It's been 120 years since a wall was built around Taipei and the settlement was officially declared a city. In the intervening period, the city has been molded into a vibrant and lively center, with diverse sights, sounds and cultures that cannot be experienced anywhere else.
Taipei's city walls were built in November 1884 to defend against foreign intruders, after Japanese soldiers landed on the northern coast of Taiwan in 1874 following the Mutanshe incident (牡丹社事件), when a number of Okinawan seamen were killed three years earlier.
From 1875, construction of the walls and city took 10 years to complete under Qing dynasty official Shen Pao-zhen's (沈葆楨) supervision.
Four major city gates and a smaller one were built, instead of the planned eight gates due to a shortage of funds. The gates were named: Chingfu Gate (景福門) in the east, Paocheng Gate (寶成門) in the west, Licheng Gate (麗正門) in the south, and Chengen Gate (承恩門) in the north. The smaller gate on the south side of the city was named Chunghsi Gate (重熙門). Only the north gate Chengen survived the harsh test of time and remains intact to the present day.
The 5m-tall city walls were built into a rectangular shape, with a perimeter of 4.5km, and took about one and a half hours to walk around. The path around the wall was 4m wide, enough to accomodate two horses walking together. The walls were built on a "fengshui axis," planned according to the principles of geomancy.
Eleven years after their completion, the city walls were torn down by the occupying Japanese government, which took over from the Qing dynasty rulers, in 1895, and ruled for 50 years.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) took control of Taiwan in 1945. Regrettably, three of the old city gates were demolished because of road expansion schemes in the last 20 years.
Taipei's 120 years of history are reflected in the city's buildings, temples, universities, churches and parks. Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Park (
The structures that first grab your attention, however, are the two national halls, which are enormous and highly decorated.
The nearby memorial hall stands out because of its elevated position and blocks out the homes and buildings in the surrounding area. The park itself is a breathtaking natural paradise and contains more than 500,000 trees.
National Taiwan University (NTU, 國立台灣大學) is 15 minutes by taxi from the memorial hall. It was first established by the Japanese in 1928, with two colleges and 60 students. It is now one of the largest universities in Taiwan -- and one of the most prestigious -- with nearly 3,000 professors, 30,000 students, 10 colleges, 52 departments and 82 graduate institutes.
Twenty minutes by car northwest of NTU is Lungshan (Dragon Mountain) Temple (
The painstaking restoration of the temple features ornate and rich decorations on its walls and pillars; and there are many lively, exquisite bronze, stone and wood carvings, with dragons on the rooftops.
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