Historic sites in Keelung dating back to the Dutch and Spanish colonial periods are to be restored, after the city government pledged to make a large financial contribution for their restoration.
Keelung Harbor has long been an important point of contact between Taiwan and the outside world. First visited by Spain and other nations more than 400 years ago, the area is home to numerous historic relics. The Keelung City Government has said it would allocate NT$550 million (US$17.34 million) to preserve the relics in a restoration project subsidized by the Ministry of Culture.
The project seeks to rebuild parts of the Baimiweng Fort, Keelung Fort Command and the residences belonging to it.
The project will be a cross-agency effort that, in addition to members of the Keelung Cultural Affairs Bureau, will involve the Urban Development Bureau, Public Works Bureau and Keelung Department of Transportation and Tourism, Keelung Cultural Affairs Bureau Director Peng Chun-heng (彭俊亨) said.
Peng added that the project will be of tremendous proportions, covering Dashawan (大沙灣), Syugang (旭崗), Peace Island (和平島) and the west side of Keelung Harbor, all of which were focal points of historical interaction between Taiwanese and Europeans due to their strategic importance.
“It is my hope that through the restoration of these cultural properties, the improvement of these public spaces and the tying of them together as related places of interest we can retell the story of historical Keelung,” Peng said.
Dashawan is to form the core of the Sea Voyage History Cultural Park, which is to include a memorial for those who died at sea, a commemorative park for the Sino-French War, remnants of a stone protective barrier that surrounded the harbor at Dashawan, the Keelung Fort Command and the associated officers’ residences.
Peng said that many of the sites would be connected with a foot path and would be accessible from parking lots.
The Keelung Fort Command was previously inaccessible, as it is on Keelung Coast Guard property, but now that appropriation measures for the site have been taken, renovation work can begin next year, said Kuo Li-ya (郭麗雅), head of the Cultural Affairs Bureau’s property section.
Kuo said the residences that have sustained extensive damage have been cordoned off with steel barriers.
The buildings will be restored next year along with the command building, Kuo said, adding that Baimiweng Fort on the west side of Keelung Harbor will be connected with Pengjia Islet (彭佳嶼) lighthouse by a system of walkways.
“Aside from the restoration of the properties, we plan to replicate the atmosphere of different time periods with mobile guided-tour technology and overlapping maps, which would let people experience the scenery of different time periods and let them know what was happening in those periods,” she said. “We will enable the sites to tell their stories.”
Peng said he expects the about NT$820 million project, of which the government will cover NT$550 million, to be completed in 2019.
The project will allow the story of these sites to be told, as well as boost the leisure and tourism industries, Keelung city councilors Yu Hsiang-yao (游祥耀) and Lan Min-huang (藍敏煌) said, adding that the project could benefit from cooperation with locals and creative artists.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by