Long ago, the Tanshui River, which cuts through the Taipei Basin, captured the flow of the Tahan River, which once fed into the Nankan River in the Taoyuan Tablelands. This resulted in a shortage of water for irrigation in Taoyuan. The farmers who settled there dug irrigation ponds shovelful by shovelful or otherwise made use of the preexisting lakes in the tableland to retain rainwater for irrigating paddy fields.
早年，從台北盆地切割而過的淡水河，襲奪了桃園台地上游的南崁溪，水系的改變，造成灌溉水源缺乏，當地居民便以人工一鏟一鏟挖出池塘，或利用台地上原有的湖泊，設法貯留天然雨水來灌溉稻田。