A lot of people probably don't know that in 1624, the same year the Dutch West India Company sent its first settlers to Manhattan Island in America, fellow countrymen were busy founding a colony half-way around the world on another island then commonly referred to as Formosa.
Whatever hopes they had were soon put to an end with the arrival in 1661 of a man known to Westerners today as Koxinga, or Cheng Cheng-kung, a Ming dynasty loyalist and the son of a pirate, who was retreating from a losing fight against the Manchus. Facing Cheng's large fleet and 30,000 armed men, the 600 Dutch settlers and 2,200 soldiers held out for almost two years but were eventually forced to leave their young colony in 1661.
Although the Dutch reign lasted only 38 years, the thriving Chinese community around it continued to grow through the succession of rule by Koxinga, the Ching court, the Japanese, and the Republic of China. Today, 350 years later, it remains intact, waiting to be explored by local and foreign visitors alike, threatened only by the encroachments of the modern world.
Just minutes outside of the main part of Tainan city, toward the coast, is the district of Anping, which contains what is left of one of Taiwan's earliest Chinese settlements, in addition to the remains of one of the Dutch strongholds, Fort Zeelandia. Although this fort remains a focal point for tourists, it is the ancient alleyways and equally old homes and shops, some dating back hundreds of years, that make for the most fascinating explorations and wanderings.
This is a world of tiny shops, home factories, and houses clustered together and facing each other across passages barely three meters wide in places, where cars are not able to navigate. Walking through this maze of alleys, one sees even more closely the marks of an earlier time. Plain wooden doors are framed by carved wooden plaques, pasted sayings on red paper, faded paper lanterns and, here and there, the slightly ferocious face of a colorful wooden door guardian. Some of the old paving and foundation stones date back, residents say, to the Dutch era. Even more tangible are the leaning brick walls of some homes which, like the circles on a tree stump, show successive generations of construction, repair, and additions that go back two or three hundred years.
Caught in the midst of this tug-of-war between conflicting interests, Yenping Street and the neighboring passageways remain, for the most part, untouched for now. A handful of residents have taken it upon themselves to tear down their homes to make way for the road-widening project, but the majority seem to have placed their fate in the government's hands. Rather ominous signs of what could happen are the yellow lines and arrows which have been painted on the interiors and exteriors of buildings to mark the point of destruction, should the road-widening project take place.
Ironically, this uncertainty about the future has brought an increasing flow of (mostly Taiwanese) visitors to the area. What brings them here seems to be a desire to see and touch a very tangible part of their past that could very soon be gone. As one well-dressed young man said as he walked around with his wife and child, "This street has a lot of history on it. I want my child to see it before they tear it down."
On Foot Around Anping
Fortunately for visitors, the Anping area is very easy to see by foot, as it clusters fairly tightly around Fort Zeelandia. The fort, known to locals as Anping Fort, is an obvious place to start any tour and is fairly interesting itself. Paying a small admission fee will give you admittance to the fort, with its brick walls, cannons, peaceful-looking white buildings, and a pointed, red-topped tower. Climbing the tower gives a good view of the area, which used to be surrounded by the sea but, due to siltation, now sits quite a way inland. There are some exhibits of the Dutch period and Koxinga's victory inside the main building; and, naturally, there is a statue of the victor himself outside.
Very little other than the foundation and a piece of wall remains of the original Dutch structure, which was destroyed by a typhoon in the 19th century. Many of its bricks were carted away and used to build a nearby Ching dynasty coastal fort in 1875, the Yitsai Chin Cheng, or Eternal Fortress, which can be visited at 16 Nanwen Road in the Anping district. What is seen today has been built or rebuilt over the years by the Japanese and Chinese.
The most significant chunk of the original wall of Fort Zeelandia stands to the left of an open area in front of the ticket booth. This solid-looking 30-foot brick wall used to extend out to a stronghold by the sea and, amazingly, was constructed by the Dutch using glutinous rice, syrup, and crushed oyster shells. Of interest are scissors-shaped imprints left by metal brackets about half-way up the wall. Local historians have debated whether these were used to support buildings against the wall or to hold torches.
On the corner just meters away from the fort sits what some locals claim is the oldest Matsu temple in Taiwan. This seems to be a point of disagreement among several Matsu temples, which are vying for that title. The three gods displayed inside the large structure were brought over by Koxinga and, according to temple workers, were completely unscathed in a fire which destroyed the temple four years ago.
This area is worth an hour or two of exploring and is great for photography. With some exceptions, most of the residents are friendly and don't seem to mind the curiosity of outsiders. Here and there, elderly citizens tend tiny, packed shops that their parents owned a century ago, selling candy and chipped bottles of cold soda. On the inside walls of homes, the faded and curled black-and-white photographs of ancestors and past generations can be seen. The whole area exudes another era and it is possible to pretend that you've been transported back in time half a century or so.
On and around Yenping Street are several specific sites of interest. About halfway down the street is the diminutive Choulung temple which, according to its neighbors, is 337 years old, making it one of the oldest on the island. Not far away, on the parallel Tien Street, stands the restored site of Hai Shan Hall, which was built by Ching dynasty soldiers in 1684, the year Koxinga's forces were finally defeated in Taiwan. The small compound, surrounded by a white wall, is now a museum called the Anping Hsiang Tu Kuan and is open to the public.
The simple, relaxing pleasure of wandering through Anping's quiet streets is one that shouldn't be missed or, given the current uncertainty over the area's future, taken for granted. Provided that the area's historical character remains intact, Fort Zeelandia, Yenping Street, and the surrounding streets will continue to give visitors an unrivaled, real-life look at Taiwan's rich and varied past.
From the train station area in downtown Tainan, public bus number 15 makes regular runs to the Anping district and stops on Anping Road, by the Matsu temple, and at Fort Zeelandia. By taxi, the 10-minute ride costs about NT$150. From the fort, short taxi rides will also take one to the relatively close Eternal Fortress and Anping beach. Related points of interest in downtown Tainan include Chihkan Tower at 212 Mintsu Road, which houses a small museum and is all that is left of the Dutch Fort Proventia; and the Koxinga museum and temple are located at 152 Kaishan Road.