View of one of the harbors in Anping District
A few days after Christmas, we packed up and drove about 2 hours south of Taichung to Tainan to spend a few days exploring. Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan, dating back to its founding by the Dutch in 1624. Yes, that Dutch East India Tea Company you read about in middle school history class! Who said you'd never use that information again? As colonizers will do, the Dutch fought Japanese, Chinese and native population over the next 40 years or so. Periods of control by the Japanese and Chinese followed, but Tainan served as the first capital of Taiwan until 1887, when it was moved to Taichung and then up to its current location in Taipei. Tainan has engendered the nickname of The Phoenix City because of the repeated rebirth in different eras.
With 400 years of history and periods of control by the Dutch, Japanese, and Chinese, Tainan has a storied history and culture. It is said to have the best food (believe me, we tried to eat it all), biggest concentration of temples, and a feel that is unique to other cities. There has been a big conservation effort over the years. You can see the influence of all three societies in the architecture and food all across the city.
Here are a few places we visited during our stay - we'll definitely be back to continue exploring, but we hit some pretty cool sights on this trip!
Anping Old Fort (aka Fort Zeelandia aka Fort Zoolander)
In the outer courtyard at Anping Old Fort. The rebuilt observation tower in behind us.
Anping Old Fort, aka Fort Zeelandia, was established in 1624 as the first trading post and administrative center by the Dutch upon arriving. They also used it to launch attacks against the Spanish, Japanese, and native populations as they sought to establish control of the entire island. The Dutch were driven out by General Koxinga in 1661 after a 9 month siege. Much of what you see today has been rebuilt, but there is still a 70 meter section of original wall still intact. It's pretty humbling to look at something built by hand 400 years ago still standing.
Shennong Street (神農街)
Entrance to Shennong Street, full of small local businesses. And Instagram. So much Instagram.
Shennong Street is one of the oldest and most important streets in Tainan, first as a commercial center, and now as a tourist and shopping draw. Due to generations of lease and land right disputes, many of the original storefronts fell into disrepair but in recent years, it has become a center for entrepreneurs, independent artists and studios, and of course, food! Many of the storefronts have been rehabilitated and there has been an effort to conserve where feasible. The result is a small business, social media friendly utopia, kind of like Brooklyn, but just on one street. Going at night with the storefronts lit up and the lanterns glowing was one of my favorite stops this trip.
A local artist studio on Shennong St
Temples and prayer stops are built in all over the country, even on tiny hipster streets
Enchanted by the lights
Anping Tree House (安平树屋)
The Anping Tree House is a former Taiwan Salt Company warehouse that was abandoned and has become overtaken by banyan trees. The view of branches growing down through the building and across the top is pretty stunning. Today, the site has been preserved as part of the national park system.
Entrance to the Anping Tree House
Sicao Green Tunnel (四草綠隧)
The Sicao Green Tunnel is a natural tunnel formed by two banks of mangrove trees growing towards each other. They do this for a good long stretch and it is amazing to see as you turn the corner before the "entrance".
The Sicao Green Tunnel
We took a boat tour, which was a lot of fun. After purchasing your ticket, you're ushered into a waiting lobby next door. There are the same number of seats to sit down in as are on the raft, and they prefer to wait to fill up the raft before setting off. It's very casual. It could be 10 minutes or it could be an hour. Luckily, it was a pretty busy time of day so the turnover was pretty quick. The boats are motorized and come with a driver and a tour guide. Since we didn't understand a word of her narration, we spent a lot of time watching the shoreline for local crabs and they did not disappoint! It was pretty low clearance in the tunnel, so you had to keep eyes ahead to dip, dodge, dive, and duck as needed. The view once you entered the tunnel was amazing. The best part, though, were the sunhats that were provided by the tour:
Modeling the latest in high fashion sun protection. Note the enormous temple on the left bank
We didn't get a chance to hit the big night market this trip because they were closed. Night markets are such a unique Taiwan experience and one of my favorite things to do here. It's a great way to eat enough street food for dinner, play games, shop, and people watch, all at the same time. We might even do an entire post dedicated to night markets sometime. The rest of our time was filled with games, stopping at every temple we saw (worth it), and of course, posing at the local mega mall's cool Christmas display.
Awnings are up in preparation for Chinese New Year
Happy New Year from the Baeks!
~bzz
Thanks for the travel log and history. Interestingly the Dutch colonized the island and 400 years later the most strategic company in Taiwan, TSCM, relies on chip manufacturing equipment from the Dutch firm ASML. Also, the Chinese were immigrants despite the one China claim from Beijing. The parallel is Mexico claiming Texas as part of one Mexico!
Anyway, I look forward to the next blog update. I didn't realize Taiwan was tropical.