Adding luster to a dull image

The earliest people to call the area home were the mysterious and hotly debated Ketagalan peoples, a race that reputedly lived in Taiwan some time between 6,000BC to 3,000BC.

The area became a permanent settlement in the early 1700s following Lin Cheng-tzu's (林成祖), or Lin Shou-chun (林秀俊) as he is more commonly called today, work in opening the river system.

Known then as Changho (漳和) after the city of Changchou (漳州) in Fujian Province from where he came, Lin was the first person to exploit the area's position along the Xindian (新店) and Jingmei (景美) rivers. Using the river system to move rice and other farm produce to Tamsui.

Little remains today of Lin's legacy in either Chungho or Yungho, save half a dozen red brick buildings dating back to the mid-1800s scattered across the area. The oldest of these homes dates back to the late 1700s and sits on Chienpa Road. Along with the Fuho Temple (福和宮), which was built in 1766, it is the oldest remaining slice of Chungho's history.

"Sadly the development is going to continue and, although several of the older buildings are protected, many will, no doubt, be demolished in the near future," he said. "We've worked so hard to develop a sense of history among local people that it would be a real shame if, one day, we lost our buildings in the same we lost our industrial and farming legacies."

Over the past 200 years, Chungho has seen its sugar cane and flax fields paved over, its brick works closed and the once-thriving mining industry all but disappear.

While the area has lost both its industry and many of its old buildings, the legacy of its favorite son remains strong even today. Born in 1919, trumpet player, Yang San-lang (楊三郎), can be seen, albeit in statue form, striding purposefully with his trumpet in hand in Yungho's Renai Park (仁德公園).

One of Taiwan's first pop stars in the 1950s, Yang, along with his Black Cat Song and Dance combo (黑貓歌舞團), penned tunes such as Wish For Your Early Return (望你早歸) -- numbers that to this day are some of Taiwan's most popular dance tunes of all time.

The historical society might have branched away from producing history books, textbooks and analytical research papers this year, but it still has lofty plans to keep the area's legacies very much alive with its series of fliers and a pocket-sized city guide.

Huang hopes these publications will prove popular with city residents and visitors alike, allowing both to discover that amid the high-rises, expressways and scooter-littered sidewalks lays a rich tapestry of local history.

"Obviously we realize that neither place is going to become a tourist Mecca, but we'd like to alter people's impressions of the areas," Huang said. "And, of course, we want to prove that the both Chungho and Yungho are far more than simply one huge culture-less urban jungle."