At present, the largest city in Taiwan Province is undoubtedly Taipei, and the metropolitan area centered on Taipei has a population of more than 7 million people (if you expand a little more, add Taoyuan, the population is 9.2 million), and the economy accounts for most of the entire Taiwan. However, in fact, Taipei is not the traditional center of Taiwan Island, and the urban pattern of Taiwan Island in the Qing Dynasty has such a saying: one house, two deer, three ships. This refers to the three most prosperous towns on the island of Taiwan.
What does this mean? In 1684, after the Kangxi Dynasty took over Taiwan, the capital of Taiwan, the political, cultural, and economic center of Taiwan, was set up in the eastern half, the small part of the eastern district and the small part of the northern district of the central and western districts of present-day Tainan City.
During the Qing Dynasty, Taiwan was a major city
Yes, the center of gravity of the island of Taiwan was not in the north but in the south, whether it was the mainland Fujian-Cantonese immigrants who immigrated to the island in the early days, or the Dutch colonists who later occupied Taiwan and the Ming Zheng regime established by Zheng Chenggong, whose focus of rule was in southern Taiwan. The reason is not difficult to judge, Tainan is a plain area, there is agricultural support, Taiwan's indigenous people were distributed here from the beginning. Later, the Dutch naturally developed this place first, and even the name "Taiwan" came from Tainan: this is a transliteration of the local aborigines of Taiwan for the area around Anping in Tainan.
The area controlled by the Ming Zheng regime, the green is tun reclamation land
Therefore, for hundreds of years, Tainan has been the political, economic and cultural center of Taiwan. The development of the Taipei area is much later, and large-scale development will not be until the Qianjia period. As for the rise of Taipei, it was not until the late Qing Dynasty, with camphor, tea trade, etc. began to flourish, in 1875, the Qing Dynasty government changed the area north of Dajia Creek to Keelung, which was originally under the jurisdiction of the Tamsui Hall, and chose the location in the Greater Cala area in the Taipei Basin to build a city as a government, and named Taipei City, after which Taipei gradually replaced Tainan and became the center of Taiwan Island.
As for the center of southern Taiwan, Taiwan's fucheng also gradually declined, because the port was silted up, and from the late Qing Dynasty to the Japanese occupation period, the traffic status of Taiwan's fucheng (Tainan) was gradually replaced by Kaohsiung Port (Dagu Port). After World War II, although Tainan built a new Anping Port, today it is only an auxiliary port to Kaohsiung Port, and the center of southern Taiwan is still Kaohsiung and no longer Tainan.
Taiwan Capital City
This "erlu" refers to Lukang, Lukang now has no county and city system, just a town managed by Changhua County, perhaps mainlanders know this place through the song "Lukang Town", but Lukang is actually a very critical place in the history of Taiwan Island: this is the first city in Taiwan to be completely dominated by Han immigrants.
Lukang is located in the midpoint of Taiwan's west coast, Lukang's port to the voyage is Quanzhou, the port is wide and deep, the closest to the mainland coast, with the entry of mainland immigrants, Lukang developed into a prosperous commercial port city. In the Qing Dynasty, it was the largest port for Taiwan to trade in the mainland, and in 1784 (the 49th year of Qianlong), it officially opened its mouth to cross the Quanzhou River in Fujian Province, and thus began the golden age of Lukang. Between 1785 (50 years of Qianlong) and 1845 (25 years of Qing Daoguang) was the heyday of Lukang, which at that time could be described as a rich party, when Lukang had eight major commercial organizations, collectively known as the "Eight Suburbs of Lukang".
Lukang Old Street
The rise of Lukang has a favorable time and place, it is a river port city, but can be directly in and out of the Taiwan Strait. In addition, the transportation route from Lukang to the mainland is the shortest in Taiwanese towns. At that time, the muddy water stream was from Lukang to the sea, which could also allow ships to sail upstream. However, Lukang was also gradually declined due to the silt accumulation of the port, and after the middle of Jiaqing, the merchant ships to and from the south were gradually changed from wanggong port in the south, and during the Daoguang years, wanggong port followed in the footsteps of siltation, and then changed from Fanzai dig (now Fangyuan Township). During the Tongzhi period, Fanzai dug up and re-silted up, and had to open a new ChongXi Port 4 kilometers west of Lukang during the Guangxu period.
Later, after the railway era, the status of this place was replaced by Taichung and continues to this day.
This third mengjia is located in the Taipei area, which is now Wanhua District of Taipei City, "Mengjia" is a transliteration of the indigenous Kaidagran language "canoe" at that time, because the west side of Wanhua is the port of Xindian Creek, and there are many canoes docked when the ancestors developed it, so it got its name.
Mengjia Longshan Temple
Mengjia is located at the confluence of DalaiLai Creek (present-day Dahan Creek), Xindian Creek and Tamsui River, with superior water transport, access to large and small settlements in the Taipei Basin (such as Tamsui, Songshan, Jingmei, Xindian, Xinzhuang, Banqiao, etc.), after the Qing Dynasty Jiaqing due to the heavy population pressure of the mainland, the number of people crossing Taiwan surged, Taiwan in addition to the south, the north is also greatly developed, and gradually began to compete with the south.
Although the ship is inland, the freshwater river is abundant, and cargo ships can sail directly to the mainland market. The government also transferred the Yamen institutions from Xinzhuang and Tamsui to this area, which was also the basis for the formation of Taipei's later establishment, but Mengjia also declined and was replaced by Dadaocheng (a traditional regional name in the southwest of Datong District, Taipei City), first, due to the dispersal of the population due to severe classification and equipment fighting, and second, the gradual diversion of Xindian Creek and Dalai gorge, and the convergence point was changed to the vicinity of Dadaocheng. The Taiwan Railway, which was built in the Qing Dynasty, also has a station located in Dadaocheng.
Later, the status of the river port in Mengjia was gradually replaced by Huwei (present-day Tamsui District) from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Japanese occupation, and from the middle of the Japanese occupation to the post-war Huwei was replaced by the port of Keelung. As for the current Mengjia, it is not the core area of Taipei (Daan, Songshan, Xinyi, Zhongzheng).
Author: Yun Fan