Pasteur/NHRI/CDC Symposium on Re-Emerging Virus Infections

Historical Background

Tainan City is located in the southwest of Taiwan on the rich and fertile Jianan Plain, with a population of about 740,000 people. Tainan City, as the origin of history, is the oldest city in Taiwan. Dutch colonization in Tainan began in 1621 and then in 1661 Jheng Chenggong (a.k.a. Koxinga) recovered Taiwan from the hands of the Dutch, beginning his reign in Taiwan from Tainan City. With the great efforts of Jheng Chenggong and his followers, Tainan became the urban center of Taiwan, a place where merchant ships gathered and all sort of shops mushroomed quickly. In 1684 when Cing Dynasty took over the control, Tainan served as the capital city of Taiwan then. Up until the end of the 19th century, Tainan was still the political, economic and cultural center of Taiwan.

From 1895 to 1945, Japanese colonization began to implement a significant influence on the customs, architecture as well as culture of Taiwanese people. During the fifty years of Japanese occupation, Taiwan went through the stages of military occupation, adaptation of mainland Japanese laws, society movements, southward embarkations and nationalization. The political and economic landscape of Taiwan also changed during that time. After the restoration of Taiwan in 1945, Tainan became a provincial city. In the following year, the city was reallocated into seven administrative districts: East, West, South, North, Central, Anping and Annan. In 2004 the Central and West districts were combined into the Midwest District. With such a rich cultural background, Tainan converted into a city full of cultural traces, which is also known as the ancient cultural capital of Taiwan.

Historical Sites

Due to the abundant and diverse historical background, various historic architectures and monuments can be found all over the city, among which Anping Fort and Eternal Golden Castle are the most famous and categorized in the first-class historical sites in Taiwan.

Anping Fort was built in 1624 by the Dutch and completed in 1634. It was first called "Orlande City" and later re-named as "Fort Zeelandia". Since our Taiwanese people called the Dutch the Red-hair, this Fort was also called "Castle for the Red Hair". After World War II, it was called "Anping Fort" and has been keeping the name until know. During Dutch colonization, this Fort served as the political and economic capital of Taiwan. From Ming Dynasty to Cing Dynasty, the importance of Anping Fort diminished and the government demolished the bricks for other uses. When Japan occupied Taiwan, Anping Fort was completely destroyed in order to build a reserved lounge for honored guests. They built a square ladder-style platform and a western-style house in the center. That is what we know the present Anping Fort.

Shen, Bao-Jhen, one of the famous officials in Cing Dynasty, began to establish the Eternal Golden Castle in 1874 and finished in 1876. Its establishment was to defend the city from the invasion of Japanese army. In 1895 Taiwan was ceded to Japan and during the following fifty years, Taiwan"2;s people fired against the Japanese battleship with the help of this fortress and successfully protected Taiwan from the strong invasion of Japan. When the war between Japan and Russia broke out, Japanese government sold cannons to pay for the war expenses. For this reason, the Castle lost its military value. Eternal Golden Castle completed its 100th year in 1975 and the government of Tainan City named that year as the year of tourism. It has become one of the most popular tourist spots in Tainan City.

Other Sites: Haishan Hostel, Anping Minor Artillery Fort, Old Tait & Co. Merchant House, Old Julius Mannich Merchant House, Yanping Ancient Well, Miaoshou Temple and so forth.

Gourmet Corner

In addition to being as a culturally ancient city, Tainan is also a place filled with traditional and typical food. Visiting Tainan not only can enhance the inner spiritual by attending the cultural heritage, but also can satisfy the appetite appeasement. Tainan City has various delicious snacks and each delicacy is fantastic inherited from the old and traditional skills to enrich the journey of each tourist. Visiting Tainan is joining a realm of delicious food exhibition! One of the most famous snakes is candied fruits that can be found in Anping. You can not come to Anping without buying the candied fruits. One can not resist that salty, sour and sweet flavor of candied fruits and keeps having more and more. Other tasty snacks are Shrimp Cake, Shrimp Roll, Oyster Omelet, Oyster Roll, Bean Curd Pudding and Flame Trees Pie, to name the some. When you come to visit Tainan, you would want to take such an opportunity to try all of them out!

For More Information

‧http://www.tncg.gov.tw/kdefault.asp
‧http://www.tnta.org.tw/2005/
‧http://tour.tncg.gov.tw/english/index.asp

Photos provided by Sean & Carol