Sigou Village is west of Central Hengchun, on the other side of Highway 26. As you're driving south through Central Hengchun on Highway 26, you'll see a McDonald's and a Starbucks on your left, and if you take a right at that intersection you'll pass into farmland. A left at the first electrical tower and you're on your way to Sigou Village. 四溝里位於恆春市區西部、 台26線另外一邊 。 當你走台26線往南的時候 ，你會看到左邊有一家麥當勞跟一家星巴克 ，在那個路口右轉後會看到農田，往前開之後在第一個電塔左轉，那就是往四溝里的方向。
"Sigou" means "Fourth Ditch" or "Fourth Canal." A long time ago irrigation canals were dug through the area, and the villages were named after these canals. Just north of Sigou there's "Tougou," which means "head" or "first" canal," and between Tougou and Sigou there's a "Sangou" or "Third Canal." There's no "Second Canal" that I know of. It might have changed its name or been absorbed into one of the other villages. 四溝里北部的村落是頭溝里 ， 四溝里 和頭溝里中間有三溝村 ，但好像沒有二溝 ， 可能是因為改名字或是劃分成其他村落的部分。
"Fifth Canal?" No, but there's a "Goutsaodze," or "canal trough," which lies between the auspiciously named Dehe and Sigou Village. 有五溝嗎 ? 沒有 ! 可是四溝村 和德和村中間有溝槽仔 。
All of these places, by the way, lie along County Road 155, which stretches between the National Taiwan Aquarium in Checheng and Longluan Lake, just north of Nanwan. It's a relatively flat area between mountain ridges, where farming villages cluster between fallow fields and where weird, abandoned villas lurk at higher elevations. Some of these villas are soldiering on through the post-covid economy, but many of them sit vacant and unused. 這些地方都在屏155上 。 這條縣道從車城的國立海生館連到南灣北邊的龍鑾潭 。這一帶平坦的地方大部分是農田和農村。 有些靠近山區的Villa經歷著後疫情經濟的影響， 也有很多是被廢棄的Villa。
I don't know how many people live in Sigou, but it's certainly not many. Our landlord lives in Central Hengchun, and most of our neighbors seem to be, on average, well along in years. There's an old, unloved temple down the road, a house selling drinks out of a refrigerator across from us, and that's about it. If you want to buy anything you have to go to Central Hengchun, which is, thankfully, not that far away. 我不知道四溝村的人口有多少，應該不會很多 。 我們的房東住恆春市區 ，大部分的鄰居年紀比較大 。 我們房子對面有鄰居賣飲料，在村子的另外一邊有一座破破爛爛的廟宇，如果要買日常用品就一定要去恆春市區 ，還好恆春市區離四溝不遠 。
The house we're renting is very old. It was run as a hostel long ago. Whoever ran the hostel divided the second floor into three rooms, each with an air conditioner, and installed a leaky sink in the back. They also installed a wood partition over the stairs between the first and second floor, and taped a lot of sound-dampening material over the windows. They left the roof and front of the house alone. 我們租的房子很舊 ，它很久以前是民宿。當初開民宿的人把二樓分隔成三個房間 ，每個房間都裝有冷氣 ，又在後面裝一個會漏水的水槽 . ，也用木板把一 、二樓中間的樓梯隔開， 有的窗戶上貼了消音棉 ，只有屋頂跟騎樓的空間沒什麼變動。
We chose to rent this house for two reasons. The first reason was that it had space for our car, and if you know Hengchun you'll know that finding a rental property in this area with space for a car is difficult. The second reason is its location. Sigou Village is close to a lot of places I like, including the aquarium, Wanlitong, Baisha, Houbihu, Nanwan and Central Hengchun. 我們租這棟房子有兩個原因 ，第一個原因是停車位 。 居住恆春的人應該都知道， 出租的公寓和房子很少有停車位； 第二個原因是位置 。 四溝村離海生館 、 萬里桐 、 白沙 、 後壁湖 、南灣跟恆春市區都不遠。
Biking to the schools where I work is much easier this year. Whereas in Fangliao it took me between 30 and 40 minutes one way, it's now about 10 minutes one way to either of the schools where I teach. My route to school takes me past Starbucks, McDonald's 85 Coffee, 7-11, and Family Mart, so buying either breakfast or a drink on the way to work is easy. Last year this was not the case. 今年騎單車到二所學校上班也比較容易， 我在枋寮的時候需要騎30-40分鐘 ， 今年只要十分鐘 。 我往學校的路上會經過星巴克 、 麥當勞 、 85度C 、 7-11和全家 ，所以買早餐或是飲料都沒問題 ，去年的情況剛好相反。
All of the above said, I'm relatively happy with our place in Sigou. Our house has problems, but there are certainly rental properties in the area that were MUCH worse. I think the amount we pay for rent each month is reasonable, and we can make the place more comfortable over time. 總之，我比較喜歡四溝的房子。 這棟房子有些問題 ，但我相信這個地區一定有更糟的。我覺得房租是可以接受的 ， 我們也可以慢慢地讓這棟房子變得更舒服 。
Riding a scooter around after work is also very fun. Suddenly all the places that were so far away before are now very, very close. There are also more restaurants in the area, and what's more there are more kinds of restaurants. Hamburgers? No problem! Pizza? Which one? Central Hengchun has almost any kind of food you could want, barring of course the more exotic international foods you can only find in a big city like Kaohsiung or Taipei. 在附近騎摩托車也很好玩 ，以前覺得很遠的地方好像都變得很近 ， 附近也有許多的餐廳 ，什麼料理都有。 漢堡? 沒問題 ! 披薩? 哪一家? 除了更特別的異國料理之外 --台北或是高雄那種高級餐廳 -- 你想吃的，恆春應有盡有!
Related Entries 相關的文章:
NOTE: "Sigou" (just "Sigou" on Google Maps is the village where I live. Sigou is within "Sigou Li" or 四溝里 . 里 (li) is an administrative designation which sometimes corresponds to "village." In reality the boundaries of Sigou "Village" or 里 run almost all the way to the coast, on the top of a ridge near where I live.
