After the dismantling of an access ramp to the Zhongxiao Bridge (忠孝橋) on Taipei’s Zhongxiao W Road, the historic North Gate (北門) is once more free of the structural eyesores that surrounded it, a symbol of Taiwan’s apparent newfound respect for culture and historical buildings.
The Taipei Urban Planning Commission, should it choose to, can now continue in this vein when reviewing its urban renewal plans for the western districts of the city by thinking about whether the historic Mitsui-Soko warehouse should be moved 51m east.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Charles Lin (林欽榮) believes that, according to resolutions by the Bureau of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture from May 2012, this would perhaps be the best way of preserving the building, and has given the plan his blessing.
The primary reason for the swift decision to dismantle the ramp was to relieve traffic congestion around the North Gate.
The second factor had to with cultural, aesthetic and environmental considerations. The speed at which the decision was taken saved countless hours of meetings and veritable mountains of paperwork. In addition to that, it means that the North Gate has been restored as a symbolical gateway into the city.
There is no shortage of similar examples of relocations in other nations. The impressive Abu Simbel temples in Egypt, constructed between 1264 BC and 1244 BC in honor of the pharaoh of the time, Ramses II, comprise an ancient Egyptian historical site originally located about 230km southwest of the present-day city of Aswan, facing the Nile River near Nubia. The complex was set against the mountains and the entrances to the two temples are flanked by massive 20m-tall statues of Ramses II. Beside these statues are a number of much smaller statues, representing members of Ramses II’s family.
At sunrise on Feb. 22 and Aug. 22 of each year, sunlight pours into the entrance of these temples. It is said that the engineers who designed the temples, wanting later generations to remember the pharaoh’s birthday, intentionally and ingeniously applied astronomical calculations to work out a way for the sun’s rays to penetrate the more than 60m-long tunnel, all the way to the end, on the same day every year to illuminate the temple, which had lain untouched by the sun throughout the rest of the year.
Following the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, the Egyptian government decided to construct the Aswan High Dam. Out of concerns that the temples would be permanently submerged, the government set into motion a plan in 1959 to relocate the monuments to a safe location. The result was that the temples were conserved. The only problem is that the sun’s rays hit the chamber a day later than was originally intended.
There are examples of this type of relocation having been performed in Taiwan. The Wang Gong temple in Sihjie (四結), Yilan County, and the Kaohsiung Train Station building were both relocated.
As long as the will is there, there is no reason that the Mitsui-Soko warehouse cannot also become another major symbol of cultural advancement.
Yang Chyi-wen is the president of the Taipei National University of the Arts.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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