the future.
