East Mountain Cultural Park addresses a specific question of public access. A hillside carrying local cultural memory had gradually been occupied by markets, while expensive teahouses within historic precincts excluded many ordinary residents. The project uses the recovery of a cultural place to provide a free public setting, bringing the resources around the Yangming Shrine into spaces people can use and inhabit every day.

The narrow, complex terrain is organised into ten places for public life, linked by branching paths among trees, rocks and historic remains. Each offers possibilities for sitting, reclining, listening, viewing and conversation, with episodes from Wang Yangming’s life and thought giving it a distinct character. Drawing on narrative traditions of Chinese gardens, the design connects cultural fragments, bodily activity and changing scenery. Visitors choose routes according to their interests and can encounter the same place again in different ways.

Life as Chess translates the arrangement of the Big Dipper into a stone chess setting: stone seats become pieces, with spaces between them for children to play. The Unity of Knowledge and Action Platform draws on an episode of observing the stars, using a black surface that collects rain and reflects the sky while also serving as a stage for dance. A wall of seal-script text faces a lotus pond, bringing reading, pausing and looking together. Cultural content enters everyday use through these constructions and gains different interpretations through people’s activities.

Choices of path allow a limited site to support many journeys, while its ten settings host different gatherings. Through cultural continuity, the design returns a piece of urban hillside to the public, sustaining its life through rest, play, conversation and thought.