Two Side of City - Two Era of Democracy (Part I)
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| Fabulous Monopoly Game Incorporating Wanhua History and Development |
Our 'Taiwan-Old-Family' 2020 gathering begins with Wanhua (known historically Báng-kah) led by Kao 高傳棋 - a member of the group and a veteran cultural historian. There is in fact no one better suited in Taiwan to tell Wanhua story, his family has been living here for generations, over 300 years.
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| Face Masks During Coronavirus Outbreak 2020! |
Wanhua is Taipei's oldest district, most Old-Family settled here first from Fujian, like ourselves the Hungs 洪騰雲, before moving to Tamsui when the area declined. Wanhua is also the first district to undergo economic development and the two - after Kao's explains - are somehow related.
The reason why Wanhua, as Kao puts it, is the only city in the world that a Railway Station is disconnected to HSR or MRT being these lands are owned by several different old families that an agreement to rebuild and reconstruct in large scale on their ancestral property has never been reached. Enforcing one-system railway links therefore proved impossible.
Take the visitor's information center for example, Kao says, it was Mayor Ko who introduced an earlier office opening hours - a suggestion made from Ko's experiences and observations of foreign travels. Visitor's information center is opened to be functional and operational, Ko made efforts to improve. The younger generation don't bother much, under different hands, the office hours seems to slip back to its old clock. Kao half joked "they don't get up so early!" "All Taipei Mayors before 1960 were from Wanhua" - another fact Kao pointed out.
En route to iconic historical Longshan Temple:
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| Taipei's oldest, but decaying garment district. A great majority are run and owned by 'Hung 洪' family. |
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Wanhua Station BOT
completion 2016 was built by the same architect of Taipei 101:
C.Y Lee 李祖原 &PARTNERS |
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金義合行 Jinyihe, Kanding Road. Built in 1920s
In 1884, Chen Yitu 陳義塗 founded the Jinyihe Glass Manufacturing Company - the pioneer of Taiwan glass industry. In 1933, Jinyihe established a pottery company.
Kanding Road is historically known for glass, soap, and milk powder manufacturing.
Kao goes on to say, mothers could even offer their overflown breast milk to make soap - It is not uncommon!
One of the typical narrow alleyway in the district
Into a well-known Hujiao Bing (pepper pork bun) place in a most obscure location, Heping West, Sec 3. Open since 1952. Closed for Lunar New Year.
 
Upon reaching Longshan Temple - Kao reminded us a most significant event held here in Longshan history and why it has been known by Taiwanese a 'Democracy Square 民主廣場'.
On May 19 1986, Nylon Nan-jung Cheng launched the '519 Green Action' taken place here at Lonshan Temple, to protest against the Martial Law by KMT government during its 37 years. Hundreds of silent sit-in protestors were surrounded by 2000 policemen for twelve hours. 1987 one of the longest running martial law era ended. 1989 Nylon died from self-immolation after being charged with insurrection.
"Tsai
and Ma battle over 'love of Longshan Temple' to win voters support!" Kao
says. Tsai, you know the temple being the highest profile temple in Taipei, and
Ma just rattles on about he lives in the neighborhood Guangzhou Street.
Kao told us a wonderful Guanyin Goddess story at this spot - behind these carved stone walls and poles was a Guanyin Goddess who protected Wanhua residents from perishing during WWII bombing - The Taihoku Air Raid. Bombing began in Tamsui on May 31 1945, the temple was hit by American bombers, main building and corridors were damaged, including this section. Guanyin, however, miraculous stood safe and clear - and mercifully no Wanhua casualties reported on that day.
There are sculptures
about ordinary folks doing ordinary things -
like this one is just scratching
his feet!
池頭夫人 birth pool madame - the only 'modern' deity in Longshan temple. Madame is a Quanzhou deity who protects, nurses pregnant and women have miscarriage.
 
Temple Crapper History - Kao, before we made our way out, made a point to tell us "You must see and /or use Longshan temple toilet!" It is a unique piece of Japanese work!
Japanese advanced sanitation system is highly executed here - the construction and piping materials used for this temple restroom is 3.6 times that of the temple's ! Kao tells us.
Kao pointed to the stoned pavement we stood on "Underneath your feet are modern high quality pipes! The toilet building structure is very solid, clean and good odor control."
I had in my note "30000000 NT$ building material (3000 萬建材)" - perhaps that was the expense for this construction at the time.  
Qiancao Lane (Herb Alley) and probably the most famous 85C Bakery location at a historical building of a Kao family.
An important Land Mark of Taipei @Bangka Park. At 10 o'clock position is the Banqiao Lin Family. "Make sure you stop by and get the bearings" Kao says.
Arriving @Bopiliao Historic Block. Kao reminds us the left part which is now a row of show houses was the backside, the river, where shopkeepers unloaded goods. The right side, the residual, was the front of the residential and was the main street. Without clearing this fact, one could be disillusioned about Bopiliao urban development.
   
An important ancient map of 1898. Check out where 'Lotus Pool' situated and a monument indicating its original location.
   
During 1920-1970 Wanhua is the hub of print industry.
"The Verandas"    協興蛋行 The Oldest Egg Shop in Taiwan. Over 70 years old and sells only eggs.   
萬華清水師祖廟 Banga Qingshui Master Temple
(Clearwater Temple of Monk-physician Master ChenYin 陳應） "The resident deity in this temple 清水祖師 is also known as the 黑面落鼻祖師 or the most revered black-faced nose-dropping master. He was 陳應 (1044-1109), a monk-physician originally from Hokkien. His dark face was supposedly from suntan from lifelong outdoor charity work (one of many versions). The nose-dropping legend of this statue actually abounds. It is a warning sign that appears whenever there is an impending disaster. The most famous episode was the earthquake in 1867 (on the 23rd day, 11th month, lunar calendar) that had leveled 石門Shi-men (north of Danshui) yet spared all residents. They happened to be parading 清水祖師's statue in an open field when the nose detached and the ground shook soon after. During the Sino-French war when the French came to invade Danshui, 清水祖師 together with MaZu, Guanyin and Royal Lord Su, divinely intervened. For which, a wooden plaque "功資拯濟" was granted by Emperor Guan-Xu. To house this royal gift, a new temple must be built, so the statue of 清水祖師 was temporarily moved to the 清水祖師廟 in 艋舺 (Manga, now Wanhua). Unfortunately, the folks in Manga later refused to return the statue, even fabricated a duplicate to swindle Danshui-ren. These had resulted in lawsuits during the Japanese era. It was eventually decreed that the two towns settle through time-sharing. However, after the war, Danshui-ren discovered that the shared statue was again a fake." Recommended read: Background information on Master Temple - Danshui and Wanhua. Source: https://danshuihistory.blogspot.com/2011/01/clear-water-zu-shi-temple-in-danshui.html?m=1 We arrived here - last stop before heading for lunch. We were greeted by 白姓宗親 The Bai Family Association, who manages the temple.      For a none-religious person like myself, the back yard where the original artifacts were stored are more interesting, like these:     Sun Yat-sen's Taipei 'Office'! 
BUT! Nothing about this temple is more interesting to me than the fact, as Kao pointed to the temple external when we were leaving, that The Elite in this area during early 1900s (including the Bai and The Lee -tea merchant in my Dadaocheng blogpost) nicknamed this location Sun YS's Taipei office. As indeed, Sun spent a good amount of quality time here with these powerful and influential social activists.
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