For nearly 118 years, much of the legacy of the numerous battles for Keelung that took place during the Sino-French War of 1884-1885 has lay undisturbed. But neglected remnants of the conflict, long buried under dense undergrowth and tonnes of earth throughout the city's mountainous hinterland, have recently been reappearing.
"The city's environs are littered with history. Every time we get heavy rains more reminders of the conflict appear," explained Dai Chi-yi (
PHOTO: GAVIN PHIPPS, TAIPEI TIMES
While many of those who died in the service of France during the conflict are remembered in a small and well-kept graveyard adjacent to the ruins of Ershawan Fort (
PHOTO: GAVIN PHIPPS, TAIPEI TIMES
"It's such a waste. Here we have all this history sitting there, but without the backing of cultural bureaus there's no way any of it can be made public," explained the historical society's Alan Liu (
Although based in the northern port city, members of the Penglai Historical Society have been responsible for the discovery of ancient military ruins at Chinshan (
While much of the fighting took place in what is today Vietnam, French troops occupied parts of Fujian and Taiwan during the conflict. By late 1884, Taiwan was effectively cut off from the Chinese mainland with control of the northern port towns of Keelung and Tamsui ceded to the French in October of that year. The bloody yearlong conflict cost the lives of 10,000 thousand Chinese and roughly 2,100 French troops.
The many skirmishes that took place in the battle for Keelung, as the French wrestled control of it from Ching troops hill-by-hill, warrant little more than a passing paragraph in most history books. However, reminders of one particular killing field have become hard to ignore.
Along the verges of Hsinglung Road (
"The remains have simply been ignored. No one has bothered to rebury them on the mountainside or even erect a marker," explained Dai, pointing to part of a human cranium jutting out if the soft mud. "It's pretty sad really how we can quite literally leave our own history scattered along the roadside like trash."
According to historical records, roughly 150 French colonial troops died attempting to cross the Keelung River at the base of Yuemei Mountain in 1884. Ching causalities were predictably higher, with the total number of Chinese dead estimated at somewhere in the region of 500.
First noticing the appearance of the remains after the devastating floods of 2001 -- floods which saw this section of roadway submerged under 3m to 4m of water -- Dai was reluctant to publicize his findings for fear of attracting unwanted attention.
"We kept quiet about the appalling way in which the remnants [of the battle] have been ignored because we figured that it would lead to pilfering and grave robbery," continued Dai. "And of course, we also figured that somebody would deal with the problem."
Not so, however. Once buried in a ledge that wound its way diagonally up the southern slope of Yuemei Mountain, the sod in which the remains of Ching troops and burial utensils were once entombed is slowly eroding.
Now, like Styrofoam lunch boxes, plastic bags and countless other forms of human-generated garbage that accumulate on roadsides, fragments of human bones, burial urns and the odd household utensil protrude from the muddy verges along sections of the busy thoroughfare.
While the sight of the odd skull or two is a startling memento of the events that unfolded 118 years ago, the unearthed remains are only the tip of the iceberg for Dai and his fellow historians. Nestled on the southern flank of the adjacent 208m Hongtan Mountain (
"When we first came up about six years ago the undergrowth was so dense and the bushes so high you couldn't see anything of the fort save the odd section of outer wall," Dai recalled.
Since then, Keelung's amateur historians have made numerous trips to the mountain and cleared away large swathes of the once-dense undergrowth. Now, along with the fort's outer wall, several rooms, a well area, cannon emplacements and a burial grounds are all visible. There remains, however, no explanation apropos of the origins of the structure that winds its way along the mountain's southern slope.
"So much of the fort is visible now yet it remains a wasted asset. There are no notice boards or signs informing visitors as to what the structure is," Dai said. "You have what is an as-complete-as-is-possible Ching fort just sitting there unattended, unkept and ignored."
According to Dai, what is left of the fort is only one of many such structures that litter the surrounding hillsides. Unlike military installations once located on less hilly areas, however, the stone ruins on Hongtan Mountain have remained largely intact.
"Unlike other forts dating back to the Ching Dynasty, Hongtan has been left relatively intact because of its location," Liu explained. "The steep gradients have meant that the much of the original Ching structure has been spared the same fate of many [other] such structures that have been dismantled by people building illegal housing."
Earlier this week, Dai and Liu led a team comprised of members of the Keelung Municipal Government's Cultural Bureau (
"We're not asking for the local authorities to charge people to see it and we're not expecting them to invest a great deal of money in any project," Dai said. "We'd simply like to see them promoting forgotten parts of Keelung's history."
Along with Keelung's government, it is also hoped that assistance from national institutions such the National Museum of History will see relics of the battle for Keelung someday proving a popular and educational asset for both locals and tourists alike.
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