Kinmen County on Wednesday began the restoration of a 92-year-old house and county-level cultural heritage site that county officials said would be turned into a hostel to boost the economy of Jinsha Township (金沙).
Kinmen County Commissioner Yang Cheng-wu (楊鎮浯) and the descendants of the family residence’s original owners attended the ceremony to mark the start of the restoration.
The Wang Chin-cheng’s Western House (王金城洋樓) combines Western and Hoklo architectural elements in an elaborate and graceful way, the county government said in a news release.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
The county expects to complete the NT$40.2 million (US$1.44 million) restoration by the end of next year, it said.
Wang Chin-chen (王金城), a wealthy Kinmen native who lived in Indonesia, paid for the construction of the house, which began in 1918 or 1919, it said.
His brother, Wang Chin-so (王金鎖) supervised the construction and took up residence there upon its completion in 1932, it said, adding that Wang Chin-chen never lived in the house.
Later, Wang Chin-chen’s son, Wang Yun-chuan (王永傳), and his Indonesian wife briefly lived in the house, it said.
In 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army seized the house, which was not returned to Wang Chin-so until 1946, it said.
In 1954, the house was taken over by then-Republic of China Army 200th Division commander Han Cho-huan (韓卓環).
The news release cited Wang Chin-so’s granddaughter, Wang Yueh-mei (王月美), as saying that the takeover happened in the year she was born and that the family moved to three nearby houses that had also been built by her great uncle.
Wang Yueh-mei often visited the family’s erstwhile home with her father and still remembers that there was a bell on the house’s tower and that its gatehouse bore bullet marks from its two periods of military occupation, it said.
Han was twice commended for his garrison on Kinmen, and the house on both occasions hosted then-president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正) as a guest, she was cited as saying.
From 1956 to 1965, the house was used as a depot for engineering material, it said.
After that, a neighbor of the Indonesia-based members of the Wang family wired NT$30,000 to repair the house’s roof and outside walls, it said.
The house was recognized as a cultural heritage in 2015 for its rich history and the inherent artistic value of its architecture, the county government said.
The exterior features elaborate relief sculptures of soldiers, servants, angels and floral scrollwork, while the front of the house is adorned by earthenware totems in the Guangdong style, it said.
The walls of rooms on the ground floor feature alternating brick patterns that show exquisite artisanship, it said.
As banditry was rife in early 20th century Kinmen, numerous security features were incorporated into the architecture, including anti-burglary windows and fortified outer doors and doors to the staircase, it said.
Military slogans and the national flag were prominently displayed while the house was used by the army, it added.
The house is the only Western-style mansion in Kinmen with a classical Chinese landscape garden that has an artificial mountain and a pond, it said.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
UNKNOWN TRAJECTORY: The storm could move in four possible directions, with the fourth option considered the most threatening to Taiwan, meteorologist Lin De-en said A soon-to-be-formed tropical storm east of the Philippines could begin affecting Taiwan on Wednesday next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The storm, to be named Fung-wong (鳳凰), is forecast to approach Taiwan on Tuesday next week and could begin affecting the weather in Taiwan on Wednesday, CWA forecaster Huang En-hung (黃恩鴻) said, adding that its impact might be amplified by the combined effect with the northeast monsoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the system’s center was 2,800km southeast of Oluanbi (鵝鑾鼻). It was moving northwest at 18kph. Meteorologist Lin De-en (林得恩) on Facebook yesterday wrote that the would-be storm is surrounded by
RSS